HVS In Focus: Capri Island, Italy
Capri, together with Ischia and Procida, is the one of the three main islands of Campania, a region in Southern Italy with an area of about 13,500 km² and a population of 5,836,317 (2016). The distinctive features of the region are its mild climate, the abundance of art and historical sites, the strong passion for music and food as well as the presence of Mount Vesuvius, one of the most active volcanos in Europe located in the Gulf of Naples. Being largely washed by the Tyrrhenian sea, many leisure tourism destinations were developed over the years in Campania, such as Capri, Amalfi, Positano and Sorrento; besides Naples, which is the regional capital.Capri's area spans over approximately 10,5 km2, while the inhabitants of the two municipalities (Capri and Anacapri) are about 15,000. Its precipitous coast and its numerous caves give a very peculair configuration to the natural setting of the island. Moreover, Similar to Campania region, music, food and history are always there, but what established the island as such an attractive tourist pole is the exclusivity and the "dolce vita" that visitors experience during their stay, through the sea life and the nightlife, which certainly revolves around the timeless "piazzetta".The charm of this island is remembered since the Roman Empire. Some of the first known admirers and visitors of Capri were the Emperor Augustus, that made the island his private dominion, and the Emperor Tiberius, who built 12 properties to retire from Rome's life, some of them are still visible today. The current tourism status begun with the two World Wars, where the island hosted many political figures which gave birth to a small political-literary oasis. After that, a gradual change of the island's economy accomplished through a progressive decline in agriculture and coral production in favour of the tourism sector.