THE LEISURE travel
L
ike a limestone outcrop that sticks out of the deep blue waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea, the little island of Capri is a siren that has been attracting people since the earliest of times. Set just below the Sorrentine Peninsula, near the point where that famous home of classic resort towns like Amalfi and Positano meets Sorrento, and with it the Bay of Naples, Capri’s charms have beguiled and bewitched since the Greeks first landed here and the Romans made it a pleasure haven for their wealthy and powerful. In a way, this coastline is the first Riviera in the world, for long before the Côte d’Azur or the Ligurian coastline were dotted with anything but fishing villages, places like Capri were already home
to a concentration of villas and mansions that made them the St. Tropez or Marbella of their day. Or should one say Monaco, for to have a summer home here marked one out as a member of the Roman’s inner circle – and naturally the Emperor himself could not be absent either. For us it is a very contemporary concept, the thought of owning a summer residence on the shores of the Mediterranean, but in reality this practice goes back well over 2,000 years, showing that once again our modern society is merely repeating what was already normal practice to the Romans long ago. In spite of this Roman love for Capri and the region of Naples as a whole, it was Greek settlers who first created towns and cities here.
Beautiful Capri island – a favourite location since classical times
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