Capri

When you leave the ferry or the hydrofoil, you are in Marina Grande, which is the commercial and touristic port. It is like a big market of small shops and agency offices veritably humming of excursions and one-day travellers, and it is also like a floating village due to its hundred boats berthing (many others at anchor), whose “inhabitants” like going ashore in the evening, when the day trippers have left the island. You can choose to take a dip in the Baths of Tiberius or in a not far public beach. It is also possible to walk through the pedestrians streets and the staircases appearing on Via Acquaviva at the end of which you can see the medieval door of Capri. Passing along the road of the province of Marina Grande from the port, there is the Church of San Costanzo (which became the patron saint of the island against the Saracens invasions) which is, however, consecrated to Madonna della Libera (Our Lady of the Free) and it has been an Episcopal see until 1596. Probably built on an pre-existent paleochristian basilica, the church has a Greek cross structure of byzantine influence. The alternative way to leave the port is to take the funicular from Piazza Vittoria: you reach the village in five minutes, after having travelled for 648 meters. It has been inaugurated in the first years of 900 and, since then, it never stops, especially in summer. In love couples look out the panoramic terrace: it is the first approach with an infinity of enchanting observation points. We then get to Piazza Umberto I, the Piazzetta, which is the expression of the myth and the identity of Capri as well as the certification of the worldliness of the island. This is the heart from which the vitality of Capri is separated, by day and especially by night; the reference point for the worldwide jet-set which loves being seen, met and mingled with the tourists, between bars, narrow spaces and multilingual chats. In the Eighteen Century (second half) it was the location for the market, strategic then and now: there is the town hall, the Clock Tour, the Santo Stefano Church, already a cathedral (until 1818, when the bishopric was abolished), which the actual edifice was finished around the end of the Seventeenth Century: the polychromatic marble inlays pavement in front of the high altar is interesting. It comes from the excavations of Villa Jovis. This is where the statue of Saint Costanzo is kept. In the zone and in the immediate surroundings, it is not the only church: there is for example, the church of Sant’Anna, built at the end of 300, with a seventeenth-century facade; without forgetting the church of SS Salvatore with the convent of the Teresiane. In the fourteenth-century mansion, in front of the church of Santo Stefano, there is the archeological museum of the “Centro Caprense” “Ignazio Cerio” which was founded by Edwin Cerio in 1949 and dedicated to his father who was a naturalist and became an expert of the island where he moved to in 1868. It is important to mention that regarding the profane aspect, the disposition of the first tables in the Piazzetta is down to Raffaele Vuotto’s (from Capri) inventiveness: in 1938. There are many fascinating options, leaving the Piazzetta. Via Le Botteghe, a narrow street, has an Arabic atmosphere, in the old town: this is where the first grocery shops had been opened. In Via Camerelle, you can get in the paradise of shopping, between elegant shops and worldwide designers: but it is important to remember that this street which links the square of the Quisisana with via Tragara has roman origins, and is characterised by a series of spaces (Camerelle, which were probably tanks) made in a retaining wall. Tragara is considered the most romantic street of Capri. You can walk between villas, hotels, colours and perfumes, until a belvedere and down at the cove where, between the Faraglioni and the Monacone Rock, there used to be the principal port of the Romans. In an era of ostentation, in that area, the Romans built residences and nymphaeums, and a long time after they were imitated by numerous artists who, in the Twentieth Century, elected the area as an ideal shelter. The Faraglioni, the three rocks of the myth, were called Sirenum Scopuli, the mermaid rocks. They are three spires spared from landslips and erosions. They have three different names. Stella, 111 meters-high, it is the first and it is the closest to the coast; the Mezzo, 81 meters-high, is connected to the Scopolo (the outermost) by a marine space of 8 meters which has an arch in the middle. The famous blue lizard lives only on the Scopolo, Podarcis sicula coernula or Lacerta coerulea faraglionensis, which was discovered by Ignazio Cerio in 1870. Fifteen minutes away from the Piazzetta, on the south side, there is the bay of Marina Piccola, which you can reach along via Mulo for which the whole path has been built with steps: here is the  Villa Perina, acquired by the great Russian writer Maxime Gorkij with the close Villa Serafina. In the early 1900 he lived there and actively organised the revolutionary school, with other Russian exiles. Marina Piccola is a pole of seaside tourism, with its well-known establishments but, until the end of the Nineteenth Century, there were only the coral fishers’ little houses. Few more steps down, you can see the small chapel of Sant’Andrea, built in 1900 on a project of the painter Riccardo Fainardi, by Ugo Andreas, a German engineer, owner of the Villa Capricorno in Tragara. Ugo Andreas and Mortiz Von Bernus paid the factory between 1899 and 1901 for the construction of the Evangelic Church, always in Tragara, who