Villa San Michele is the life’s work at Capri of the Swedish physician and author Axel Munthe (1857–1949). It is surrounded by an impressive garden, which recently won the price as Italy’s most beautiful private park. Behind it is the Barbarossa mountain, that Axel Munthe turned into a sanctuary for migratory birds.

Axel Munthe recounts the story of his life and the creation of the villa in The Story of San Michele (1929). It became one of the first international bestsellers in modern time.

The tale that then captivated countless readers all over the world, lives on in Villa San Michele, in its rooms and garden and in the Egyptian sphinx, that silently watches the sea from its balustrade.