Capri: The Italian Island Where Old Money Has Wintered for a Century

Capri has been a retreat for the powerful and famous for close to two thousand years. The Roman emperor Tiberius spent the last years of his reign on the island rather than in Rome, ruling from a cliffside villa, Villa Jovis, whose ruins still stand above the eastern coast — an early and extreme example of a pattern that has repeated itself, in gentler form, ever since: people with the means to be anywhere choosing this particular island to disappear into.

The Piazzetta, on a small stage

Capri Town’s tiny central square, known simply as the Piazzetta, has functioned since the mid-twentieth century as one of Europe’s smallest and most concentrated stages for seeing and being seen, a handful of café tables where the island’s summer crowd gathers each evening in a ritual that has changed remarkably little across decades of Italian dolce vita glamour. Its scale is part of the point: there is nowhere else on the island quite like it, and nowhere to be discreet within it.

A British star who stayed

Not every well-known name on Capri was passing through. The English actress and singer Gracie Fields, one of Britain’s biggest stars of the 1930s and 1940s, settled on the island after the Second World War and lived there for the rest of her life, a rare case of Capri holding onto someone rather than simply hosting them for a season.

The Faraglioni and the Blue Grotto

Beyond the social scene, Capri’s two most photographed natural features remain the Faraglioni, three limestone stacks rising out of the sea off the island’s southern coast, and the Blue Grotto, a sea cave on the northern shore where sunlight entering through an underwater opening lights the water an intense, almost artificial blue. Both have drawn visitors, famous and otherwise, since long before the island’s current reputation took shape.

Traveller tips

• Capri has no airport; access is by ferry or hydrofoil from Naples or Sorrento, both of which have onward connections to Naples International Airport.
• The island bans private cars for most visitors; getting around means the funicular, local buses, taxis or walking.
• Summer months bring heavy day-tripper crowds from Naples and Sorrento; early morning or a overnight stay offers a quieter version of the island.
• The Blue Grotto is only accessible by small boat and closes in rough sea conditions; check conditions before planning a visit around it.