Leaving the port, heading towards Punta dell’Arcera, you will come across the first caves that are little known, but known by most of the inhabitants, such as the Naso, Faraglione and Sbruffo, so called because during the undertow it produces a spray of a long range water. This leads to the best known and most famous one all over the world, the Blue Grotto. A karst cavity, about twenty meters deep and 60 meters long, which allows entry through a crack in the rock one meter above sea level: for this reason, entry is only possible with good marine weather conditions.
As soon as you enter you are dazzled by an intense blue and silver reflections, which from the seabed stand out against the rocky vault and the walls. This is the reason that led the cave to be known as the “Blue Cathedral” and the writer David Foster Wallace to write about “a blue beyond the clearest blue imaginable”. It is such a unique and mystical experience that everyone in the world wants to live at least once in their life. It is thought that in Roman times it was used as a maritime nymphaeum: for this reason, a tunnel at the bottom of the cave has suggested the existence of an underground terrestrial passage, with an August-Tiberian villa in the upper part of Gradola, the so-called Villa of Gradelle. For many centuries the cave was feared by the islanders, convinced that the place was haunted by demons and witches, perhaps because they were frightened by the shadows and reflections of many statues still present inside and by the blue color connected to the curse and the devil.
Power Up Capri-Roma – P.IVA: 09700821219 © 2022. All rights reserved. Design by Power Up Capri
