The Green Grotto
You can also get there with a nice swim, to indulge in the emotion of being literally surrounded by the iridescent splendor of the sea water to which the sun always gives different reflections, depending on the hours of the day and the seasons. With a prevalence of emerald color, the origin of the name by which it is best known: Green Grotto. Although in the 16th century, when it was discovered, it was also called the Turks' Cave. The carbonate rocks, or dolomites, which characterize it inside are the oldest on the island. Another peculiarity are the two openings, because in addition to the larger one which is accessed by sea, there is another four meters below the sea surface.
The Red Grotto
It is defined by the red marine creatures that populate the rocks inside, giving them, in the parts that emerge from the water, the particular color that has made it famous, contributing to its remarkable charm. A cave definitely worth visiting, the Rossa also known as Grotta Corallo, on the south-east side of the island, not far from the famous Faraglioni, symbol of Capri in the world.
The White Grotto
Towards Punta Massullo, the opening is at sea level, marked by the very light, almost white limestone rocks, from which it borrowed its name. The White Grotto is large and extends into the side of the island for about thirty metres. Inside, there are two small lakes connected by a canal dug by man, perhaps in Roman times, to allow boats to be sheltered there. Later, in the centuries dominated by terror due to the continuous Saracen incursions, it also became a safe refuge for the islanders. Perhaps a sort of staircase carved into the rock dates back to then. From there the most daring still dive. Over time, the dripping of fresh water has shaped a magnificent alternation of stalactites and stalagmites. Among these, one in particular, visible from the entrance, has a shape that recalls the Madonna.
The Wonderful Grotto
Stalactites and stalagmites with great scenic impact also triumph in another cave, which opens higher than sea level and above the White Grotto. A system of coastal cavities that fascinated the first foreigners who visited them. It was a German writer of horror novels, Heinz Ewers, who stayed on Capri on several occasions between 1898 and the early twentieth century, also meeting Oscar Wilde, who gave it the name Grotta Meravigliosa, without any connection with the local names. Ewers did not fail to describe the island in his own way in the Teutonic magazines and also that intriguing ravine to which he had been accompanied. The use of the cave at the beginning of the twentieth century was imagined by the Neapolitan engineer and architect Emilio Mayer, designer of the famous Via Krupp, who designed the small pier and the staircase in the rock to climb up to it. All works created in 1927.
The Sea Ox Grotto
They roar like oxen, the waves breaking against the rock when the wind blows from the north. It is this strong, dark sound of the surf that has earned the Capri cave its very particular name. According to the legend widespread among fishermen, a colony of seals once settled inside the cave.
The Arsenal Grotto
It is said to have belonged to and been frequented by the emperor Tiberius. The mosaics and finds discovered testify that in Roman times it housed a nymphaeum and that sacred ceremonies took place there. In the Middle Ages, however, it was used both as a deposit by fishermen and as a refuge for the population during Saracen incursions.
The Affummata Grotto
Fairly large with its six meters high and five meters long, the fishermen had placed the boilers used for the nets there. For that prolonged use, the internal walls remained smoked.
The Matermania Grotto
It was once traditional for the newlyweds to visit the grotto as a propitiatory rite for the wedding. A custom linked to ancestral cults, evidenced by the unequivocal finds attributable to a sacred place dedicated to the cult of the goddess Cybele (an altar) and the god Mithras (a bas-relief). From that Roman nymphaeum came the name Matermania of the cave which can be reached by land, following a path of great beauty along the road to Tragara up to the viewpoint and then continuing to Pizzolungo.
The Fern Grotto
Among the many where the sea meets the rock, the most important for the history of Capri is, however, an earth cave, which opens two hundred meters above sea level, on the southern side of the island: the Grotta delle Felci or Grotta del Capelvenere, because that is the species that grows all around, in a setting of great naturalistic value. The prehistoric inhabitants of the area referred to that cave, approximately 370 square meters in size, since the Neolithic period, frequenting it systematically, without interruption, until the Iron Age. Subsequently, it was used again in the 16th century by monks of the Certosa, as a sheepfold for goats, only to be forgotten again. Until its rediscovery at the end of the 19th century by Ignazio Cerio, thanks to whom the cave hidden by vegetation was to prove decisive for the reconstruction of human history on Capri. Without neglecting the important confirmation of the identification of the period, in the Upper Pleistocene, in which that strip of land was already configured as an island, now separated from the continent. The cave had been a sanctuary since the beginning of its use, witness to rites with generous offerings to the gods of which numerous material testimonies have been found. The excavation started by Cerio in 1885 and then continued a century ago by Ugo Rellini and during the Second World War by Alberto Carlo Blanck, brought to light vases painted with engravings, metal artefacts, obsidian blades and votive objects, as well as bones both human and animal. Part of those finds are exhibited at the Ignazio Cerio Center in Capri, but also at the Mann and at the Anthropology Museum of the University of Naples. The Grotta delle Felci can only be reached on foot, starting from Marina Piccola and continuing along via Grotta delle Felci, which, having become a narrow path, leads through the greenery to the so-called Grotta dell'Arco, from which you reach the prehistoric site.
