Here are moments when Capri, a small, rocky island in the Gulf of Naples, seems deranged. When you first experience the clamor of the port, say, or sit in a pink convertible taxi as it tries to pass another pink convertible taxi on a road that is 8.5 inches wide. There are many more moments—eating the namesake caprese salad amid the scent of pines while overlooking a turquoise bay, for example—when it’s all so gorgeous you can’t quite believe it exists.

The best Capri moments, however, are when the insane and the beautiful, the poetic and the bratty all coincide in a total eclipse of reason. This happened to me a couple of days into my family’s stay, one sweltering mid-afternoon at La Palma Beach Club, on Marina Piccola beach.