3 Best Sights in Capri, Ischia, and Procida, Italy

Lacco Ameno's archaeological importance—it rests below the first Greek settlement on Italian soil on the island, at Monte Vico—is amply reflected by the finds displayed in Ischia's top museum. The museum occupies much of the Villa Arbusto, built by Carlo d'Aquaviva in 1785 on top of a Bronze Age settlement. Inaugurated in 1999, with the directors of both the British Museum and the Louvre in attendance, its eight rooms house a wide range of Greek pottery unearthed at the ancient necropolis site near the Baia di San Montano, much of it dating to the earliest years of the Greek colony (late 8th century BC), including Nestor's Cup, the oldest known kotyle vase in existence. There is also a room dedicated to internationally renowned filmmaker Angelo Rizzoli, who once lived in the villa, as well as a section devoted to dolphins. Villa Arbusto combines musical serate, or evening soirées, in summer months with visits to the antiquities museum.

Former mayor of Capri Town, designer of the island's most ravishing turn-of-the-20th-century villas, author of delightfully arcane books, and even paleontologist par excellence, Edwin Cerio was Capri's leading genius and eccentric. His most notorious work was a Capri guidebook that all but urged tourists to stay away. His most beautiful work was the Villa Solitaria—once home to famed novelist Compton Mackenzie and set over the sea on the Via Pizzo Lungo path. He also set up this small but interesting museum, which conserves finds from the island. Room 1 displays Pleistocene fossils of pygmy elephant, rhino, and hippopotamus, which all grazed here 200,000–300,000 years ago, when the climate and terrain were very different. Although much of the island's important archaeological finds have been shipped off to Naples, Room 4 displays a scantily labeled collection of vases, mosaics, and stuccowork from the Greek and Roman periods. The terrace gives unrivaled views of the piazzetta and the bay, and was where Clark Gable took breakfast in Vittorio De Sica's 1960 film It Started In Naples.

Housed in the Palazzo dell'Orologio, the town's Museo del Mare Ischia is dedicated to the daily life of fishermen. Ship models, archaeological finds, nautical instruments, and the stray modern art show make up the small holdings.