Italy
Capri
Azure grottoes lit from below, limestone stacks rising from impossible blue, lemon-scented air.
The hydrofoil clears the point and the island climbs straight out of the sea, sheer limestone with white houses on its ledges and the Faraglioni stacks standing sentinel offshore. The air smells of lemon blossom and warm rock. Inside the Grotta Azzurra, the water glows an electric blue that looks impossible.
Capri stands just off the tip of the Sorrentine Peninsula, and it has been a retreat for power since Emperor Tiberius ran Rome from here for the last decade of his life; his Villa Jovis still crowns the eastern summit. The Blue Grotto's glow comes from sunlight refracting up through an underwater opening, and entering it still means lying flat in a rowing boat while a guide hauls you through a gap barely off the water. Away from the piazzetta crowds, the Fortini path traces the wild west coast between Napoleonic forts. A chairlift floats visitors from Anacapri to Monte Solaro, where the whole bay unrolls from Ischia to the Amalfi cliffs.
Couple
A boat around the Faraglioni at sunset, dinner in Anacapri, the chairlift with the bay below: Capri calibrates every view for two.
Friends
Rent a boat for the morning, hike the Fortini path and split a torta caprese on the piazzetta while the ferries take the crowds home.
- Entering the Blue Grotto still means lying flat in a rowing boat under a gap barely off the water.
- Tiberius governed the Roman Empire from Villa Jovis for the last decade of his life.
- The Fortini path threads Napoleonic forts along the wild western shore most visitors miss.
- A chairlift drifts from Anacapri to Monte Solaro and the whole bay opens below.
Torta caprese, the flourless chocolate-almond cake born on the island, ends lunch without argument.
Insalata caprese eats best at source, the mozzarella fresh enough to weep milk on the plate.
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