Capri: a full day on the island

A private day on Capri — the island everyone photographs and most people see badly, because they arrive at eleven with four thousand other people and leave at four having queued for a cave.

Done properly it is the rest day in the middle of an Italian itinerary, and it is the one day of the trip with nothing to learn and nothing to book ahead except the boat.

The visit

• The island by boat from Marina Grande, sea permitting — the only way to understand the shape of the place, the Faraglioni, the caves and the cliffs that the road never shows you
• The Piazzetta and the lanes around it, which are absurd and worth seeing precisely because they are absurd
• The Gardens of Augustus, looking down on the Faraglioni and the Via Krupp switchbacking below. Go at the end of the afternoon: the light comes round and the crowd thins at the same time
• Monte Solaro from Anacapri, by single-seat chairlift, twelve minutes each way over gardens and rooftops to the highest point on the island. Weather permitting, this is the view
• Villa San Michele, the house Axel Munthe built on a Roman ruin at Anacapri, with a sphinx on the parapet looking towards the bay

Making the day work

Capri is a ferry and then local transport — no cars for visitors, so the day runs on funicular, chairlift, open taxis and legs.

• Count six to eight hours on the island. Ferries from Naples or Sorrento; the earliest crossing is worth the alarm clock, because the day trippers land mid-morning
• The Blue Grotto, honestly. It usually means two hours or more of waiting, and it closes with low season or any swell. On a full day everything else can be seen; the grotto is the one thing I will not promise. If it is open and calm we go, and if it is not, nobody has lost their day waiting in a boat
• Kosher on Capri. There is a small kosher restaurant that operates only in the summer season — the single kosher option anywhere in southern Italy outside the synagogue in Naples, and priced accordingly. Whether it is open on your date is the first thing I check; if it is not, the day runs on a kosher lunch prepared in Naples and carried over
• Capri pairs with the Jewish Naples tour across two or three days in Campania, and works well as the day after Naples and Pompeii, when everyone wants to stop reading plaques

Questions people ask

Is one day enough for Capri?
For the Piazzetta, the Gardens of Augustus, Monte Solaro, Villa San Michele and a boat around the island, yes — six to eight hours covers it comfortably. What one day does not reliably cover is the Blue Grotto.

Is the Blue Grotto worth it?
Only when the sea is calm and the queue is short, which is not most days. It shuts in low season and in any swell, and the wait is routinely two hours. The rest of the island is the reason to come.

How do you get to Capri?
By ferry or hydrofoil from Naples or Sorrento. Visitors cannot bring cars, so the island is done by funicular, bus, chairlift and open taxi.

Is there kosher food on Capri?
There is one small kosher restaurant, open only in the summer season, and it is the only kosher option in southern Italy outside the synagogue in Naples. Availability is checked against your date before the day is planned; otherwise lunch is prepared in Naples and carried over.

When is the best time of day for the views?
Late afternoon. The Gardens of Augustus face the Faraglioni and the light turns towards the end of the day, which is also when the day-trip boats have left.