Capri is the island you can see across the bay on clear days, twenty minutes by hydrofoil from Sorrento's harbour. The Faraglioni, the Blue Grotto, the Piazzetta: it is the most photographed place on this coast and, in August, one of the most crowded in Italy.
It is still worth the day — provided you plan it the opposite way round to everyone else.
Getting there from the B&B
Marina Piccola, Sorrento's port, is about seven minutes' walk downhill from the B&B. From there the hydrofoil takes twenty to twenty-five minutes, the fast ferry around thirty.
It is the only connection in the bay that runs all year: in winter sailings thin out and depend on the sea, but they do not disappear the way the Ischia, Procida and Amalfi Coast routes do.
In high season buy your ticket online the day before. At the quayside ticket offices at nine on an August morning the queue costs you half an hour, and the early sailings sell out.
Getting around the island
You land at Marina Grande, which is the port, not the town. From there:
- The funicular climbs to Capri in a few minutes and comes out steps from the Piazzetta.
- The bus links Marina Grande, Capri and Anacapri. Small, frequent, usually full.
- The open-top taxis are an experience in themselves, at a fare worth agreeing before you set off.
Non-resident cars are banned in high season: there is no reason at all to put a car on the ferry.
What is actually worth seeing
- The Faraglioni, the three rock stacks that symbolise the island. The best viewpoint is from the Gardens of Augustus, ten minutes' walk from the Piazzetta.
- Villa Jovis, Tiberius's residence at the eastern tip: an hour's walk from the Piazzetta, almost always deserted, with the finest view on the island.
- Anacapri and Monte Solaro. The chairlift leaves from via Caposcuro in Anacapri, takes about ten minutes and reaches 589 metres, the island's highest point. It is a single-seat open chairlift, opened in 1952. If you only do one thing on Capri, do this.
- Villa San Michele in Anacapri, home of the Swedish doctor Axel Munthe, with its loggia over the bay.
The Blue Grotto, and why you often cannot get in
This needs saying plainly, because it is the most common disappointment. The grotto can only be visited when the sea is calm: the entrance is a low gap in the rock and very little swell is enough to close it. Even in July it can stay shut for days.
When it is open you go in lying flat in a small rowing boat, for a few minutes inside. It is spectacular, but do not build your day around it — check conditions on the morning itself and treat it as a bonus.
When to go
May, June and September. In July and August the island copes badly with the numbers it receives, and the Piazzetta at midday is not a fond memory.
Our advice
Take the first sailing of the morning and come back on one of the last. The bulk of visitors arrive around eleven and leave at five: outside that window Capri is a different island.
Do not eat lunch in the Piazzetta. Go up to Anacapri or down towards Marina Piccola: the food is better and the bill is far smaller.
Comfortable shoes, always. Capri is all steps and sloping cobbles, and most of the good places cannot be reached any other way.
The Faraglioni rocks of Capri