Casa Morena - Anacapri

Accommodates 4 —2 Bedrooms —2 Baths

We visited Capri for the first time in July 1994. We had planned 2 days and stayed for 10. We hadn't intended to stay at Casa Morena, but we were so taken with it that we jettisoned a 10-day jaunt through Southern Italy to relax here. And we are not normally resort people; we don't shop, and we don't sit on the beach, two things which, if you like them, you can do in spades here. We enjoyed the view; we ate in lovely restaurants, several within walking distance of the cottage; we walked, oh, how we walked. We sat in the piazzetta and people-watched. We expected to take the many possible excursions to Sorrento, Pompeii, Positano, etc., but we never left the island. It was that seductive. And in July, it wasn't all that crowded either. We liked it so much that we returned for two weeks the next year, too.

Casa Morena is a delightful cottage, charming but not luxurious. To be precise, it is situated in a quiet part of the village of Anacapri, on a little pedestrian lane. (Indeed, it is not permitted to bring cars to the island at all.) Thus, a stay at Casa Morena means immersing oneself in the life of the island and in particular the life of the village of Anacapri.

If you're more energetic than we turned out to be, you should know that Capri is very easily accessible for daytrips to Naples and all of the attractions of the Amalfi Coast. The hydrofoil from Capri to Naples takes 40 minutes, to Sorrento 15 minutes. From Sorrento, reasonably priced cars with drivers can be hired for half- or full-day excursions throughout the region. Thus, Naples, Pompeii, Herculaneum, Sorrento, Positano, Paestum, and Salerno are all fully and easily accessible by public transportation. To us, the notion of being able to spend a vacation in Italy without a car is one of the most pleasant prospects there is.

Casa Morena is perfect for one or two couples or for a family with adult children; Capri is really not a place for very young children. The cottage is all on one floor. The house is L-shaped, built around a perfectly lovely private patio which is immediately accessible to all the principal rooms of the house: living room, separate dining room, one queen and one twin bedroom. The kitchen is well-equipped, and there are two full baths (one with shower only, one with shower over tub).

Within a short walk of the house is a piazza from which minibuses whisk you to the beaches at Faro, Blue Grotto, Marina Piccola, and Marina Grande, as well as to the town of Capri and the port. In the same piazza are all the food shops one needs to survive. Being in a residential area, the house is very quiet. All the shops in Capri deliver. The house has both a phone and a washing machine, and maid service is included twice weekly. Rosanna, the housekeeper, is absolutely delightful.

The owner of Casa Morena, who is an artist and who has furnished the house in simple good taste, lives in it herself for only a small portion of each year. Upstairs is a small apartment which partially extends over Casa Morena; here, a totally unobtrusive elderly couple live.

Warning: if you come, you won't want to leave. It's that wonderful!