About
Nestled amidst the coastal elegance, plush loungers beckon, offering a haven of comfort against the backdrop of the azure waters.
Fontelina is the only beach club where you can laze on a sun lounger opposite the Faraglioni, before taking a dip in the brilliant blue Mediterranean Sea.
The name Fontelina comes from "le fonti del lino". It was here that the women of Capri used to come to macerate flax leaves in the natural pools which formed at the bottom of the cliffs. For centuries the thread used in clothing and fishing nets was made here. The white cliff opposite the Faraglioni was known by everybody as the "E font d'o lino' which over time became the 'Fontelina'.
Two thousand years ago, Tiberius and Augustus fell in love with this side of the island and had a number of palatial villas and water cisterns constructed here. In 1949, Lucia Fiorentino and Peppino Arcucci took a risk and built a small wooden hut on the beach, where they opened a restaurant. Stormy seas repeatedly destroyed the restaurant, but the couple, along with Pasquale and Antionio Gargiulo, who had joined the team in the interim, rebuilt it each time.
The International Jet Set discovered Capri in the 1960s, and Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren, Clark Gable, and many other film stars visited the Fontelina during this time. Following a particularly violent sea storm in 1987, the business was taken over by Antonio Arcucci, Gaetano, and Mario Gargiulo, who decided to start over.
Fontelina has grown into a successful business with dozens of employees. On the terrace, shaded by a pergola of chestnut wood and straw mats, where once ten people might have eaten, up to a hundred people dine at once.
Aside from this, little has changed. The atmosphere of the place, shaped by generations who have invested their lives and livelihoods here, remains unchanged. An atmosphere that transcends that created by the sky, the sea, and spaghetti con le vongole.