was meeting the requirements of a large German community of that time: it stands out for its pitched roof and its Gothic style. Continuing the way, you get to Scoglio delle Sirene, which divides the bay in two, Marina di Pennauro and Marina di Mulo. According to some, it was there that you could find “the flowery meadow on the sea”, which was the place from where Ulysses was tempted by the sirens with their melodic song, in Homer and Apollonius of Rhodes’ stories. Above Marina Piccola, on the southwest slope of the Monte Solaro, above 150 meters of sea level, there is the Grotta delle Felci, where ancient human traces were found dating from the Upper Paleolithic until the bronze age, and particularly the middle Neolithic period. Still from the Piazzetta, alternatively, from via Longano through via Supramonte, and after the crossroads of the Cross, into via Tiberio, you can continue towards the most famous Capri itinerary, the one which leads to Villa Jovis and to Monte di Tiberio (335 meters). It is a rural scenario, between vineyards, kitchen gardens, gardens, citrus groves and thickets, past the Chapels of San Michele (small monasteries with bell towers and with byzantine characteristics), in Cesina, Monetella and Moneta. Dedicated to Jupiter, the Villa Jovis of the emperor Tiberius is the first of the twelve Tiberian villas of the Roman age. Huge, with seven thousand square meters development, a thirteen thousand meters park with terraces and nymphaeums scattered on 40 meters of altitude difference, it leans, majestic, towards the Sorrentine Peninsula and Punta Campanella. The excavations of Amedeo Maiuri have brought to light the central core with big tanks, where you can identify four areas: the areas of the emperor and the court; the servants area, the thermal baths and the space for the public hearings. We can notice at least two phases of stratification: the first is the Augustan age, with the use of limestone covered by opus reticulatum, with plaster and paint, marble mosaic always, and the second one visible on the floors covered with marble slabs and the walls covered by glass mosaic. Going further, towards the northern end of the Villa, you get to the so-called Salto di Tiberio, 297 meters on the sea cliff, which, according to the legendary stories of Svetonio – was the point from where the emperor  was throwing “human victims for its own amusement”. On the highest terrace of the Villa, in order to face the “pagan atmosphere”, people from Capri wanted to build the small church of Santa Maria del Soccorso, the meeting point for the fishers.From the first part of the previous itinerary, diverting to via Lo Capo, you reach Villa Fersen, which was built by the French Count and poet Jacques d’Adelsward Fersen (1880-1923), also known as Villa Lysis, which was the name of the Socrate’ young friend. Fersen was a dandy of the Decadent Movement: symbolist esthetic who was persecuted in his homeland due to his homosexuality. The naturalistic context is fantastic, and the building is in neoclassic style, revisited in liberty style. From the quadrivium of the Cross you can move towards the wild sceneries of the Arco Naturale, the  Grotta di Matermania (or Matromania), up to Pizzolungo and further, running along the slopes of the mount Tuoro, until discovering the curious shape of Villa Malaparte. The Arco Naturale is 200 meters above sea level, in the bay of Matermania, and this is what is remaining of a landslide of a big cave in the mountain which became wider with time, due to erosion.  Keeping the way downhill, the Grotta di Matermania is interesting because it is thought to be the seat of Cybele’s cult, the Mater Magna of antiquity, the goddess of fertility. During imperial age it was used as a luxurious nymphaeum. The mosaic decorations are a proof of this.  There, they used to rest and feast. Proceeding, our gaze rests on the peculiar architecture of Villa Malaparte. The writer Curzio Malaparte, in 1936, spent 300 lire (Italian currency) to buy the promontory on Punta Massullo, where he built between 1938 and 1940 the “Casa come e” (A House like me), indeed thought and made in his own image and likeness with the help of the rationalist architect Adalberto Libera. The panorama stretches from the Faraglioni to the side of Matermania, whereas eastward you get lost lost in the Amalfi coast: it is really a suggestive place. Leaving again from the Piazzetta within walking distance you get to Gardens of Augustus. With panoramic terraces, these public gardens were part of the German steel industrial Alfred Krupp’s property, who was the cannons king who loved Capri but that love was not reciprocal. Krupp gave the park, named after him until 1918, to the district. There is a monument for Lenin, in remembrance of his stay in Capri, created by the sculptor Giacomo Manzù. Another piece of the myth of Capri connects the Gardens of Augustus with the Marina di Pennaulo, on the slope of Marina Piccola. It is the Via Krupp, considered a real masterpiece. It is steep, with its 90 degrees hairpin turns, and its untied zigzagging for 1346 meters: it was a work of the Swiss engineer Emilio Mayer and it was built in less than two years in 1902, e entirely funded by Krupp, with the amount of 43.000 lire. Few minutes away from the Gardens, there is flat hollow chosen to build the monastery, the Certosa di San Giacomo, founded in 1371 by the count of Capri Giacomo Arcucci, the secretary of Queen Johanna I of Naples. Following the rules of the “codice certosino” (prayer, work, solitude), the majestic structure presents first an entrance with the guestroom and the