Best Waterfront Makeover: Capri's Il Riccio

What's new on Capri? Usually the answer is "not much," so when something does change on this southern Italian island, it's bound to draw attention -- maybe even a crowd.

Accordingly, last summer all eyes were on the major renovation and new ownership of one of Capri's most beloved restaurants: Add'o Riccio. Located high up in Anacapri, above the Blue Grotto, it was a happy hangout in the 1960s for people like Jackie Kennedy and other cognoscenti. Not only could you eat there, you could also sunbathe and swim (this is still the case). But truth be told, the place was beginning to look un po' triste -- a little sad. Enter Tonino Cacace, owner of the five-star Capri Palace Hotel & Spa, who wanted, he says, "to create a restaurant that would interpret the traditional Mediterranean ambience of the '50s and '60s." Hence, the use of wood painted what Cacace calls "Mykonos blue" for the tables and chairs, the rustic roof and the mosaic tiles so emblematic of Capri. The decor of the kitchen and the dessert room, both visible to diners, gives them the sensation of entering a Neapolitan house of the 19th century, "where one's grandparents might have lived."

Although currently closed for the winter season, Il Riccio, as the restaurant is now known, will reopen April 1. Whoops, I nearly forgot to mention one of its major attractions: the food is simply -- in every sense -- delicious. 4/6 Via Gradola; 011-39-081-837-1380.