Joelle Lifestyle - The World at Home

Over the course of history, many queens and famous women have passed through the Piazzetta. From Victoria of Sweden to Simone de Beauvoir, from Mafalda D’Assia to Marguerite Yourcenar. The Piazzetta has always been a stage and in fact, it is thrown into a state turmoil when movie stars make their appearance. It’s in this atmosphere that Silvia De Gennaro grew up, founding 30 years ago the immensely chic and exclusive eye-wear line, named ” Capri People”.

The Bansuri is a transverse alto flute of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal, made of a single length of bamboo with six or seven open finger holes. An ancient musical instrument associated with cowherds and the pastoral tradition, intimately linked to the love story of Krishna and Radha.

From the teeming coastal waters to the fertile plains come Sorrento lemons and Vesuvian apricots, Paestum artichokes and lobsters in the gulf of Salerno. A continent waiting to be discovered, where quality and territory are closely linked and nature and history dine at the same table.

Capri is a rocky mountain rising from the sea, dotted with build-up areas and villas immersed in the typically Mediterranean vegetation. A slow erosive process allowed the sea and the Sorrentine Peninsula to squeeze in. But it also caused the formation of free-standing rocks and spectacular natural marvels.

The island’s most renowned photographer, D’Aniello, takes dazzling black and white images of the island’s grottos and cliffs, its jet setters and trendy beaches, its ancient palaces, churches, and cemeteries, and the people who live out their daily lives against this most romantic of backdrops to a place whose history and beauty have made of the world’s most magical locals.

Standing at the door of the legendary family boutique, tanned with a large smile on his face, young Costanzo the Italian grand son of Amedeo Canfora the three generation house of hand made sandals looks at me straight in the eyes. His grandfather Amedeo Canfora in the 1960’s dressed the feet of famous women like Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Sophia Loren and Audrey Hepburn.

Like old souvenir postcards, the latest fragrances get their inspiration from the Italian landscape among Cedars and Magnolias. The landscape of the peninsula is the latest discovery of creative noses. Past the cliched 50’s vintage stereo postcards (with the Bay of Naples and Mount Vesuvius in the background) there is an Italy of hidden corners and unknown gardens.

I can understand how people of Capri cannot resist of getting rid of their old habit of having the light of sunrise in their eyes, the hour that enrolls the thoughts like the sugar of a special small liquor.

The historical villas of Capri recall the life, joy, love stories and sufferance of the great from the times of the Romans to today.