pharmacy; therefore the small cloister of the last quarter of the XIVth century , on the porch of which the refectory, the library and the church were converging; then the real convent with the big cloister of the end of the XVIth century with the cells and the service areas, the chapter house, the vegetable gardens and the Prior’s home, exposed west towards the sea. The church, with a single nave, has three cross vaults, whereas the refectory hosts the “museum room” with paintings of the German symbolist painter Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach  who lived in Capri from 1900 until his death in 1913; a collection of paintings between the XVIIth century and the XIXth century, and the roman statues found on the seabed of the Blue Grotto. Finally,  the Clock Tower has a cusp with baroque volutes. It must be remembered that in 1534 the Certosa was severely damaged due to the Barbarossa incursion, to which followed the Mustafa Pasha ones (1553) and the incursions of the corsair Dragut. After the escape of the monks, the complex was expanded and fortified. The long works ended in 1636, starting again in 1691 with the restoration of the tower, the big cloister and the presbytery, as well as the construction of the three-arched campanile placed between the two cloisters and demolished in 1908. Nowadays the Certosa is a seat, not only of the museum but also of the school and the municipal library.

Son of Ignazio, he carried on his father’s work, putting his knowledge at the service of the island. He was born in Capri on the 28th of June 1875. As well as all the other islanders interested in continuing their studies, soon had to leave the island in order to follow nautical studies and to graduate in mechanical and naval engineering in Genoa. After his degree, he went to work in Germany for the Krupp for which he designed boats  and military submarines. Then he moved overseas, travelling to different countries of Latin America. He went back to Italy in 1913 and worked for Ansaldo first and then for Fiat. He left everything in order to go back to Capri where he was the major from 1920 to 1923,  taking care of  municipality by providing it with a very strict master plan and the typical architecture of the island. He expanded the non-catholic cemetery created by his father and, like his father, he dedicated himself to the studies of island’s environmental heritage of which he wrote several books: in 1927 Aria di Capri (1935), Cose di Capri the following year, then tascabile (1934), Flora privata di Capri (1935) and Guida inutile di Capri (1946). His work as a novelist was less lucky. He died in Capri the 24th of January 1960.

(the bitter) is the pseudonym of Aleksej Maksimovič Peškov who was born  in Niznij Novgorod the 28TH of March 1868. Orphan since his youngest age, he was raised by his grand-mother. He attempted suicide at the age of nineteen and then travelled on foot for five years reaching every single corner of Russia and doing every kind of job in order to support himself.  He then started to write as a journalist of the harsh reality of his country which he was learning about and from which he found the idea for his pseudonym. That reality have inspired the stories of his novels and of the tragedies which made him famous and led him to the Russian Academy of Science, from where he was expelled because the frequentations with the revolutionaries and the notoriety which he was benefiting from started to worry the Tsar Nicholas II. Arrested and sent to the confinement in Crimea, he was then released and went to exile  voluntarily in Italy, in Capri. The 1906, the year of his masterpiece La Madre, marked the beginning of socialist realism. In 1905 he met Lenin who he supported in 1907 during the congress of Bolsheviks party in London. However, the relationship strengthened in Capri where he stayed in 1908 and in 1910. There, Gorkij has been the founder and the entertainer of a School of revolutionary strategy where all the Russian spilled passed in Italy and it has been a particularly prolific period even for the writing. With his wife, the actor Marija Fedorovna Gelabuskaja, he lived in Villa Blaesus with the view of the Faraglioni. Then he moved to Villa Behring and then to Villa Serena (Villa Pierina nowadays), where the houses were more spacious to welcome his compatriots. For a living, he collaborated with journalists as well as devoting himself to fishing of which he was taught from the local fishermen he soon became familiar with. Meanwhile, he corresponded with several Russian and Italian writers and different exponents of the European intelligentsia were visiting him. When he went back to Russia, he took part in the Revolution and after the Bolshevik affirmation, he founded a publishing house, universal Literature. However, tuberculosis forced him to leave again Russia for a more favourable climate. Still in the South of Italy but this time in Sorrento where he lived from 1924 (Lenin’s death) until 1933, keeping writing, under the strict control of the fascist police. He died in Moscow on the 18th of June 1936.(the bitter) is the pseudonym of Aleksej Maksimovič Peškov who was born  in Niznij Novgorod the 28TH of March 1868. Orphan since his youngest age, he was raised by his grand-mother. He attempted suicide at the age of nineteen and then travelled on foot for five years reaching every single corner of Russia and doing every kind of job in order to support himself.  