History of Fontelina

"Since 1949, bread, sea and love opposite the Faraglioni"

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. Ships loaded with supplies dropped anchor at the foot of the Faraglioni.

  • 2000 years ago the ships bringing supplies to Tiberius's villas dropped anchor here
  • In 1600 the women of Capri came here to macerate flax
  • In 1949 Fontelina was born

In 1949, Lucia Fiorentino and Peppino Arcucci, throwing caution to the winds, constructed a little wooden hut on the beach and opened a restaurant here. Time and again, stormy seas destroyed the restaurant, and yet each time the couple, together with Pasquale and Antionio Gargiulo, who in the meantime had joined the team, rebuilt it.


In the 1960's, the International Jet Set discovered Capri and it was in this period that Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren, Clark Gable and numerous other stars of the silver screen visited the Fontelina.


In 1987, after a particularly violent sea storm, the business passed into the hands of Antonio Arcucci and Gaetano and Mario Gargiulo who, once again, decided to start all over again. The same owners now greet customers old and new, famous and unknown, with the same warm smile.

Fontelina has become a successful business, employing dozens of people. On the terrace, shaded by a pergola made of chestnut wood and straw mats, where once ten people might have eaten, now as many as a hundred customers dine at any one time.
Other than this, little has changed. The atmosphere of the place, created by the generations who have invested their lives and livelihood here, is still the same. An ambience which goes beyond that created by the sky, the sea and spaghetti con le vongole.