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Aug 12

From Napoli to Capri, Part 11: The Villa San Michele

After many blissful days exploring the passionate streets of Naples and the ruins of Pompeii, and moving onto the tranquil haven of Ischia and its many paradise gardens and seafront villages, we arrived at last in Capri. We have been to Capri before, albeit only on a day trip from Positano. But so enamoured were we by those few hours on the legendary island that we vowed to return. 5 years later, we rolled our suitcases off the Ischia ferry onto the famous docks of Capri’s Marina Grande.

We were back in those scenes from It Started in Naples again, since the port really hasn’t changed all that much since Clark Gable disembarked from a ferry on the very same dock in the 1960 movie. He was there to track down Sophia Loren in her home in the Villa Palazzo Reale. However, as we ventured forth in Capri for the second time, we had a different villa in mind. The Villa San Michele.

The Villa San Michele has been in my mind for some time this year. It all began when I read an enticing book, The Unfinished Palazzo by Judith Mackrell, in the early weeks of 2019. That book introduced me to the flamboyant Marchesa Luisa Casati whose eccentric homes hosted infamous parties included one villa on the island of Capri. A few months later, coincidence took me to the book, The Story of the Villa San Michele by Axel Munthe, which I picked up purely because of the picture of Capri on its cover. However, once I started reading, I realised that the Villa described was one and the same as the Capri house of Luisa Casati, and a broader picture began to form in my mind. Hooked, I read on, and knew that once in Capri, I would have to make a beeline for the place.

Axel Munthe is a complex character, who can essentially be described as Swedish doctor and psychiatrist, collector of antiquities, animal lover and aesthete. His famous novel does far more than tell the story of his villa. It also tells of his long and complex medical career, treating some of Europe’s most notable aristocrats, and providing medical care to the victims of some of recent history’s most disastrous epidemics. Yet it is the pages when Munthe describes his discovery of the land around San Michele, and his gradual construction of the Villa, which are the most enticing.

The land once hosted one of several villas owned by Emperor Tiberius. Munthe’s discovery of multiple pieces of antiquity both inspired the villa which resulted and became part of its construction. However the land is also unique for having unparalleled views not only over the Bay of Naples but also over towards Capri Town and the Marina Grande.

Having squeezed into a tiny local bus in order to climb the hair-pin bends of the main road up to Anacapri, we arrived at the Villa San Michele and found it to be every bit the paradise Munthe describes in his novel. Among the relics is a ravishing cafe set upon a rooftop and enjoying those same stunning Vesuvius views. The original little chapel, after which the main Villa is named, features the magnificent and mysterious ancient granite sphinx, whose acquisition Munthe describes in an almost dream-like state. And best of all things, the gardens offer visitors a lush Elysium of cypress trees and flowering fauna, covered porticoes and citrus-lined avenues.

We were lucky. We not only got to enjoy the Villa San Michele in the full worship of the day’s sunshine, but also at night. There, as part of the Villa’s annual programme of classical music events, we sat down to watch a performance of the Naples Teatro San Carlo string quartet, as all around us the sun set over a silhouette of Ischia to the West, and Vesuvius just south of it. At that moment, all the year’s reflections on this legendary villa seemed to settle into a wholly satisfactory conclusion. I felt somehow rounded and complete, as though one of the main objectives of 2019 had been satisfied. What a way to commence our return to the exquisite island of Capri.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2019. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Aug 9

From Napoli to Capri, Part 10: Forio post-Festa

When finally we made it down to the port town of Forio, having ventured through the extensive succulents and prickles of the Giardini Ravino cacti collection, we found a town in the swathes of a calm but subdued hangover.

In the days before our visit, Forio had been celebrating the Festa di San Vito, a rather spectacular annual festival comprising parades, market stalls, musical celebrations, street parties and culminating in a massive firework display which we could enjoy from our hotel. But today’s visit was a far calmer affair. The only signs of the celebration were in the multitude of street lights spanning across roads like the set from a Bollywood movie, those plentiful arches, formed from lattice designs and multiple light bulbs, adding a feeling of fiesta to what is otherwise a sleepy town on the far West coast of Ischia.

