Capri – Credit Card Cool!

The Isle of Capri. This is no 1970’s time warp as the motor vehicle of the same name has become. Both cool and classy in their day, this luxurious island in the Bay of Naples has maintained its glitz and glamour.

Hazel O’Connor once wrote a song about “Decadent Days”, saying that her words were inspired by a trip to a night club in London’s West where she met a lot of poseurs and “people looking very bizarre”. A microcosm of Capri perhaps but such a comparison is largely unfair. There sure are elements of luxurious self indulgence yet the island is known for it, its what it does and unashamedly so. Money talks and we live in a credit card society yet there are few better places to part with your cash.

A stroll through the main town of Capri is akin to a walk along London’s Bond Street, Paris’ Rue Saint-Honore and New York’s Fifth Avenue all rolled into one, added to which are some very exclusive local designer brands piggybacking onto their more illustrious international neighbours and why not?  It has a quality, a style and a luxury about it that very few places in the world can match.

Once the day trippers have departed, a certain calmness returns and the locals come out to play too.

Capri provides a dazzling array of differing shades of blue, which are captivating, mesmeric and beautiful. The sky and the sea seem to merge as one bar some floating bobbing yachts, either the tourist trail to the ‘must see’ Blue Grotto or just the big boys parading their expensive toys.

As the sun sets, through the haze emerges Mount Vesuvius, eerie and chilling, yet somehow quite magical too. A natural landscape at its finest.

The island even has its own world renown international dish, Insalate Caprese, and that’s just for starters. Fresh fish invariably follows, often cooked in ‘crazy’ water, another famous Amalfi coast speciality and all finished off with the local limoncello. What is there not to like?

Little else here is crazy, except the roads, narrow and hairpinned, but then every holiday demands some adventure.

Exquisite hotels, sit snuggly in the natural scenery, exuding quality, finesse and finery. The Capri Palace and it’s beach club restaurant Il Riccio, made even more famous by Coogan and Brydon on “The Trip”, are both Michelin starred and offer style and sophistication of the highest order.

Capri is blue, bright and beautiful, chic, calm and cool. Just remember your credit card.

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