And Franco Zeffirelli and Gore Vidal, latest in generations of artists, writers and tycoons, have villas in the mountains above Amalfi. It is here that Italian Cookery Weeks has opened its new school. Tiberius retired to Capri from AD27-37, leaving the empire rudderless behind him. The Swedish doctor Axel Munthe came here to write his masterpiece, The Story of San Michele, in 1929. CAMPANIA FELIX is the name the Romans gave it. The stretch of coast to the south of Naples has always drawn those wealthy enough to pursue pleasure with serious dedication The Romans built large villas here. Because there’s something about the way I see Neneh, and I think probably in the way she sees me, where we remain 16 and 17 In essence she’s still a mad 16-year-old.

And every now and again we remember that we’re really old bags! We get really quite confused by it. How did that happen? Damn.! Neneh Cherry and Andrea Oliver feature in ‘Crazy, Sexy, Cool’ on Channel 4 tomorrow night at 11pmPHOTOGRAPH BY STEVE ORINO. It only takes her 20 minutes.)I can remember looking into her eyes throughout her wedding day, just incredulous that we were these grown-ups and she was getting married again. She just nursed me through it until it was safe for her to let her own pain out.Over the years, she’s not changed essentially. She’s much better at loving herself now which I’m really happy about, because I want her to love herself – in case I’m not about. Someone’s got to do it! The things that have changed are marriages, boyfriends .. she is quite grown-up these days She’s just bought a new house and a proper big fridge She’s got married and had 25 children (I tell her often she’s the Swedish farm girl She just pops ‘em out.

It’s just the time that we’ve had together that makes us cry. We have brought each other through some hell and some glory; some absolutely beautiful, joyful moments and some really painful times.Neneh and my brother Sean loved each other enormously, and when he died nine years ago, Neneh didn’t express the way she felt about it in front of me for a good couple of years, until she felt I could take it I didn’t even realise that until afterwards. We’ll get drunk or whatever and we’ll sit up until three in the morning and at about a quarter to three we’ll start to weep. If I hadn’t met her I think I’d be more scared of being me.Every single time I see Neneh on stage I just cry I just get so proud it makes me sick. And when you see somebody you love displaying their magic, it’s a beautiful thing.Neneh makes me cry through happiness a lot.

When she stands up onstage and sings, it’s a moment of real beauty, her own special, individual beauty. Neneh was the first person to go, “Yeah!” And she ran around with me with the same energy, the same gusto. That’s a wonderful validation and affirmation of the way you instinctively feel. We both eat up life, every moment of it, and it’s a really wonderful thing to find someone who can eat up life at the same pace as you.Neneh taught me how to be free as a person.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always wanted to run around for seven hours going, “Yaaah!” Everyone would tell me I was making too much noise and to shut up. She lived in southern Sweden and went to school with a bunch of strange rednecky types and I was the only black kid at my school in Suffolk We’ve reacted to life in very similar ways, I think. ” And I’d say, “New Zealand, yeah.” We were just giggling on the radio for half an hour.I think we’re hewn from the same rock We were both little punk teenagers. Neneh used to visit him every single day in hospital, take him food and read to him out of this amazing African history book called My People, which Don used to have.