In the 1930s, the streets of Capri were still deserted. The rationalist-style villa of writer Curzio Malaparte, which he designed himself, was still being built. During these years, characters like the industrialist Friedrich Alfred Krupp stayed at the Quisisana hotel for months, drinking an aperitivo at the hotel bar at the same time every day.

At the time, Capri's vocation was mostly cultural. Writer Norman Douglas spent several years on this island, part of the region of Campania, in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Russian writer Maxim Gorky, one of the leading theorists of socialism, also lived there. In fact, Lenin visited him on the island, and he described Capri as the place you want that makes you forget everything.