Stray Studies from England and ItalyGreene, John Richard
History
Stray Studies from England and Italy
Greene, John Richard
Italy -- Description and travel
Its rough inns, its want of English doctors, the difficulties of
communication with the mainland from which its residents are utterly cut
off in bad weather, make Capri an unsuitable resort for invalids in
spite of a climate which if inferior to that of Catania is distinctly
superior to that of either San Remo or Mentone. Those who remember the
Riviera with no little gratitude may still shrink from the memory of its
sharp transitions of temperature, the chill shade into which one plunges
from the direct heat of its sun-rays, and the bitter cold of its winter
nights. Out of the sun indeed the air of the Riviera towards Christmas
is generally keen, and a cloudy day with an east wind sweeping along
the shore will bring back unpleasant reminiscences of the England one
has left behind. Capri is no hotter perhaps in the sunshine, but it is
distinctly warmer in the shade. The wraps and shawls which are a
necessity of health at San Remo or Mentone are far less necessary in the
South. One may live frankly in the open air in a way which would hardly
be safe elsewhere, and it is just life in the open air which is most
beneficial to invalids. It is this natural warmth which tells on the
temperature of the nights. The sudden change at sunset which is the
terror of the Riviera is far less perceptible at Capri; indeed the
average night temperature is but two degrees lower than that of the day.
The air too is singularly pure and invigorating, for the village and its
hotels stand some four or five hundred feet above the sea, and there are
some fairly level and accessible walks along the hill-sides. At San
Remo, or in the eastern bay of Mentone, one purchases shelter by living
in a teacup and the only chance of exercise lies in climbing up its
sides. But it must fairly be owned that these advantages are accompanied
by some very serious drawbacks. If Capri is fairly free from the bitter
east wind of the Riviera, the Riviera is free from the stifling
scirocco of Capri. In the autumn and in the earlier part of the winter
this is sometimes almost intolerable. The wind blows straight from
Africa, hot, dusty, and oppressive in a strange and almost indescribable
way. All the peculiar clearness of the atmosphere disappears; one sees
every feature of the landscape as one would see them through a raw
autumn day in England. The presence of fine dust in the air--the dust of
the African desert to which this effect is said to be owing--may perhaps
account for the peculiar oppressiveness of the scirocco; certain it is,
that after two days of it every nerve in the body seems set ajar.
Luckily however it only lasts for three days and dies down into rain as
the wind veers round to the west.
CAPRI AND ITS ROMAN REMAINS.
II.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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