He then started to write as a journalist of the harsh reality of his country which he was learning about and from which he found the idea for his pseudonym. That reality have inspired the stories of his novels and of the tragedies which made him famous and led him to the Russian Academy of Science, from where he was expelled because the frequentations with the revolutionaries and the notoriety which he was benefiting from started to worry the Tsar Nicholas II. Arrested and sent to the confinement in Crimea, he was then released and went to exile  voluntarily in Italy, in Capri. The 1906, the year of his masterpiece La Madre, marked the beginning of socialist realism. In 1905 he met Lenin who he supported in 1907 during the congress of Bolsheviks party in London. However, the relationship strengthened in Capri where he stayed in 1908 and in 1910. There, Gorkij has been the founder and the entertainer of a School of revolutionary strategy where all the Russian spilled passed in Italy and it has been a particularly prolific period even for the writing. With his wife, the actor Marija Fedorovna Gelabuskaja, he lived in Villa Blaesus with the view of the Faraglioni. Then he moved to Villa Behring and then to Villa Serena (Villa Pierina nowadays), where the houses were more spacious to welcome his compatriots. For a living, he collaborated with journalists as well as devoting himself to fishing of which he was taught from the local fishermen he soon became familiar with. Meanwhile, he corresponded with several Russian and Italian writers and different exponents of the European intelligentsia were visiting him. When he went back to Russia, he took part in the Revolution and after the Bolshevik affirmation, he founded a publishing house, universal Literature. However, tuberculosis forced him to leave again Russia for a more favourable climate. Still in the South of Italy but this time in Sorrento where he lived from 1924 (Lenin’s death) until 1933, keeping writing, under the strict control of the fascist police. He died in Moscow on the 18th of June 1936.

One of the great protagonists of the 20th century archeology, who gave a decisive impulse to the knowledge of Campania ancient history. Amedeo Maiuri was born in Veroli on 7th of January 1886 and, after classical studies, he graduated in Literature, to then move to Naples as an inspector in the National Archeological Museum. As the director of the archeological museum of Rodi and responsible for the excavations in the Dodecanese, he stayed away from Italy for eleven years, and went back in 1924 as a superintendent in the Antiquities of Naples and Southern Italy and as the director of the Archeological Museum of Naples. During the Second World War, these roles allowed him to strive to secure the finds at risk and to save Pompeii from the bombs falling on Naples and its surroundings.  Although he had fulfilled prominent roles during Fascism, thanks to his undisputed scientific values, Maiuri kept his position even after the war, when he finally could dedicate himself to both the protection of the sites and the archaeological heritage and to their exploration. Being an academic of the Lincei, Maiuri worked especially in the phlegraean area, in Pompeii and in Capri to which he was attached. He was the one who excavated the ancient Cumae, and identified the cave of the Sybil. He also initiated the excavation in Baia with the first introspections in the archaeological submerged site and he looked for the villa and the grave of Scipio Africanus in Liternum. Amedeo Maiuri brought to light the ancient Herculaneum and he resumed the exploration of Pompeii, as well as starting the restorations of the domus and providing the site with facilities and functional services for public use. In Capri, he dedicated himself to deepen the research in the areas of Villa Jovis and of the “Palazzo a Mare”. Maiuri died in Naples on the 7th of April 1963.One of the big protagonists of the 20th century archeology, who gave a decisive impulse to the knowledge of Campania ancient history. Amedeo Maiuri was born in Veroli on 7th of January 1886 and, after classical studies, he graduated in Literature, to then move to Naples as an inspector in the National Archeological Museum. As the director of the archeological museum of Rodi and responsible for the excavations in the Dodecanese, he stayed away from Italy for eleven years, and went back in 1924 as a superintendent in the Antiquities of Naples and Southern Italy and as the director of the Archeological Museum of Naples. During the Second World War, these roles allowed him to strive to secure the finds at risk and to save Pompeii from the bombs falling on Naples and its surroundings.  Although he had fulfilled prominent roles during Fascism, thanks to his undisputed scientific values, Maiuri kept his position even after the war, when he finally could dedicate himself to both the protection of the sites and the archaeological heritage and to their exploration. Being an academic of the Lincei, Maiuri worked especially in the phlegraean area, in Pompeii and in Capri to which he was attached. He was the one who excavated the ancient Cumae, and identified the cave of the Sybil. He also initiated the excavation in Baia with the first introspections in the archaeological submerged site and he looked for the villa and the grave of Scipio Africanus in Liternum. Amedeo Maiuri brought to light the ancient Herculaneum and he resumed the exploration of Pompeii, as well as starting the restorations of the domus and providing the site with facilities and functional services for public use. In Capri, he dedicated himself to deepen the research in the areas of Villa Jovis and of the “Palazzo a Mare”. Maiuri died in Naples on the 7th of April 1963.

