What is Anacapri known for?

Axel Munthe's villa and garden on the Phoenician ledge, built from 1895 on Tiberian ruins, made famous by his 1929 memoir. Island summit at 589 meters reached by chairlift from Piazza Vittoria in about 13 minutes for the widest view on Capri. Greek-era stairway of about 800 steps linking the two communes, the only connection between them until the 1874 carriage road.

When is the best time to visit Anacapri?

May–Sep. May, June, September and the first half of October are the months Anacapri stays usable: blue water at Punta Carena, the Solaro chairlift running, and a degree or two cooler than Capri Marina below. July and August bring the day-trippers off the Naples and Sorrento ferries; the centro of Capri saturates by ten and Anacapri carries the spillover by lunchtime. Villa San Michele books out in advance. November through March is winter on the island: ferries thin, Monte Solaro can close in storms, and many small hotels shut. April and late October are the shoulder weeks, mild and quieter, the right time to walk the Sentiero del Passetiello and the Scala Fenicia.

Campania · Napoli

Anacapri

The upper half of Capri, 150 meters above its famous twin.

Known for

VILLA SAN MICHELE
Axel Munthe's villa and garden on the Phoenician ledge, built from 1895 on Tiberian ruins, made famous by his 1929 memoir.
MONTE SOLARO
Island summit at 589 meters reached by chairlift from Piazza Vittoria in about 13 minutes for the widest view on Capri.
SCALA FENICIA
Greek-era stairway of about 800 steps linking the two communes, the only connection between them until the 1874 carriage road.
LIMONE DI SORRENTO
The commune lies inside the Limone di Sorrento IGP production zone.

When to visit

Best · May–Sep

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

The festa: Antonio di Padova, 13 June

Why come

Anacapri occupies the western, higher plateau of Capri, about 150 meters above the harbour town at the municipal centre and rising to 589 at Monte Solaro. The Ancient Greek prefix ana means up: the name simply says the upper one. Until 1874 the only link between the two communes was a stairway of some 800 steps, cut by Greek settlers in the seventh or sixth century BC, not by Phoenicians despite what its common name suggests.

In 1895 the Swedish physician Axel Munthe began building his villa on the ledge above those steps, on the ruins of one of Tiberius's residences and a tenth-century chapel. His 1929 memoir turned the place into a literary destination. The two communes of Capri, one at sea level and one on the plateau above, were for centuries connected only by that stair cut into the rock, and a settlement reachable only on foot from its lower twin is a different kind of place than one arrived at by road.

The Sunday letter

We haven’t written Anacapri’s letter yet.

One town every Sunday, with the photo, the food, the festa. Be there when this one comes up. Free, by Peter & Sophia from Pietrasanta.

What to see

Villa San Michele
Neoclassical villa and garden with an antiquities collection and a granite Sphinx set over the harbour, facing east toward Vesuvius.
Monte Solaro
Reached by a single-seat chairlift from Piazza Vittoria, the summit opens onto views across the whole of Capri.
Faro di Punta Carena
Second-tallest lighthouse in Italy, built in 1862 and operational since 1867, at the southwestern tip of the island.
Scala Fenicia
The stairway climbs between the harbour town and the plateau above, cut into the rock rather than built up from it, its name a misnomer since it predates any Phoenician presence.
Castello di Barbarossa
Ruined castle at 412 meters above sea level on a spur of Monte Solaro, now an ornithological station for migratory birds.
Casa Rossa
Nineteenth-century red house in the centre of Anacapri, built by American John Clay MacKowen, now a small museum of paintings and Roman finds.

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Living here

Population 6,835
Off the beaten pathi
Pharmacy in town
High school within a 30-minute drive
Regional capital Napoli, 1 h 26 min drive

Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

Recognised as

The numbers

Elevation: 275 m
Population: 6,835
Surface area: 6.47 km²

On the map

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These figures were compiled from public directories — ISTAT, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata — and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.

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