Walking through a town in the midst of its post-festival siesta, we encountered a Forio which was characterised by gently sloping streets, soft pastel houses, simple fishermen-style cottages and a very understated elegance. The streets were full of colour, which, when offset by the dazzling blue sky, gave Forio an enticing sense of happiness.

It was in that reflected positivity that we strolled contented through Forio, stopping by the town’s main fountain to eat bowls of spaghetti and prawns with a glass of limoncello and another of white wine, sad that this would be our last day in Ischia, but excited about the Capri adventure to come… only one day away.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2019. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Aug 7

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From Napoli to Capri, Part 9: Peacocks and Prickles

Our last day in Ischia was upon us – the incredibly beautiful volcanic island which had brought us such scenes as the pastel-coloured wonders of Sant’Angelo, and the historical magnificence of the Castello Aragonese. We chose to spend these final hours in the area of our hotel, and the nearby port town of Forio where our boat had swept up onto the island a few days previously.

As we wondered down the winding hill to Forio and the sea beyond, we came upon a garden peculiarly loaded with succulents and prickles. Enticed by the collection that lay within, we ventured inside, finding that the gardens were not only open to the public, but entailed a magnificent assemblage of the world’s finest cacti. The name, we were to discover, was the Giardini Ravino, and within its walls grows the life’s work of one Signor Peppino, whose passion for cacti, succulents, and Mediterranean flora generated the amassed gardens we can enjoy today.

Wondering around the Giardini Ravino was quite a different experience from the lustrous tropicana provided by the Giardini La Mortella visited at the start of our trip. Rather, these gardens had an arid note, more typical of a scene from a Western movie, but the combination of cacti of every shape and size was equally as attractive, much like an abstract painting combining colours and textures quite beyond the imagination.

Despite the obviously hazardous surfaces of the cacti and their prickles, the gardens were home to a surprising number of furry and feathered residents, from rabbits and cats, to the beautiful peacocks who wandered about majestically, their feathers draped luxuriously behind them. Whether it be the weather or the time of year, there was some true flirtation in the air, and many a time we were treated to the true theatrical splendour of a peacock’s feathers in full open array, shaking and vibrating to entice the female. She didn’t look overly impressed, but we were – as the extent of peacock photos on this post probably shows.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2019. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Aug 2

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From Napoli to Capri, Part 8: Sant’Angelo

Not content with wowing its visitors with its rolling volcanic landscape, lush Mediterranean scenery and ravishing blue seas, Ischia throws a few more treats into the mix by extending its landmass further out into the sea at various points along its shoreline. These little islets, or rocky promontories, have subsequently characterised the coast of Ischia, acting as nuclei for the development of quaint fishermen’s villages, the historical setting for imposing fortresses or places of worship, and providing visitors with truly awe-inspiring landscapes quite unique to this part of the world.

On Tuesday, I shared our experience of what is undoubtedly the most famous of these rocky outcrops, atop of which the Castello Aragonese sits in all its glory. Today is the turn of Sant’Angelo which, complete with its very own islet and impossibly quaint sprawling village, has to be declared one of the prettiest, if not the most beautiful town in all of Ischia.

We headed to Sant’Angelo on the recommendation of our friend Sarah, whose fine taste and vivacity for life cannot be challenged. We proceeded to follow her recommendations to the letter, from strolling up through quaint, ceramic laden narrow white-washed lanes through the village, and along to the rather handsome stretch of Fumarole Beach, to quenching our thirst on the scintillating mix of lemon granita and freshly squeezed orange and lemon juice at Enzo la Bomba. His juice, served up near the town’s bus stop, was a bomb indeed, as that icy, sweet, citrus freshness exploded in our mouths and left us begging for more. All this we enjoyed, and more, although sadly Sarah’s challenge to find a rather hunky waiter at a nearby hotel passed us by – we’re leaving him for next time.

