It’s the aura of old world elegance, its dramatic beauty, the sudden limestone cliffs that stare at the emerald blue sea below, the sumptuous yachts that sail around it, walks between canopies of intensely pink bougainvillea trees, apricot, myrtle and lemons growing with abandon, its ritzy restaurants and bars… Capri is a legend, a myth, a magical world that’s as close to paradise as a place on earth can be.

If the other famous towns dotting the Amalfi were to be compared to women then against their easy everyday beauty, Capri would be a beautiful woman adorned in fine jewels, possessing violet eyes and cheekbones that can cut paper.

Two things stand out in Italy, in general, and Capri, in particular—the first being that every hotel, every cafe and every boutique has a history that goes back at least seventy to a hundred years. While in Capri, you do a bit of shopping and you may give Prada and Valentino a miss but you don’t return without a handmade pair of Da Constanzo sandals–an unpretentious store with a bit of Hollywood history that includes Sophia Loren and Clark Gable. Your ten-year-old pair hasn’t been entirely unvisited by the ravages of time and you cannot possibly leave the island without Antonio Constanzo working his magic with a century-old hammer and strips of velvet around your foot. Along with several other historical landmarks of the island, Da Constanzo’s sandals finds a mention in bestselling author Kevin Kwan’s luscious novel Sex and Vanity, part of which is set in Capri. Antonio has proudly displayed a set of Kwan’s books in his store. You talk about your…