Un caprese d’adozione che dedicò la vita all’isola amatissima, scoprendone i “segreti” più affascinanti. Abruzzese di Teramo, dove era nato il 28 febbraio 1840, Ignazio Cerio studiò medicina, laureandosi ad appena vent’anni, avviato dal padre alla carriera militare. Durò poco e nel1869 prese la decisione che gli avrebbe cambiato la vita: trasferirsi a Capri, dove avrebbe esercitato la professione medica, come effettivamente accadde negli anni seguenti. Ma oltre a prendersi cura della salute dei capresi, si prese cura anche dell’isola, con un approccio scientifico da ricercatore interessato a varie branche del sapere: dall’archeologia alla botanica, dalla zoologia alla climatologia. Supportò un gruppo di esperti napoletani negli studi sugli organismi marini, di cui procurava loro degli esemplari pescati con una draga che aveva progettato. E personalmente scoprì la lucertola dei Faraglioni, oltre ad approfondire la conoscenza degli altri endemismi della flora e della fauna dell’isola. Nel 1900 pubblicò il catalogo delle specie botaniche capresi in Flora dell’isola di Capri. Si dedicò pure alla ricerca archeologica, che lo portò a individuare un’abitazione del Neolitico nella Grotta delle Felci e in seguito testimonianze preistoriche a Tragara. Nel 1870 fondò il cimitero acattolico di Capri. Morì a Capri il 1° maggio 1821. Il figlio Edwin e la nuora Mabel Norman Cerio crearono in suo onore il Centro caprense di vita e di studi Ignazio Cerio.

A memorable chess game. Vladimir Ulic Ulianov also known as Lenin (22nd  of April 1870- 21st of January 1924) and Bogdanov played it in Capri, where the father of the Russian Revolution arrived for the first time on the 23rd of April 1908 as the guest of his friend Maxim Gorkij, who had invited him for a while. It was not a holiday, even if Lenin did enjoy the beauty of the island by walking through the Roman ruins, playing long chess games with the Russian exiles who were frequenting numerously the Villa Blaesus where Gorkij was staying. Lenin went to Capri in order to reinforce the relationships with the Revolutionary leaders, who were referring to Gorkij and to the School of revolutionary strategy founded by the great writer with Bogdanov, between the greatest exponents of the Bolshevik party. It is with Bogdanov precisely that during that phase, some differences of opinion were pointed out, which Lenin took the opportunity of in order to discuss directly during that intense week in Capri. That week ended on 30th of April, as planned, when Lenin went to Geneva, where a big manifestation welcomed him for the First of May. Two years later, on the 1st of July 1910, Lenin went back to Capri, again as Gorkij’s guest for a longer stay than the first one. Again, his aim was to meet the Russian revolutionaries who were frequenting the island and to reinforce the ranks of the Bolsheviks, but this time the guest dedicated himself to deepen the knowledge of Capri and its people. The gatherings with island’s anglers were added to the places where you could find known archeological testimonies. Lenin wanted to know more closely the anglers’ way of life and the way they worked at sea. Gorkij was, of course, the one who guided Lenin and introduced him to the Capri inhabitants, and first of all Giovanni Spadaro, who was the dean of the anglers. Gorkij went with him to the discovery of Pompeii and Naples where Lenin showed again a strong interest in archeology. Renato Guttuso, during the centenary of Lenin’s birth, drew some figures dedicated to that historic visit, whereas Manzù made the bust of Lenin exhibited in the Gardens of Augustus. 