But all that Sarah described of this place we found and savoured, lingering until the sun turned golden and glittered over the gently rocking waters of the small harbour there. Sant’Angelo is the perfect Ischian town. Small and quaint, full of colour and character. Little enough to digest in mere hours, but so oozing in Italian charm that one could easily spend hours sipping cocktails by the waterside and gorging on gelato barely noticing the passage of time… how easily I could pass life in such a picture-perfect paradise of Mediterranean delight. Sarah… I think it’s time to hit the estate agents lists.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2019. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Jul 24

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Honeymoon and Hotels: Tenuta del Poggio Antico

I have spoken much of the incredible garden and grounds of the Tenuta del Poggio Antico, a hotel in Ischia which personifies the meaning of “boutique”. But I have not really addressed the views, and more particularly the views from our bedroom which were quite frankly breathtaking. Looking westwards over the sweeping bay of Citara, across to the Punta Imperatore, and across the horizon towards the tiny islands of Ventotene, the view was quite honestly jaw-droppingly beautiful. I had already promised myself, the hotel staff, and anyone else who cared to listed that I would make the most of our terrace and paint that ravishing view. But when it came to it, I was so awe-struck that I didn’t even know where to begin. Eventually, however, I did.

Our terrace benefited from every inch of that incredible view. Given its westerly direction, we enjoyed the most incredibly sunsets by night and watched the sea mist dissipate over the sea as the morning sunshine cleared a path for its golden rays. But my favourite time to enjoy this view was around about 5 in the afternoon, when we would return from a day’s sightseeing, and I would settle down to paint this…

This view is the latest in my collection of Honeymoon and Hotels gouaches. I love it for the extent of the view it captures, but also for the creamy pinky dusky hues contrasting so starkly with that wonderful Hockney-style blue pool. It goes down in my collection as one of the favourites.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2019. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Jul 23

From Napoli to Capri, Part 5: Ischia…our little slice of Paradise

I always knew that Ischia, our next destination after Naples, was going to be a paradise isle. How could it not be, having seen those ravishing scenes filmed in Ischia Ponte in Minghella’s The Talented Mr Ripley? Yet apart from that film, and the odd garden profiled on Monty Don’s Italian Gardens, I knew very little about the island which many refer to as Capri’s poorer sister. How wrong they are. And how right I was to suspect that Ischia would be a little slice of Paradise.

Embarkation into the little port of Forio, with its little domed churches and pastel coloured buildings jutting alongside a small harbour, gave a first scintillating taster of how pretty Ischia would be. But if Forio was the aperitif, our hotel was set to be the starter, main and dessert all rolled into one. I had laboured over hotel websites long and hard in the run-up to this holiday, uncertain whether to go for a beach side hotel for the views, to a thermal retreat to benefit from the island’s naturally hot mineral waters, or for something altogether more bucolic. In the end, the latter won the day, as the Tenuta del Poggio Antico ensnared me with its promise of olive trees and vineyards, mountainous panoramas and a sweeping cerulean blue pool.

As we took a little mini bus up perilously narrow roads, each becoming steeper and more green in its turn, and arrived up the perfectly manicured driveway of this boutique hideaway, we discovered a place that not only lived up to its promises, but multiplied on them, ten times over. Here is a hotel which benefits not just from the dramatic mountainous backdrop immediately behind it, but also from the most ravishing views of the bay of Citara and the Mediterranean horizon at sunset.

The decor was subtly chic, but not lacking authenticity – tasteful to the nth degree – its white breakfast room with white drapery wafting slowly in a gentle sea breeze being one such space where my heart melted on contact. Here, a vineyard with grapes growing in miniature made us feel like we were in the heart of Tuscany, while the thermal pool nestled alongside it provided perfect vine-views while being able to enjoy its best vintage from the comfort of Ischia’s warm waters.

