Moving to the other slope of the island, westward, there is the Church of Saint Antonio of Padua, the protector of Anacapri (also known as Chiesa de’ Marinai) which has a seventeenth-century construction, and it has been restored and enlarged in 1889. It has a small panoramic terrace, and it is crossed by the so-called Phoenician steps, which is actually Greek: it was the only way in, vertical and very tiring, directed between the port and Anacapri, until a road was built in 1874. Once arrived in the old town, from Piazza Vittoria, we keep the way on the pedestrian street on the left of the Monument to the Fallen, and there you can find the Casa Rossa (the Red House), painted in Pompeian red. Made with more architectural styles and inspired by the late XIXth century collezionismo, it has windows and crenellations, it includes an Aragonese square-shaped tower of the XVIth century, and inside, it has porticoed courtyard. Its history is linked to the event of the American General John Clay H. Mac Kowen, who arrived in Capri returning from the American civil war, and he stayed there for 23 years. His life shows similarities with Axel Munthe’s one, who also turned Villa San Michele to a house-museum. In fact, he collected and kept numerous archeological finds: epigraphs, low reliefs, statues found here and there on the island. The Casa Rossa hosts a permanent exhibition with paintings of Italian and foreign masters, a collection which has been acquired by the municipality of Anacapri thanks to the donation of Spiridione and Savo Raskovich, both enthusiasts who have gathered and kept books dedicated to Capri. From 2008 there are also the three Roman statues rediscovered in 1964 and in 1974 in the Blue Grotto. The Villa San Michele is by far one of the most visited places: it is in Capodimonte, five minutes away from the town centre. It has been built with a personal project of Axel Munthe, the Swedish doctor and writer (1857-1949), author of the famous autobiographical novel The Story of San Michele, partly about ruins of Roman times. According to some, it is a sort of “personal foolishness”, in the light of what has inspired the Count of Fersen, because of the eclectic style of the architecture, discussed and fascinating. The Villa is managed by the Axel Munthe foundation “San Michele”. In the 1940 Munthe obtained the ban on migratory birds hunting, with great foresight. When he died, in the estate, the University of Stockholm placed an ornithological institute for studies of migrations, point o reference for the avifauna and environment researchers, in a context, which included also the Castello Barbarossa, covered with extraordinary vegetation.

Barbarossa in question is Khair ad-Dîn, who for the island of Capri has been a real scourge, laying a siege to the castle of Anacapri (built in the year One Thousand) and setting fire to it. Staying in a landscaped-naturalistic context, the excursion to Monte Solaro is imposed, or to the retreat of Santa Maria a Cetrella and, eventually, hazarding a walk through the Passetiello, which used to be the only and difficult way connecting Anacapri and Capri. During the French occupation in 1808, the Passatiello had a strategic role because it allowed the passage of the troops from a district to another.  The peak of the Solaro, instead, is reachable on foot or, more comfortably, with the chair lift from Piazza Vittoria through Caposcuro Street on the right. In the valley between the Solaro and the mount Cappello, dominating Marina Piccola, you can see the hermitage which takes its name from the lemon verbena, the aromatic herb, in an exclusive corner of solitude and contemplation chosen for this reason by the Dominican hermits at the end of the XVth century. There is a small church annexed to the convent with a square campanile which constitutes an example of the late gothic architecture of Capri. There, the devotion rituals of the coral anglers were celebrated.  

From the heart of Anacapri there is another crucial way for the hikers with a green thumb who, starting on the left of the small station of the chair lift, leads to the belvedere of Migliera. There, Imperial age constructions remains have been found. You can look out over the steep rocks of the bays of the Tuono or of the Limmo or, westward, you can turn your gaze to Punta Carena and to the Faro (lighthouse) which has been inaugurated on the 1^st of December 1967 and is the second in Italy in importance and power of lighting. The migliera is the place where you can cultivate the millet “miglio” in italian, which was a widespread cereal before the arrival of the maize. You can walk through the vineyards, the olive tree groves, gardens and vegetable gardens and the final destination is spectacular. If you want, a little bit higher, at the feet of an iron cross, you can even enjoy the view of the Faraglioni. Punta Carena and the Faro are reachable from via Nuova del Faro, between unique scenarios which recall the history due to the presence of the Fortini (of Pio, Mesola and Orrico). Together with the towers of Damecuta and the Guardia, they represent the western defensive system further north, up to the Blue Grotto, in an alternation of small coves among which Cala del Tombosiello and Cala del Rio, characterised by a memorable beauty.

