Country Images Magazine North March 2018 | Page 19

Giardino,
Villa San Michele,
Capri
E
xiting Amalfi harbour for our trip to Capri was made tricky due to
the fact that I wanted to fi lm it all as it happened. I admit that I’m
not the worlds most happy person on a boat especially as it swayed
a bit to avoid a yacht entering the harbour. Fortunately we could still see
the bottom of the bay through the crystal clear water. With twenty people
on board on what I considered a small boat for this epic journey along the
Amalfi coast the captain, driver or whatever he called himself dressed in
shorts and t-shirt, rather than a proper uniform of epaulettes, an ornamental
shoulder piece displaying various stripes, colours and emblems, got the boat
up to speed. He didn’t even have a captains table that we could dine together
at. Maybe I got the wrong idea of this cruise.
Café Casa Oliv, Capri
As the sea spray lift ed beautifully into the air we marvelled as the dramatic
coastline revealed its small coves and caves. Occasionally a dolphin
appeared, something I hadn’t been prepared for here. With the village of
Positano, which we visited many years ago, over to our right (or is that
starboard?), we ploughed on. Positano was a former poor fi shing village and
port and has grown in the last 70 years into a major tourist attraction. Peach
and terracotta houses that impossibly cling to the hillsides drop down to
the beach where famous people have walked including Mick Jagger, Franco
Zaffi relli and little me!
Capri was our destination which people kept telling me was famous for
Gracie Fields living there. Why did she sing about Bluebirds in Dover
when she lived on Capri? I suppose it didn’t rhyme! I was however more
interested in Swedish-born physician Axel Munthe; born 1857 and died
1949, author of the book ‘Th e Story of San Michele’ published in 1926 and
a best seller in numerous languages, reprinted constantly over the years. He
spoke English, German, French, Italian and possibly a few more. In 1892,
he was appointed physician to the Swedish royal family and served as the
personal physician of the Crown Princess, Victoria of Baden, continuing
when she became Queen consort until her death in 1930.
His life as a doctor was tinged with sadness, tragedy and happiness and this
is refl ected in the book which he pointed out isn’t an autobiography. You
can laugh and cry as you read his life’s experiences.
Villa San Michele is on Capri if you’re wondering where I was going with
the above. It was lovingly restored by Munthe and is a must see on a visit to
Anacapri.
Vista dalla Cappella, Capri
Th e island of Capri was for many years strewn with remains of marble
columns and Roman remains which Munthe used to build Villa San
Michele on the site of a once Imperial Roman Villa and a medieval Chapel.
Th e climb up to the villa from Marina Grande meanders through the shops,
cafes and numerous tourists. Th e villa features according to their web site
villasanmichele.eu. Two thousand year-old sculptures, replicas of ancient
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