But best of all things was the pool. A sweeping curved basin of perfectly blue water around which the most sumptuous flowering Mediterranean gardens spilled out in every direction. Jasmine, lavender, pomegranate blossom, geraniums and countless others I couldn’t even name – all were present to frame this hotel with a kaleidoscope of ravishing colour.

Thanks to the Tenuta del Poggio Antico, we had truly found our own little slice of Paradise. We could have stayed there in perpetuity. But of course Ischia awaited. More about that next time.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2019. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Jul 16

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From Napoli to Capri, Part 3: It Continued in Naples

See Naples and die, or so they say… well I suppose we all have to die at some point, but the sight of Naples will not be the thing that finishes me off. For with its fantastic tangle of mad urban bustle, its multi-layered, jam-packed and over-constructed landscapes, its fiery hot-blooded temperament, and its mix of the baroque extravaganza with graffiti-strewn slum, Naples is to my mind a city to see, to experience and to savour.

After the historical still-life that we experienced in Pompeii, we thirsted for something more akin to modern day madness. And where better to find it than in Naples, the city that never sleeps, never tires, but bustles with all the energy of its rather unstable tectonic foundations. So on this second day of our Naples adventure, we took to the streets of the Spaccanapoli, the Vomero, the Via Toledo and the Decumano Maggiore, each regions of a city exuding more character than I did sweat in the searing heat of day.

From vast churches and convents to spooky catacombs and cocktail bars, we covered an awful lot as we continued our tour of Naples. But let us savour those characterful streets for now. This post concentrates on the fabric of the city, on those splendid baroque spectacles, on the multi-layered cityscapes constructed of palazzo upon pauper’s house, on the cramped shops selling sfogliatelli, and the cafes whose steaming hot terraces proved to be the perfect place for an extra strong negroni. See Naples… and live!

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2019. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Jul 4

Honeymoon and Hotels: Mareluna Napoli

Four years ago, I started what was to become a collection of gouache images of hotels. From my first image painted during our honeymoon, of our pretty pink little bedroom in the ravishing Colombe d’Or Hotel in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, with the iconic Calder mobile visible through the window and my painting tools spread on the wooden desk, a story of images was born – images which have since gone on the capture countless bedrooms and views from the many incredible hotels which have played host to us on our holidays.

As we arrived in Naples and looked onto the most ravishing views of the sea and the Castel dell’Ovo, I knew that the next chapter in my narrative of honeymoon and hotels was just around the corner, and I painted this work: Mareluna Napol, named after the hotel of the same name.

This small painting is no traditional capture of the Neapolitan landscape, but in its haphazardness drunkenness, vivacity and freshness of colour, and that centralised seaside view, it is a very much a homage to Naples. All that is missing is a pizza! But true to form, this is very much an image of our hotel room in the Mareluna Suite de Charme, whose wooden floor and ceiling contrasted dramatically with the fresh white walls and retro curved plastic ceiling light, while its wrought iron balcony so perfectly framed that resplendent view in all its Mediterranean majesty.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2019. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Jul 4

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From Napoli to Capri, Part 1: It Started in Naples

Just like the opening scenes of our favourite Sophia Loren/ Clark Gable film, It Started in Naples (1960), our magnificent trip from Napoli to Capri also began in Naples, on the Bay of Naples in fact. And in parallel with the first scene of that film, our first view of Naples was over the iconic Castel dell’Ovo with the silhouette of the mighty Vesuvius looming up behind it, and the silky blue waters of the Mediterranean sea flowing in around it.

This was to be the beginning of a mighty adventure in what must be one of the most beautiful areas of the world; a stretch of mountainous, fertile, stunning scenery full of contrast: from the bustling, sometimes menacing but beautiful Campanian capital of Naples, to the tranquil paradise of Ischia, and the fashionista’s paradise of Capri.

