J + 15 : Capri - Thoughts on a Quiet Path

South Coast of Capri Island with the Main Town on the Ridge

After a quiet night before Amalfi, we set sail for Capri today. During the summer months, the island is visited by up to 50’000 people a day. 90% of them day trippers. They arrive by 10 am and leave by 4 pm. Not surprisingly, the restaurants and bars in Centro Capri have no tables available, the queue for the cable car is three hundred meters long, noisy leisure boats ferrying people to the Blue Grotto leave the port every minute. It is a busy place. The sea permanently stirred up by arriving and leaving ferries – Capri is on many bucket lists.

The busy Port of Capri is full of Stalls with Italian Food Items

Compare this to the time when Tiberius (27 – 37 AD) ruled his Roman Empire from the island. Nobody who did not have a special permit was allowed to be here. The island’s inhabitants were the military garrison protecting the Roman ruler, the household slaves running his Villa Jovis (Jupiter House) and the mariners supplying the island. It was as quiet and isolated from Rome as you could wish for. Not surprisingly, Tiberius became increasingly excentric, developed bizarre sexual habits and incredibly cruel to his opponents. A benign form of death was being pushed over the island’s cliffs.

Supposedly Tiberius Cliff - Nobody survives a fall from this 330 meters high Cliff

We parked “My Lotty” of the coast and approached the island by tender. The port was as busy as expected but it did not matter. Our goal was to walk up to Tiberius’ Villa Jovis at Capri’s eastern tip and enjoy the island’s less busy part. A narrow pathway leads uphill from the port to Capri’s old center. Two minutes after walking, we were out of the noisy crowd. Few visitors make the effort to walk. Most take the cable car, a bus or the funny six-seater cabrio taxis which are so popular with American tourists. After 15 minutes we reached Capri’s ever so crowded square place.

We walked through beautiful Gardens to Villa Jovis

From there to the Villa Jovis, the narrow pathway was ours. We crossed a few Hungarian and German visitors. For most of the next 30 minutes we were alone. Obviously, Tiberius’ villa never made it to any bucket list. Made me wonder why Tiberius chose such a remote place as his main residence. Not only is Capri far away from his busy capital Rome. His Villa Jovis is also far from Capri’s port. Feels like Tiberius did not want to have anything to do with the world even though he was its ruler. He delegated most of the governing to advisors who abused their power with no shame. His closest advisor even wanted to overthrow him.

Remains of the Villa Jovis 335 meters above the Sea

I guess Tiberius was a deeply troubled man. Being always in the shadow of Augustus but untouchable because of his status as potential successor, he watched Augustus kill all of Caesar’s assassins, eliminating political rivals with and without violence, breaking marriages (including his own) for political purposes, seeing the hypocrisies of his predecessors who preached modesty and abstinence and practiced the opposite. His reaction to this world of abuse and violence may be understandable. For Rome, an absentee ruler was not good. He killed the last remains of the Roman Republic and established a system of close advisors who shielded him from reality. Where it leads to can be watched life with Putin and Xi Pin. Lots of bad decisions.  

After a beautiful Day we found a quiet Bay for the Night