Giro dell'Isola di Capri

The Giro dell'Isola di Capri is an open water swimming race in the sea around the island of Capri, in Campania, Italy. Held in late May, the competition features a full 15-kilometer solo circumnavigation alongside a three-leg relay covering 5 kilometers per swimmer. Organized by Antico Tiro a Volo Sport, the challenge offers a rare opportunity to experience the entire shoreline of this legendary outcrop from the water. Taking on the distance means swimming in deep open water, pacing your stroke along headlands, and reading the sea conditions as you move from one side of the island to the other. For long-distance swimmers, rounding every cape and cove reveals a changing seascape that has drawn voyagers since antiquity.

The Faraglioni and Monacone: karst pinnacles of the southern coast

Rounding the island brings swimmers toward the Faraglioni, three monumental rocky islets standing just a short distance from the shore. These dramatic stone columns owe their shapes to ancient karst waters that hollowed and carved the limestone rock down to 15 meters below the current sea level. Closest to the island rises the Faraglione di Terra, an imposing cliff 111 meters high that remains joined to the land by a slender four-meter isthmus. Just beyond it stands the Faraglione di Mezzo, famous for the natural arched tunnel that cuts clean through its core for 58 meters. The Saetta strait is an eight-meter-wide and sixty-meter-long corridor of open sea separating the middle stack from the outermost rock, the Faraglione di Fuori.

This outermost sea stack is an isolated haven and the only habitat on Earth of the blue lizard, an endemic species that lives clinging to its steep rock walls. Resting near these pinnacles is the Monacone rock, a solitary limestone reef whose name preserves the memory of the monk seals that hauled out and thrived on its ledges until 1904.

Grotta Azzurra: Emperor Tiberius's sunken marine shrine

Capri’s outer shoreline is remarkably jagged, defined by karst geology that creates a continuous rhythm of deep sea caves, secluded coves, and vertical limestone precipices. During the Roman Empire, emperors and patricians turned these concealed sea grottos beneath the cliffs into monumental nymphaea for their opulent coastal villas. The most renowned of these imperial caverns is the Grotta Azzurra, which penetrates 50 meters into the solid rock above a sandy sea floor. Reaching this inner chamber requires calm seas and low tide, as its narrow portal rises barely one meter above the surface and measures only two meters across. Inside the cavern, underwater light filters through the opening to illuminate submerged objects with an ethereal silver gleam, created by countless microbubbles clinging to surfaces and refracting the rays.

Emperor Tiberius once used the cave as a private marine temple and secluded bathing sanctuary. The sacred nature of this watery retreat was proven when three marble statues of Neptune and Triton were recovered from the sandy floor in 1964. Archaeological divers retrieved seven additional statue bases from the bottom in 2009, pointing to further imperial sculptures still resting in the deep. By the nineteenth century, accounts by visiting travelers turned the cave into a worldwide sensation and cemented Capri's place in travel lore.

Grotta Bianca and Grotta Verde: eastern stalactites and southern light

Tracing the cliffs eastward near Punta della Chiavica brings swimmers opposite the yawning mouth of the Grotta Bianca. The cave takes its name from brilliant white calcareous deposits encrusting its inner rock face and dangling stalactites that frame the cavern entrance. Its monumental gateway towers between 21 and 24 meters above the water line, exposing a sheer vertical face to anyone swimming along the headland. Both inside the cavern and along the adjacent sea cliffs, an ancient upper erosion line remains visible. In the Grotta Verde, natural daylight entering beneath the surface bounces through the water and reflects off the yellowish limestone walls and roof, filling the cavern with an unmistakable emerald green hue.

Marina Piccola and Marina Grande: from Augustus's harbor to seaside life

The history written along Capri's shoreline stretches back millennia, as the island served as the very first place in Campania where Greek mariners landed. Centuries later, in 29 BC, Emperor Augustus was so captivated when he arrived on Capri that he took control of the island from Naples, trading away the larger island of Ischia in exchange. Both Augustus and Tiberius originally developed their royal harbor on the south coast at Marina Piccola, seeking shelter beneath the looming cliffs before expanding to the northern coast. Looking out from this southern anchorage, the rocky spires of the Faraglioni stand close by just to the southeast. A weathered Corinthian capital mounted on a stone pedestal at the end of the western wharf still stands as a direct monument to Roman history.

Following the imperial era, these open shores were plagued by centuries of pirate raids and looting. After 1928, the old northern anchorage was revitalized into a modern seaside destination, welcoming visitors with wide beaches and a sheltered maritime haven. Closing the circuit around Capri brings you back along these storied shores, completing a journey through maritime history, sheer sea cliffs, and open Mediterranean waters.