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Capri These three items appeared separately in the Around Naples Encyclopedia on the dates indicated and have been consolidated here onto a single page. Additionally, also see the entry on Alfred Krupp on Capri. entry June 2003
Capri (1) 
First, pronounce it CAH-pri, not cuh-PRI. This is essential to the enjoyment of your stay, since this common tourist mispronunciation of the name of the island sounds just like a local dialect expression meaning, "Please, I would like to give you some more of my money." Next, if you have the time—and if you haven't, maybe you shouldn't go—enjoy a ferry trip from the main port downtown, at least one-way. Hydrofoils are great, but so are open-air sea trips. In the warm summer months, you can also take a marvelous detour by ferry over to Sorrento and then back to Naples. If you have a choice, go on a week-day, not a week-end, although in the peak season, there may not be much difference. Fortunately, since the island is virtually a web of footpaths, you will be free to take advantage of the fact that most tourists don't really like to walk. You can find solitude on Capri, even in the high season. Prepare an itinerary that says: (a) Blue Grotto (b) The Villa of Tiberius (c) The Villa of Axel Munthe (d) Monte Solaro (e) afternoon free for shopping Then take a small hammer, which you should always keep with you for such occasions, and rap yourself soundly in the skull to cure yourself of the notion that it is possible to do it all in one day. Relax. The "Natural
Arch"
The Anacapri side of the tour includes the town of
Anacapri, itself (quaint and less frequented than its
famous sister town) and Monte Solaro,
accessible on foot or by chair lift. If you feeling
particularly energetic, you can walk from the main
port to Anacapri up the so-called "Phoenician stairs."
You might add a third part to your trip: the sea. Take
a trip into the Blue Grotto, or take a trip around the
entire island. Also, undersea sightseeing is available
via a small submarine! The "Faraglioni"
Frequent ferry and hydrofoil service is available to
Capri from Naples, from both the main port and the
nearby harbor of Mergellina. Additionally, you can get
to Capri from Sorrento. If you are truly crazy, you
can get a helicopter from Capodichino airport in
Naples. entry Mar. 2003
Capri (2)
 Like the game that children and poets play,
called "What do you see in that cloud?" there's an
experiment in visual perception in which you look at an
apparently random jumble of light and shadow, and try to
pick out a figure—perhaps a human face or an
animal—"hidden" in the picture. You can examine it for
hours in vain, then the next day glance at it casually
and have it spring out at you like a jack-in-the-box.
Then, you might blink your eyes, look again—and it's
gone.
But, whether or not I manage to catch that glimpse of her, whenever I need a long walk and peace and quiet, she—the island—is always there. Strange, you say, to think of Capri in terms of solitude? Is this not the Isle of Pleasure, boasting centuries of tales and descriptions of lurid Hedonism? And even if you aren't a sinner, is there not an almost obligatory hustle and bustle forced upon the visitor? How do you find the peace and quiet. Walk. It's amazing how long it took me to realize that. I was staring at Capri from a short distance offshore and I remember seeing for the hundredth and yet the first time the houses that dot the isle. I then realized that I had no idea how all the people who live in those houses get about when, except on a few principle roads, there is virtually no motorized traffic at all. I set off to find out, and I discovered an extensive network of trails, spun like a web over the island. I have walked up from the Marina Grande to
the top of Monte Solaro in the midst of
the tourist season and had the entire trail to myself.
