capri capra

a personal writing project, disguised as a little blog dedicated to little details: the scent of musky perfume lingering on her pillow, the azure coloured sea off the Italian coast at dusk, the taste of fresh figs on toast with goat cheese and honey, the sound of high heels down the stone corridor of an old churchyard... all original content, unless states otherwise © capricapra 2018

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We all think the same things; only we do not say them.

Virginia Woolf, The Years

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Trevi fountain, Rome, in the summer of 2016

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This is what love comes down to, things that happen and what we say about them.

Don DeLillo, The Names

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Claudia Cardinale in Frederico Fellini’s 8 1/2 (1963)

Imagine an early weekday evening in a month of detachment and broken dreams. You feel everything except the desire to stay home, so you dress up, hesitantly, in a Japanese crepe dress and your second-most expensive faux fur shawl. Later that night as you walk by the river, the sound of your heels on the uneven stone causes couples eating spaghetti on street-side patios to glance at you in awe from afar. The men are enamoured by the sultriness of your eyes, rimmed in thick eyeliner offset by long lashes, while the women are envious of how your perfectly coiffed hair shimmers golden under the streetlamp. You don’t notice. You’re on your way home from the cinema, where you watched Fellini’s 8 1/2, and you’re entirely consumed by a fantasy of past love affairs. 

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She did not want to move, or to speak. She wanted to rest, to lean, to dream.

Virginia Woolf, The Years 

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Tocca perfume – available from anthropologie, sephora, or tocca itself. Each of these four fragrances conjure memories of European summers, where you can catch whiffs of fresh flowers from a nearby garden as you stand in the lawn in your most proper party dress, waiting for your date to take your arm. For the girl whose prior engagements include afternoon tea and daydreams, Florence (Italian bergamot, ivory gardenia, and blonde wood) is a sophisticated yet subtle partner. For the bolder, there is Stella (bitter orange, white freesia, and sheer musk) for those with a youthful sensuality and curiosity de vie, while Cleopatra (grapefruit, white jasmine, and patchouli) is perfect for those whose nightly escapades include enticing, or rather enchanting, their desired object. Finally, for the ultimate Mediterranean love story, there is Giulietta (bulgarian rose, lily of the valley, cedarwood) to patiently accompany your reminiscing of past loves.  photo-credit: tocca

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You're dreaming, girl, lost in a moving dream.

Elektra, translated by Anne Carson

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Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday (1953)

A classic “Hollywood on the Tiber” film, Roman Holiday is candy for the wanderlust. Watch it on a breezy mid-August afternoon when you’re feeling peculiarly nostalgic for Rome in the 1950s, when that English-Italian pocket dictionary you bought on a whim last year would have been a necessary staple alongside a non-vintage film camera. The film’s montage of hallmark Italian images will make you wish your 3pm cappuccino is the follow-up to a vespa chase and a visit to the barber’s, while Hepburn’s dazzling display of a princess wishing for a different life, if only or a day and a night, will have you day-dreaming of a tall, dark stranger for your next holiday romance. 

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For she had lived in many places, felt many passions, and done many things.

Virginia Woolf, The Years

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Naples, Campania, Italy, in the summer of 2016.

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Still the same rough winds, the wild passion raging through the girl.

Sophocles’ Antigone, trans. Robert Fagles

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Monica Vitti in L’Avventura (1960)

Escape the summer heat by taking yourself on a date to the cinéma. Don a little black dress over lace lingerie & lacquer your eyes with liquid liner á la screen siren Monica Vitti. Think of her character Claudia in L’Avventura, a classic piece of Italian cinema and the film that brought fame to director Antonioni. As you walk there in kitten heels, embody the movements of Claudia as she walks, despondently, down the hallway of a bourgeois hotel, along the platform of the train station, or outside on the terrace of a grand Italian villa. Hide your smouldering gaze behind a pair of large, round sunglasses. If you see a man, lift them & let your sexuality boldly display through your emotions– as always with an Antonioni film, a pout is preferred. 

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So it is a lover who speaks and who says

Barthes, A Lover’s Discourse

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Calypso St. Barth eau de parfum ––  available from Anthropologie in fragrances Mimosa, Figue, and Casablanca – is the perfect vacation elixir. Mimosa (bergamot, island mimosa & jasmine petals) is a cult classic that illuminates morning freshness and pairs well with sunshine and the beach. The scent of Figue (vanilla, Mediterranean fig, and musk) provides the ideal transition from those after-siesta hours to a dusky evening drinking prosecco on a terrace. Finally, for dancing the night away (and maybe something sexier), there’s the spicy and seductive Casablanca (coconut, leather, and oak moss) to make your sweat a little sweeter. 

photo-credit: anthropologie

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It was a hot summer's night, and though it was late, the whole world seemed to be alive.

Virginia Woolf, The Years

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Monica Vitti and Alain Delon in L’Eclisse (1962)

An Italian noir film detailing the empty love affairs and ennui of a leisure-class young woman, Antonioni’s L’Eclisse is an exquisite watch for evenings of alienation in a modern apartment. Best viewed alone in an ebony slip with a glass of pinot grigio in hand, it’s slow enough to grant a pause for you to make penne pasta to eat in candlelight on your balcony, where sounds of the city remind you of the inescapable loneliness of modern life. 

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I could tell you stories of winter so cold it killed the birds in the air. Or summer heat when the sea at noon lay without a crease–

Agamemnon, trans. Anne Carson