Worldwide symbol of blue skies and romance, it has a large daytime population. At night the piazzetta of Capri town five minutes by funicular railway from Marina Grande where you land, is less congested and the vaulted streets with their little shops and luxury boutiques, striped umbrellas and masses of flowers and cacti, look more civilized. Private cars are banned. The isle was a state penitentiary, before that a corsair’s hideout, before that an emperor’s holiday home. Three of Tiberius’s 12 villas have been located, the most-visited being 4 km from town, fragmentary but you can identify the balcony from which he allegedly threw those who displeased him. Discovery of the Blue Grotto (1826) brought the first tourists. See the isle on foot if possible: Villa San Michele, where Axel Munthe wrote his best-seller, The Story of San Michele; the gardens of Augustus and grotto of Matermania; the Belvedere of Tragara; Marina Piccola, a must for Noel Coward fans; and Siren Rock.

Buses go to Anacapri (ten minutes), a more restful little town among the vines and olives of Monte Solaro (589). From Anacapri you can walk to the Blue. Green and White Grottoes.In summer the queues of boats lined up to enter are a sight more curious than the caves themselves. Best of the poor bathing is west of the wharf at Marina Grande.