The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-07-18
CAPRI.
One of the Fascinations of Italy.

and good nal1 OF bn1S space 10 ptoCUA
cally inaccessible. But it is just the
difninuative size of Capri which becomes
one of its greatest charms. 1t would be
hard, in fact, to find any part OF the
world where so much and such varied
beauty is packed into so small space.
The visitor who lands from Naples or
Sorrento mounts steeply up the slopes
of grand amphitheater, fianked on ell
ther side by the cliffs of st. Michael
Anacapri, to the white line of the VII
lage on the central ridge, with the
strange Saracenic domes of its church
lifted weirdly against the sky. Over
the crest of this ridge a counter valley
falls as steeply to the south, till 1t
reaches plateau crowned with the gray
mass of a convent, and then plunges
over crag and cliff back again to the sea-
To the east on these central valleys
steep rise of ground ends in the ruins OF
the palace of Tiberius and the great
headland which fronts the headland OF
Sorrento. Everywhere the forms of the
scenery are on the largest and boldest
scale. The great conical Tors, Tuoro-
nde and Tuoro- -piccolo, the boldly
gcraped rock of Castiglione with
its crown of medieval towers lead
up the eye to the huge clitf-wall
of Anacapri, where, a. thousand feet
above, the white hermitage on Monte
Solaro glimmers out fitfully from its
screen of cloud. Among the broken
heights to the east or in the central val
Leys. there are hundred different walks
and a thousand different hooks, and
each walk and nook has its own lnde-
pendent charm. Sleeps clothed from
top to bottom in the thick greenery OF
the lemon or orange; sudden breaks
like that of Metromania, where blue
strip of sea seems to have been cunning
Iv let in among the rocks backgrounds
of tumbled limestone, slopes, dusty
gray with wild cactus thickets OF de-
lightful greenery, where one lies ND
den in the dense scrub OF myrtle and
arbutus; olive-yards creeping thrlttlly
up the hill-sides, and over the cliffs and
down every slope, and into every rock
corner where the Caprese peasant farmer
can find footing; homesteads OF gray
stone with ow-domed oriental roofs on
which women sit spinning, their figures
etched out against the sky; gardens
where the writhed ig-trees stand bearly
waiting for the foliage of the spring !;
hooks amid broken powders, and vast
fingers of rock, with the dark mass OF
the carouba finging its shade over them;
hiphts from which one looks suddenly
northward and southwark over hun
dred miles of sea this is Capr1. The
sea is everywhere. At one turn Its wa
ters 90 flashing away, unbroken by a
single sail, toward the far-off African
coast where the Caprese boatmen are
coral-fshing through the hot summer
months at another the eye ranges over
the tumbled mountain masses above
Amolfi to the dim sweep of coast where
the haze hides the temples.of Postum
at another the bay of Naples opens sud
den1v before us, Vesuvius and the blue
deem of Casstellamare and the white
city-line along the coast seen with
strange witchery across twenty miles OF
clear air. .
ReautifuI as the place is, it is luckily
du1 enouph to escape the rush of vls1-
| TORS which is fast turning every nook o.
the Rivers into little Brighton. There
| is as vet no kind of society; the
strangers are few; an English reslden
or two. a dozen winter exiles, half
dozen artists, make up the foreigl
world of Capri. The casual yanke'
oirI who runs over to "do " the Blue
grotto votes the place bore In an hou-
or two, and sails off to the balls ana co
tilions of Nice. Even the rheumatl'
dowagers, the botanical young, malden
and the inevitable chaplain, who hove
yulture-like over the pretty hooks OF Tn.
world, find Capri too "uninterestlng
for their swoop. It's one shop. Is tn
barber's shop in the piazza, It's on
nublic building the communal round
house where the solitary offende
against the laws of Capri may be see
pIaying cribbage through the lattlc
with the sympathizing loungers with
ont. There is but single road, an
that still incomplete and there are n
wheeled vehicles beyond a single cart
the first which has appeared in Capr
and at which it's children will stare as
prodigy. The island is paradise {
silence for those to whom silence is
deIioht. One wanders about in tn
vineyards without sound save the ca
of the vine-dressers one lies on tn
, cliff and hears a thousand feet belo
the dreamy wash of the sea. There
hardly the cry of bird to break til
smell even the girls who meet on
, with smile on the hillside smile qule
" and gravely in the southern fashlo
: as they pass by. 1t is the stillest plat
{ that the sun shines on /; but, with
, it's stiffness. it is far from being I'll
{ home of boredom which the Americs
4 pirl votes it. There are, in fact, te
, nlaces in the world so full of interes
THE artist finds world of /" studies
/ in its riffs and cliff-walls, in the sall'
8 oroups along its beach, and the Gree
Y faces of the girls in its vineyards. III
3 The geologist reads the secret OF u
4 pastin it's ab~uptly-titled strata, IN Il
f deposit of volcanic ash, in the fossils al
y homes which Augustus set the fashlo
E of collecting before geology was thoug
D of The historian and the archaeology
{ have vet wider field. Brief as was t.
{ neriod of it's historic glory, Capri IS
n perfect treasure-house of Roman
i mains. Twelve imperial villas we
4 crowded into the little island, and t
O remains of two, the so-called "palac
J. and "Baths of Tiberius, still ex1i
J. on the largest scale. But the who
# island is a mass of broken fragmen
7 One can hardly dig without coming
10 the wreck of Roman houses, on tesse
n ted paVemenIS, duu uIaA OAO0' a."
" coed walls, on hypocausts and drall
!. on urns and sepulchers. Every peass
4. has a handful of Roman coins to p
j. with for few soldi. In later RENAL
II as might be expected, the island is
it poorer but the ruins of medieval C
r ties crown the nights of Castiglione
lie Anacapri, and the mother church OF
ar Costanzo, with its central dome 81
s. ported by marble shafts from the ru
j. hard by, is an early specimen OF Sicll
10 or southern italian architecture. I
Of hans the most remarkable touch OF
ne south is seen in the low stone vat
e. which form the roofs of all the oil
in houses of Capri, and whose upper
r. face serves as terrace, where the
he man gather in the sunshine In
gs which brings home to one oddly
e. recollections of Syria and Jerusal'
For Ioungers of a steadily uninquir
order. however, there are plenty
ar amusements of a lighter sort. Ii
he hard to spend day more pleasar
h than in boating beneath the cliffs
ITS Capri. bobbing for " cardinals" or
he ing round the huge masses of the Fl
I'D gliona. as they rise like giants ou
M q 5:,.,o;,,c n. IN aud ont of the Ii