Gardens of Augustus

About this place

In the early 1900s a German steel magnate, Friedrich Alfred Krupp, bought a slice of the Capri cliff and turned it into terraces that step down towards the sea. The result is that the island's most famous view now sits behind a gate costing two euros fifty: from the railing the three Faraglioni rise straight out of the blue, and to the right the hairpins of Via Krupp coil down the rock face like a line someone drew with a ruler on the side of a mountain. Let us be honest about the rest. The gardens themselves are small — a few stepped terraces, short paths, bougainvillea and native island plants, twenty to thirty unhurried minutes and you have seen them. Anyone arriving expecting a serious botanical garden will leave disappointed; anyone arriving for the view will find it worth the ticket ten times over. Treat it as a beautifully arranged viewpoint rather than a destination you block out an hour for, and build the rest of your Capri day around it instead of around the garden. For a visitor based in Sorrento, the journey is the real decision. Fast ferries reach Marina Grande in about twenty to twenty-five minutes, leaving every thirty to sixty minutes in summer at roughly €22–28 one way, and far less often in winter. From the port the funicular climbs to the Piazzetta in four minutes for €2.40 (it usually closes for maintenance between January and March, with a replacement bus), then it is a gentle ten to fifteen minute downhill walk along Via Vittorio Emanuele, Via Federico Serena and Via Matteotti to the gate. The catch is that this happens on the same schedule for everybody: between about ten and three the boats unload, the lanes narrow and the railing becomes a queue of raised phones. Take the first boat of the morning or come after four — and check the last return, typically around 19:00 in high season and considerably earlier outside it. Entry is €2.50, free for children up to 12, bought either online as a QR ticket through the Capri municipal culture and tourism site or on the spot at the entrance; advance online purchase is compulsory only for groups of more than ten. Hours are seasonal: 9:00 to 20:00 at the height of summer, 9:30 to about 16:30 in winter, with last admission fifteen to thirty minutes before closing. Via Krupp itself, restored and reopened in 2023 after nine years shut, now runs on a season: it closes over the winter for maintenance and rockfall risk and reopens in spring — in April in each of the last two years — and it can shut again at short notice after a storm, so do not plan a walk down to Marina Piccola without checking on the day. Paths are paved but there are steps between the terraces: a pushchair is manageable with effort, a wheelchair is not. And expect no advertised halal restaurants on the island and no prayer room; fish and vegetarian dishes are the comfortable route, and prices here are steep even by Italian standards.