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CAPRI EXCURSION
Capri is really a Mediterranean jewel: a beautiful island of
limestone rock just in front of the city of Naples. Exalted and
described in some of the world's most famous lyric poetry, the
island of Capri is known for its special climate, the brillant
colours of its nature and sea, for the magical atmosphere and for
the hospitality of its inhabitants.
The main towns of the island are: Capri and Anacapri. Between the
two main peaks of the island, Mount Tiberio and Mount Solaro, there
is the town of Capri. Anacapri is located west of Mount Solaro.
The name "Capri" traces back to the Greeks, the first to inhabit the
island: in fact it was not derived from the Latin "Capreae" (goats),
but from the Greek "Kapros" (wild boar), and fossil remains have
confirmed this. The island was Greek before it became Roman.
After visiting Capri in 29 BC, Caesar Augustus was so enthusiast of
island's beauty, that he bought it from Naples, giving up the nearby
island of Ischia - much larger and richer - in return. His
successor, Tiberius, built twelve villas, dedicating them to the
twelve gods of Olympus, and ruled the Roman Empire from the most
splendid one, the "Villa Jovis".
During the following centuries the island was raided and dominated
by the Saracens, Longobards, Normans, Angevins, Aragonese and the
Spanish. In the second half of the 18th century, during the Bourbons
dinasty , many pleople went there to hunt quayle.
Many visitors came in the South including the island in their
itineraries and gave the world its first images of Capri. The large
flow of tourists began in the first half of the last century when
the Blue Grotta was discovered.
From the end of the 1800's until World War II, writers, painters,
exiles, rich and eccentric visitors chose the island as their
residence, building villas and establishing the multilingual,
cosmopolitan colony that made Capri famous today.
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