I've hiked up to the Saracen Tower on Mount Barbarossa
and practiced the trombone, much to the amusement of
the wildlife. I've wandered down from the top of Monte
Solaro to the small observatory and to the
church that commands the heights overlooking the town
of Capri, itself. I've hiked down the steps from Villa
Fersen to the sea and had a secluded bath in the
sea, again at the height of summer with not a soul in
sight. Up to the villa of infamous Tiberius, down to
the Natural Arch, over to the red bunker that
Malaparte called "home," down the via Krupp,
and simply nowhere in particular along the trails
around Anacapri—the variations are endless. to: portal index for
traditions, sociology, customs, etc. entry Sept. 2003
Capri (3),
WWII September 1943
armistice
September 1943 was turbulent and confusing for Italians. The nation surrendered to the Allies on September 8, at which point Pietro Badoglio, who had succeeded the deposed Mussolini as head-of-state in July, 1943 (newspaper headline, photo) declared that the war would now continue on the side of the Allies and against the Germans and Italian Fascists. That plunged Italy into a civil war. The armistice of September 8 provided a strange episode—amusing in hindsight—having to do with the Isle of Capri. There were about 2500 members of the Italian Armed Forces on Capri at the time of the armistice. Obviously, they were now all part of the Allied command at war with their old allies, the Germans. Part of the terms of the armistice required the Italian naval contingent on Capri to move to Palermo, in Sicily. The Italian commander was unable to comply with the order because there simply wasn’t enough fuel left to run the ships that far. He sent a motorboat over to the Gulf of Salerno to advise the Allied commander of the situation; that is, the Italian forces on Capri weren’t making any sort of a Fascist last stand on Capri, nor were they refusing to surrender. They just had no fuel for the ships. Accordingly, on September 12, an Allied ship showed up at Capri to check out the situation. The Allied commander then—for reasons that are as obscure as they are silly—demanded a separate “unconditional surrender… [from] the Commanding Officer of the Axis Armed Forces on the Islands [sic] of Capri.” (The Allied commander may have been counting the Faraglioni, those two beautiful rocks 100 yards off shore as separate islands.) In a true Laurel and Hardy finish to the episode, the
surrender document —written in both English and
Italian—was signed improperly. The Allied officer
signed on the wrong side of the page, leaving the
Italian no choice but to sign in the name of General
Eisenhower. [Herman, the gentleman mentioned in the first
paragraph, has started on this website an Oral History
of WW2. Click here to read
that.] |
Capri first
attracted real and royal attention when Caesar
Augustus dropped by in 29 B.C. He liked it so much
that he traded Ischia for it. Since that time, there
has been an unbroken chain of Capri admirers, from the
Longobards to the 
Nowhere
in the Gulf of Naples or vicinity, not from any of the
other islands, not even from the mountains above
nearby Sorrento, will you find a view equal to that
from the vantage points on Capri. (Photo, right, looks
across to the tip of the Sorrentine peninsula from the
Divide the
island, for touring purposes, into two parts, and then
decide on one or the other for your visit. The two
parts are Capri and Anacapri. Capri includes the
delightful little main square in the town of Capri,
itself, and everything leading out towards the eastern
height of the island and the villa of Tiberius. It
might also include going down the via Krupp pathway
(named for 
No
private vehicles may be taken over to Capri, but there
are taxis and buses available from the port to
virtually every part of the island accessible by
wheel. Capri, however, is truly made for walking. When
you disembark, avoid the temptation to follow the
crowd over to the cable car that takes you right up to
the main square in the center of the town of Capri.
Take the steps; they start a little bit past the
cable-car entrance. They are moderately strenuous, but
provide a first-class view of the picturesque houses,
small gardens and paths that abound on Capri. If you
plan to go to Tiberius' Villa Jovis, the only way is
to walk from the main square, so you may wish to save
yourself for that. At the Anacapri end, treat yourself
to the chairlift up and then hike down, taking in the
view and the mountain air.
I called up Herman the other
day to see if had attended last week’s ceremony
commemorating the Anglo-American invasion at Salerno.
It took place 60 years ago and Herman, who is now 87
years old, was part of it. He told me that he hadn’t
attended, though he had spoken with some members of
the US 36th infantry who had stopped by to say hello
to him in Sorrento. The ceremony in Salerno was marked
by some counter- demonstrations by those who feel that
remembering anything at all to do with war and
violence is a bad thing, even when it’s on behalf of
the good guys.