Hiking Capri

Lovely walks and hikes on the island of Capri

Capri has some gorgeous walks, but most have a significant grade to them.

Some will involve stairs.

Wear sturdy shoes, sunscreen, and a brimmed hat, and carry water and a snack.

Capir hikes connecting the major towns and sights

I wouldn't recommend the steep, uphill hike from Capri to Anacapri—although the reverse is doable in about half an hour, if you don't mind a little vertigo and walking primarily on the nonexistent shoulder of the main road (sadly, the Greek-era Scala Fenicia stairs connecting Marina Grande and Anacapri are in such bad repair they've been closed).

From Capri, you can easily stroll down to Marina Grande in about 15 min, to Marina Piccola in 20 min.

From Anacapri, you can reach the Faro swimming hole in 20 min. or the Blue Grotto in about 50 minutes (from Piazza Vittoria, follow Via Pagliaro, then Via Tuoro to Via Grotta Azzurra).

Capri to the Giardini di Augusto (5–10 min.)

Certosa di San Giacomo, CapriThis is less of a walk than a visit to one of Capri's more fragrant spots, the Giardini di Augusto, a small set of terraced and well-kept gardens (take Via V. Emanuele, which becomes Via F. Serena and then Via Matteotti).

Below these gardens to the left is the Certosa di San Giacomo (tel. +39-081-837-6218; www.capricertosa.com), a vast mausoleum of a charter house built by the Carthusian monks in the 14th century, burned by pirates in the 16th century, and evicted by the Bonaparte dynasty in the 19th century.

The cloisters are huge, bare, and relaxingly quiet after the tourist crush of Capri, but the meager collections (paintings, some crèche figurines) are barely worth poking around.

Via Krupp, Capri.Below the gardens to the right leads the Via Krupp, an almost comically switchbacked stone path laid out in 1902 that winds down (in 20 min.) to the sea and a Saracen tower at the edge of Marina Piccola (good swimming).

Sadly, this picturesque path is frequently closed to the public due to erosion and rock slides.

(Definitely ask around before embarking down it, because sometimes the top end is open, but there's a gate across the bottom—which means you have to turn around and trudge all the way back up again.)

Anacapri to La Migliera (20–30 min.)

La Migliera, CapriThis is one of Capri's flattest, easiest walks with an excellent panoramic payoff at the end of it.

The well-maintained path (Via Migliera) passes increasingly isolated houses—and one very good restaurant (Da Gelsomina)—to end at a lookout point.

The vista here casts over razor-sharp cliffs that plunge 958 feet into the sea, with the Faro lighthouse at the tip of the Punta Carena promontory.

Capri to the Arco Naturale/Matermania, Punta Tragara, and back (90 min.)

Take Via Matermania out of Capri for a refreshing 20-minute walk to Le Grotelle restaurant.

Here the path diverges left (1 min.) for the Arco Naturale, a high archway formed naturally by erosion in a spectacularly lush setting (well worth the short detour), or right (10 min.) for the steps down to the Grotta di Matermania, a cave adapted by the Romans to a temple for orgiastic rites in honor of the goddess Cybele (the Mater Magna, or great Mother).

The Arco Naturale on CapriYou can turn around here, or continue for a rather less touristed, less despoiled slice of Capri.

The steps to Matermania continue down to a winding path that vertiginously skirts the Capri headland, passing the odd Villa di Malaparte, a Pompeiian red trapezoid accessible only by boat. It was built for the writer Curzio Malaparte in 1938 by the noted Rationalist architect Adalberto Libera.

Eventually, you rise again to the belvedere of Punta Tragara, with fantastic views of the Faraglioni and Marina Piccola.

Via Tragara leads from here past posher and posher villas back into Capri Town.

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