Island of CapriArticle Free Pass Island of Capri, Italian Isola
di Capri, Latin Capreae , island near the southern entrance to
the Bay of Naples, Campania regione (region), southern Italy; it
lies opposite the Sorrento peninsula, to which it was joined in
prehistoric times. The island is a single block of limestone 3.9
miles (6.25 km) long, with a maximum width of 1.8 miles and an
area of 4 square miles (10 square km), rising to 1,932 feet (589
metres) at Monte Solaro in the west. Two indentations in its
precipitous cliff-lined coast serve as landing places: the
Marina Grande on the north shore, protected by a breakwater, and
the open Marina Piccola on the south, used when the north wind
is particularly strong. Inhabited in prehistoric times, the
island later became a Greek colony and then a resort (Capreae)
of emperors in the early years of the Roman Empire. The emperor
Augustus resided there, and Tiberius built several villas, one
of which, the Villa Iovis on the island’s northeastern tip
overlooking Naples