Ricchi et poveri

Last night I heard myself use the expression
afford (ha råd med in Swedish) when we discussed our remaining time on the island.

We can afford doing that I said when we talked about things yet to see and places to visit during the remainder of our visit, now less than a week.

Villa Lysis, the Blue Grotto, Villa Jovis, still not done.

If time were a currency, what would be its units? A day a dollar and an hour a cent? Or an hour a euro and a minute, bla bla bla.

I need a budget. And a financial adviser.

Asterisk

I put an asterisk by Hotel Molaro in the text below and I will tell you why. (Isn't the
asterisk a lovely old-fashioned way of cross-referencing btw? I hadn't thought about its meaning, little star in latin: asteriscum).

When I first visited Capri 4-5 years ago I had brought an image of a private palace where Ulla Bjerne had stayed in the 1920's. Some good friends of her, an Italian family, had lent her the place, it was empty so she could use it however long she wanted.

I also had a copy of a postcard with a Hotel Molaro on it, hoping to be able to detect the same on the island. In vain, I thought, since I hadn't been able to find a hotel with that name.

When arriving in Anacapri for a two day visit from Sorrento I didn't know where to stay so I used my Naples guide book (Första klass – 1 kl – Reseguider), which had only one hotel to recommend in the village: the Hotel San Michele (as opposed to some ten in Capri town).

Hotel San Michele sounded like a nice place with great views of the sea and close to San Michele, which was an advantage since the museum was my main objective of the Anacapri visit. The guide book said: ”A hotel from the late 19th century with an appealing, old-fashioned atmosphere.”

As I approached the hotel I realized, which you may already have guessed, the Hotel San Michele was formerly called Hotel Molaro and in addition, the Hotel Molaro was identical to the private palace that Ulla stayed in as the only guest.

I like to think that she had the picture above taken right on the terrace that the room I stayed in looked out on.

Now I will add to the fantasy that Italo Tavolato took the picture.

Italian Escapades, part 3

Here is part three of six of Ulla's radio broadcast account on Finnish radio from 1957.

- - -

Italian Escapades

3.

Doctor Munthe had not yet written the Story of San Michele which led to a horrible invasion of old American ladies and other tourist hordes. Asphalt roads did not yet exist, neither buses or cars, chairlifts or similar arrangements.The Monte Solaro hillsides shimmered proudly and majestically and the walk to Anacapri with ever increasing contour lines all the way up to the old Hotel Molaro* from where there is a view over the Gulf of Naples and where the lights at night from Naples like a string of pearl lights bordered all of Posilippo. Those were unforgettable walks.

Since 1920 I have been to Capri seven times and sometimes stayed half a year. When I went the last time 1954 and saw the whole misery I told myself that this is probably the last time I come here.

”Capri nowadays is a waste bin framed with diamonds” an old cultivated Italian put it lately, saddened by the degradation of the island. Of course nature can't be ruined but God save us from all these elderly foreign women who, wearing shorts and with flabby thighs like accordion bellows loaf around on the piazza and pay for a lover, usually an ex chauffeur or a fishing boy who has climbed in life with the help of the distasteful charity of these ladies. Finito signora. At least for those who have lived on Capri before World War I.

This is where I settled at the beginning of April 1920 and stayed well into August. On the island their were plenty of Italian artists who in those days could rent a villa for a few hundred lire a month. The Germans who formerly flooded Capri were now after World War I completely gone. Mostly Neapolitans lived there, oftentimes in splendid private villas.

During all week the island was peaceful, only on Saturdays some Neapolitans would come to stay over the weekend and on Sunday mornings ordinary people would show up and go home again with the evening ferry.

Early mornings were for swimming among the rocks down at Torre Saracena. After the siesta everybody was working until meeting again around eight on the piazza to look at the evening ferry from Naples make the harbor. Later during dinner one would usually sit at the terrace of Café Morgana in the warm starry sky night of the South, drinking coffee or wine.

This is where I wrote a collection of Italian novels during the summer. I called it ”Seducers” (Förförare) and I had already had a few ideas in Rome. The rest I picked up at Capri, for that was an island where strange things always took place.

When the book was finished I stayed a few weeks in Venice but my real goal, which I had aimed for all summer, was Sardinia.

Last night I dreamt

that somebody had posted a comment on my blog.

Letters

Today, having a boring cold, I am reading exciting copies of letters from the futurist Italo Tavolato to Ulla Bjerne. The copies were sent here from (thank you!) Åbo Akademi (the Swedish language university in Turku in Finland).

They were written either in Anacapri (!) or in Positano, between 1920 and 1923. One is from 1948.

This is a lot of fun. From what I've understood Tavolato was ”openly gay” but he seems to have wanted to marry Ulla and have her move to Capri. Maybe he saw the possibility of a marriage of convenience.

When you have a cold, should you really read exciting letters? I fear it won't help the recovery.