Fifty-nine years always lived at full speed, choices of sides without nuances, and a controversial personality, Curt Erich Suckert, known with the pseudonym of Curzio Malaparte, Italian mother and German father, he was born in Prato on 9th of June 1898. He pursued classical studies and at the age of sixteen, at the beginning of the First World War, he enlisted as a volunteer in the Foreign Legion and then became second lieutenant in the Italian army, earning the bronze medal. An experienced told in his first book Viva Caporetto, withdrawn due to its insulting aspect. He participated in the March of Rome in 1922. Supporter of the first hour of fascism, he started distancing himself from 1925. In 1929, he visited the Soviet Union, where he met Stalin and Gorkij, and became the director of the daily newspaper “La Stampa”. With the Technique of the Coup d’état, in which he attacked Hitler and Nazism, he was ousted from the newspaper and in 1933, excluded from the Party, he was interned for five years in Lipari, where he spent few months, thanks to his friendship with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Galeazzo Ciano. He was the reporter of “Corriere della Sera” when, in 1936, he arrived in Capri, Axel Munthe’s host, and the beauty of the island impressed him. In a short time, he bought the land at Punta Massullo, taking steps for the building permit. The works for the “house like me”, as he liked calling his Villa Malaparte, of which he was the real protagonist, started in 1938 and lasted until 1940. The year in which, with the beginning of the Second World War, he was sent to the Greek front, to which several destinations followed on the Eastern front as a was reporter. After the fall of Mussolini, in 1943, he went to live in Capri, where he wrote his first novel Kaputt. During the last instant of the war, he was in contact with the Allies. In 1949, The Skin was published, censored by the Church. In 1947, he moved to Paris and he started getting close to Communism, while he was the reporter in Italy and abroad for “Il Tempo”. In 1957, he travelled to the Soviet Union and to China, country from which he was astonished, where he also interviewed Mao. He had to return to Rome in order to be admitted to the hospital due to a serious illness, which he died of on 19th of July 1957. He left his house in Capri to the People’s Republic of China. The heirs of the family contested the will and won the case. Therefore, Villa Malaparte is a private property.Fifty-nine years always lived at full speed, choices of sides without nuances, and a controversial personality, Curt Erich Suckert, known with the pseudonym of Curzio Malaparte, Italian mother and German father, he was born in Prato on 9th of June 1898. He pursued classical studies and at the age of sixteen, at the beginning of the First World War, he enlisted as a volunteer in the Foreign Legion and then became second lieutenant in the Italian army, earning the bronze medal. An experienced told in his first book Viva Caporetto, withdrawn due to its insulting aspect. He participated in the March of Rome in 1922. Supporter of the first hour of fascism, he started distancing himself from 1925. In 1929, he visited the Soviet Union, where he met Stalin and Gorkij, and became the director of the daily newspaper “La Stampa”. With the Technique of the Coup d’état, in which he attacked Hitler and Nazism, he was ousted from the newspaper and in 1933, excluded from the Party, he was interned for five years in Lipari, where he spent few months, thanks to his friendship with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Galeazzo Ciano. He was the reporter of “Corriere della Sera” when, in 1936, he arrived in Capri, Axel Munthe’s host, and the beauty of the island impressed him. In a short time, he bought the land at Punta Massullo, taking steps for the building permit. The works for the “house like me”, as he liked calling his Villa Malaparte, of which he was the real protagonist, started in 1938 and lasted until 1940. The year in which, with the beginning of the Second World War, he was sent to the Greek front, to which several destinations followed on the Eastern front as a was reporter. After the fall of Mussolini, in 1943, he went to live in Capri, where he wrote his first novel Kaputt. During the last instant of the war, he was in contact with the Allies. In 1949, The Skin was published, censored by the Church. In 1947, he moved to Paris and he started getting close to Communism, while he was the reporter in Italy and abroad for “Il Tempo”. In 1957, he travelled to the Soviet Union and to China, country from which he was astonished, where he also interviewed Mao. He had to return to Rome in order to be admitted to the hospital due to a serious illness, which he died of on 19th of July 1957. He left his house in Capri to the People’s Republic of China. The heirs of the family contested the will and won the case. Therefore, Villa Malaparte is a private property.