Nine hundred twenty-one steps. For a climb of three hundred meters from the sea to the mountain full of suggestions and prodigal of beauty.
It is the Scala Fenicia, which connects the port of Marina Grande to Anacapri, in the highest part of the island. Despite the name, it was the Greeks who dug it out of the rock overlooking the sea in the 7th-6th century BC, to connect the citadel that grew up near the landing place with the acropolis on the slopes of Mount Solaro. A position that guaranteed protection from all sides: the classic scheme of Greek settlements in the mother country and in the Mediterranean colonies. A daring route, threatened by frequent rock falls, which required numerous restorations and arrangements, starting from the Roman era. On the other hand, that steep and tiring road could not remain out of use for long, given that it was the only communication route between Capri and its port and Anacapri, the "city above". And it remained so for centuries, until 1877 when the new provincial road between the two towns was inaugurated.
The Anacapri women walked it every day, braving the dangers with their loads of agricultural products going downhill and then going up again with the precious water from the Truglio spring, the products purchased in Capri and even the building materials for their homes. A route that the foreigners who went up from the port to Anacapri did the opposite. Along the stairway they first enjoyed the coolness and shade donated by the majestic holm oak forest that flanks and covers the first stretch and then, having regained the view of the sky, of the part that climbs between the flowering rocks overlooking the sea, with a magical view of the Gulf of Naples. And, in the last stretch, the little church of Sant'Antonio, patron saint of Anacapri. The long staircase ends with the ancient "Door of the difference", which has marked the border between Capri and Anacapri for centuries, near the famous Villa San Michele.
