Photo: Berthold Werner (CC BY-SA 3.0)
A self-guided audio tour of Anacapri, on the high western side of Capri: the centre on foot, Monte Solaro by chairlift, and Villa Damecuta, the Blue Grotto and Punta Carena by local bus, with the rides not narrated. It starts in Piazza Vittoria, where the buses from Capri stop and the chairlift starts. For centuries the only way up from the harbour was the Scala Fenicia, the Phoenician Steps; the carriage road was not built until 1874. Villa San Michele is the house the Swedish physician and author Axel Munthe made for his collection, with its loggia, its red-granite Egyptian sphinx and the medieval chapel he made part of it; on a slope of Monte Solaro stands the Castello di Barbarossa, built by the Dukes of Amalfi and named after the corsair who took it. In the centre come Casa Rossa, built between 1876 and 1899 by John Clay MacKowen as house and museum, the octagonal Baroque church of San Michele Arcangelo, the parish church of Santa Sofia, built from 1595 to 1642, and Santa Maria di Costantinopoli, the parish church until 1510. Then come Monte Solaro by the chairlift of 1952, the hermitage of Santa Maria a Cetrella, the imperial villa at Damecuta, one of the villas ancient writers credit to Tiberius, the Blue Grotto, a Roman maritime nymphaeum, and the lighthouse at Punta Carena.
15 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 63 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 17 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Piazza Vittoria and the Monte Solaro Chairlift, Villa San Michele, The Loggia and the Sphinx, Chapel of San Michele at Villa San Michele, Castello di Barbarossa, Scala Fenicia.
Casa Rossa, Chiesa di San Michele Arcangelo, Chiesa di Santa Sofia, Santa Maria di Costantinopoli, Monte Solaro.
Santa Maria a Cetrella, Villa Damecuta, The Blue Grotto, Punta Carena Lighthouse.
Axel Munthe's house and garden on the slope above the Phoenician Steps, made for his classical collection and open to sun, sea and light.
The red-granite Egyptian sphinx, about 3,200 years old, set by Munthe on a balustrade above the Bay of Naples; how it got there was his secret.
The Phoenician Steps, cut into the rock, the only route between Marina Grande and Anacapri until the road opened in the nineteenth century.
The Pompeian-red house John Clay MacKowen built between 1876 and 1899 as his residence and a museum for his collections.
The imperial Roman villa on the north-western promontory, counted among the villas ancient writers credit to Tiberius.
The sea cave on Capri's north-western slope that served in Roman times as a maritime nymphaeum of an imperial villa.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 15 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 15 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Anacapri — Villa San Michele and the Upper Island, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
15 narration points, including Piazza Vittoria and the Monte Solaro Chairlift, Villa San Michele, The Loggia and the Sphinx, Chapel of San Michele at Villa San Michele and Castello di Barbarossa. That is about 23 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~4 hours with the chairlift and bus rides total, but you walk at your own pace. 15 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.