The privileged and talked-about have been coming to Capri for two thousand years. The Emperor Augustus took a fancy to it, and swapped it for his island of Ischia, and his successor Tiberius made it his home when Rome became too hot to hold him. By all accounts he had a good time on Capri; if his Roman biographers are to be believed, he got up to all sorts of scandalous behaviour on the beautiful island. You can still visit the ruins of his villas, and appreciate the spell that charmed the Emperors. Later, and presumably better-behaved, inhabitants were the monks who built the Certosa in an attempt to defend the island from invading Saracens. The Romantics and Grand Tourists later admired the island's rocky natural beauty, while the French occupied Anacapri and fought the English here during the Napoleonic wars. In 1826 the Grotta Azzurra was 'discovered' by a German tourist, the poet August Kopisch, and gradually the island became established as a desirable holiday haunt for artists, writers, royalty and celebrities, a status it still holds today. The port at Marina Grande was built in the twentieth century and enabled visitor numbers to rise as tourism became the island's chief industry. The Isle of Capri is famed as a classy and beautiful holiday destination. It's an island of myths, ranging through Sirens charming seafarers, ancient Roman orgies, dreamy seaviews, 1950s celebrities in big sunglasses, and lazy summer evenings spent browsing in exclusive boutiques alongside the world's elite. Capri is an island of many contrasts. For rushed daytrippers, it is a crowded maze of expensive boutiques. For celebrities and the ultra-rich, a point of rendezvous. For historians, it is the palace-island of the Emperor Tiberius, dotted with neglected Roman remains. Walkers can step out along scenic short walks. For leisurely holidaymakers, it can present all this and more, along with staggering views and blue, blue sea. It is a dream honeymoon destination.
fonte: italyheaven.co.uk