Yet it all started in Naples, and that opening scene was framed, liked the most dramatic of theatrical montages, by the drapery of curtains and a proscenium arch, namely the window (and balcony) of our very own room with a view. That room was to be enjoyed at the Mareluna Suite de Charme, a charming little boutique hotel stationed on the first floor of an old Neapolitan palazzo, and from there, we could indulge in the daily blockbuster of the Bay of Naples awakening, the sea glistening, and the outline of Capri emerging out of the mist of the horizon, while in the closer foreground, locals would take a morning dip in the warm waters, and chat/ yell along the seaside promenade.

That same scene was to occupy a prominent place in our admiration of Naples, and this first, photographic post from our holiday is something of a prologue to the story that will follow. It is a collection of our first impressions – the view by sunset, and in the morning; the nearby Castel dell’Ovo and the Port of Santa Lucia, and the tenement blocks clinging precariously to steep hillsides nearby. And of course that looming, dramatic shadow of Vesuvius, an omnipresent backdrop to a city which thrives on its fertile soils, but is always living on the edge of disaster, knowing that a volcanic end is, like the sword of Damocles, a constant and real risk.

Perhaps the presence of Vesuvius is why Naples feels both dangerous but alive, full of hot fiery tempers but a tangible vivacity for life. It’s a feeling which energises Naples, and makes it one of the most interesting cities to visit in Italy. Come back soon to the Daily Norm, to find out what happened when we made Naples our base for a few days.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2019. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

Aug 3

A Cretan Odyssey | Part 5 – Spinalonga, The Island of No Return

As my last few posts have hopefully demonstrated, the bay of Mirabello in Eastern Crete is every bit as beautiful as the name suggests. And yet its coastline, fractured by little spin-offs of mini mountain islands tracing the coast yet a water’s breadth apart, holds a darker, more ugly secret: Spinalonga. The name sounds like the setting for a fairy tale – a spindle perhaps, upon whose thorny point a princess pricks her finger. But this is no fairy island. It is a place which, up until as recently as 1957, was an island cut off from the mainland not just by sea but by law and stigma: it was the home of Crete’s leper colony, an exile for those afflicted with history’s most devastating illness.

Those of you who have read Victoria Hislop’s bestselling novel, The Island, will already know about Spinalonga. Once a fortified stronghold created by the Venetian occupiers of Crete and later taken over by the Ottomans, it was put to use as an island on which to keep leper suffers forcibly separated from the rest of society. Once diagnosed as having the condition, suffers would be flagrantly torn from their families and shipped off to the island. Few would ever leave it.

As Hislop describes, as the decades went on, Spinalonga went from an utterly savage backwater completely devoid of civilisation to a thriving little town in its own right fit with electricity, shops, a theatre, even a hairdresser. And when the discovery of a cure for leprosy meant that the island was finally abandoned in 1957, all of that civilisation was forsaken to the elements. It was in that state of utmost dilapidation that we found Spinalonga when we took a boat from nearby Eloundia to visit this most dejected of locations.

Barren, sun-roasted and rocky, the island on one side was little more than a fortified wall with stark cactus-filled cliffs. However turn landwards and amongst the rubble you could start to see the ghosts of former houses, their shutters half hanging on rusty hinges and their contents long since pillaged. Stone staircases were collapsed under the weight of fallen rubble and punctuated by weeds; the bare bones of wooden beams indicated where once a roof had stood. There is no doubting the feeling of melancholia and claustrophobia which pervades this small tumbledown space, yet few could deny the beauty which was also visible in the stark contrast between rubble and ramshackle, and the stunning turquoise seas which surround the island, and cut it off from the rest of the world.

We left Spinalonga utterly captivated by the historical significance and emotional impact of the leper island. You cannot escape the sadness which permeates the very fabric of this island of imprisonment and social rebuff. Yet across the Cretan winds, uplifted by the deep ultramarine blue of the island’s surroundings, there is the smallest hint of hope – for Spinalonga’s desertion indicated mankind’s dominance over a disease which had ravaged millions since the beginning of time. And that is surely a cause for celebration.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2018. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.