The Garibaldi Compendium
If you want to visit Caprera island, you should overcome the Moneta Quarter and reach the Moneta Passage, a panoramic bridge that connects the two islands. It is possible to arrive at Caprera island running across the suggestive pinewood that takes directly to the Garibaldi Compendium, with Giuseppe Garibaldi’s white house. In fact, the Hero of the Two Worlds decided to settle in Caprera in 1856, after purchasing the field where he had his house built. Nowdays, his house is one of the most visited museums in Italy.
The conducted visit begins at the stall, where there’s the steam engine, used to thresh and to plough; beside it there’s the iron house, a prefabricated small English building.
Just inside the white house, it is possible to distinguish the entrance-hall and the Hero’s double room. In front of it there’s Manlio and Clelia’s room, occupied by the Hero’s daughter until 1959, when she was 92 years old and died.
The kitchen has a water pump, a sink and an oven, whereas in the dining room it is possible to admire some Garibaldi’s showcases, shrines and other objects. Inside his study there are lots of portraits, his desk and his orthopedic wheelchair, which the Queen Margherita of Savoy gave him as a present. In addition, in front of the white house it is possible to see the Hero’s Bust and a windmill, situated in front of the museum entrance.
An amazing coast with enchanting beaches
The Caprera island is very famous for its landscape and environment, such as its natural reserve, ecologically one of the most beautiful places of the Mediterranean and an integral part of the Archipelago National Park, founded in 1996. Along a narrow path that runs across the whole island, it is possible to visit the panoramic tops of Teialone mountain and Poggio Stefano, respectively 212 and 198 metres high, made of pink granite.
A further path takes to Cala Coticcio, one of the smallest caves in the island and easily reachable by sea. Nowdays the place has been rebaptized with the well-known exotic name of Tahiti. If the beach is full of people, it is possible to keep on walking until Cala Brigantina, a very tight fiord situated below the imposing Teialone mountain.
Southwards in the island, another tight path takes to Punta Rossa, where there are the fantastic beaches of Cala Portese and Cala Andreani, in the Due Mari area, so called for the presence of a natural isthmus that separates the island from Sardinia.
On the west-side coast of Caprera, near the ex-military Stagnali suburb, there are the Caprera Reserve forest barracks, whereas southwards it is possible to admire the landscape of Porto Palma and the small island Il Porco.
Also the north-western coast of Caprera is full of interesting lonely corners. Anyway, they are reachable by sea because of the presence of an impassable path. Just in the south of Punta Galera there are Cala Napoletana and Cala Caprarese, a sandy deep inlet surrounded by granites and by a thriving bush. Beside it there are Cala Serena and the Italian Islands, near Cala Garibaldi, a particularly crowded resort for the presence of holiday villages.