Phoenician Steps

“We reached at last the top of the seven-hundred and seventy-seven steps and passed through a vaulted gate with the huge iron hinges of its former drawbridge still fastened to the rock. We were in Anacapri.

Just over our heads riveted to the steep rock like an eagle’s nest, stood a little ruined chapel. Its vaulted roof had fallen in, but huge blocks of masonry shaped into an unknown pattern of symmetrical network, still supported its crumbling walls.

— What is the name of the little chapel? I asked eagerly.
— San Michele.”

Axel Munthe, The Story of San Michele, chapter 1

The history of Villa San Michele is connected to the Phoenician Steps, a path that leads directly to the Villa's doorstep from the port of Capri. The Greeks created this path between the seventh and sixth centuries BC, and for a long time, it was the only way to reach Anacapri. The staircase also became a symbolic journey for Axel Munthe. As he walked up the Phoenician Steps toward what would become Villa San Michele, he began to envision his dream home by transforming the ruins of the old chapel.

Today, the Phoenician Steps consist of over nine hundred steps. It climbs about 350 meters and is considered one of the most beautiful landscape routes on the island.