There are few remains of the magnificent Villa imperiale di Damecuta on the highland: the excavations had begun in 1937 by Amedeo Maiuri. It has been possible to define the existence of a long loggia supported by an arches, the presence of fragments of pure marble columns. It was certainly rich of marble floor, plasters, and high-quality decorations. The cylindrical Tower of Damecuta, on the west side of the Villa, 151 meters above sea. It has been built in defense of the Saracens incursions, and reused as a small fort by the English during the conflict period with the French (1806-1815). From the belvedere you can distinguish the small stairs of Gràdola with the small rocky beach close to the Blue Grotto.

What we know about the Blue Grotto is that in the collective imagination it represents one of the most famous places in the world. It has been explored on the 18^th of April 1826 by four characters who are part of the legend : there was the German painter August Kopisch with his friend Ernst Fries, pushed by the only guest of the island at that time, father Giuseppe Pagano. With them there was the fisherman Angelo Ferraro called “Il Riccio”, the only one who visited the Grotto between the contemporaries who ignored its existence, despite a deep past during which the grotto was frequented and known. Kopisch, in The Discovery of the Blue Grotto, described with enthusiasm and astonishment those moments: since then, the grotto entered in the planetary myth. The entrance of the Grotto is two meters wide and one meter high. The blue colour of the sea with the enchanting reflections on the rocks is due to a submarine gap from where the light penetrates.  Remains of an ancient port have been found: the Romans used it as a nymphaeum, adorned with mosaics and statues.

Finally, going back to the centre of Anacapri, there are still some places of worship to visit. The Chiesa monumentale di San Michele, baroque design, from the XVIIIth century with an architecture designed by Antonio Vaccaro: it has a central plan with a dome on an octagon which is divided in six apsidal niches. On the majolica tiled floor, there is the famous Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of 1761, a painting of Leonardo Chiaiese who was from the historic family of riggiolari. The Church of Saint Mary of Constantinople is from the end of the XIVth century, when it was erected with the name of Saint Mary “alli Curti”. The Church of Saint Sofia with three naves is the result of numerous stratifications: it presents a white facade of the XVIIIth century and a campanile with more clocks and it opens onto the piazzetta. Last but not least, Le Boffe, the seventeenth century neighbourhood described by Maiuri. Regarding the name “ le boffe”, it apparently comes from the dialect because this is how the baubles under the bread crust are indicated; but for others, the term comes from a deformation of d’Elboeuf, the French garrison commander on the island.

Axel Munthe

He visited Capri at the age of eighteen and he could never forget it, enough to set him himself to go back and live there forever. Axel Muthe, Swedish from Oskarshamn where he was born on the 31^st of October 1857, he trained as a doctor between Sweden and France and  he graduated in Paris in 1880. He practised the medical profession in France first, then in Italy and in 1884 he wanted to work  in Naples, on the occasion of the cholera epidemic which had stricken the city and which he described in his first book Letters from a mourning city. At the beginning of the new century he had been nominated Swedish royal family doctor, but in 1895 he went back to Italy in order to provide his help after the catastrophic earthquake. After having left his job, he could realise his dream to retreat to the island of Capri, in the villa San Michele, which he had started to build in Anacapri. Shortly thereafter, an eye disease obliged him to move to the Torre Materita, on the road, which leads from Punta Certosa to Punta Carena, which he had restored. He had to go back to Sweden to to his serious eye problem. There, he wrote his famous fictionalised autobiography The Story of San Michele, which, once published in 1929, became an international bestseller. He died in Stockholm on the 11^th of February 1949 after having given to the Swedish state Villa San Michele, nowadays managed by a foundation.

August Kopisch

Thanks to his swim, the Blue Grotto became a world heritage.He was born in Wroclaw on the 26^th of May 1799 and was Prussian. August Kopisch had started to study at the Academy of Fine Arts of Prague but had to give up on painting due to a hand problem, and dedicated himself to literature. He was a poet, a translator of Dante, and in his early twenties he went to Naples and stopped in Naples. In Parthenope’s city, he met the poet and playwright August von Platen-Hallermünde and he went with him to Capri. On the island they met the artist Ernst Fries and with him they were the first foreigners to see the magnificent Blue Grotto. Back to his homeland , he was nominated professor by Frederick William IV of Prussia. He died on the 6^th of February 1853 in Berlin.