The island of Capri has been a resort destination since the days of the Roman Empire. Its most famous scenic attraction is the Blue Grotto.
Harmony in Blue and Green: The Peacock Room was an art installation by James Whistler (known for the portrait of his mother) in which he created an entire decorative room in peacock blue. The design infuriated the owner of the house who commissioned it, though Whistler said, in typical immodesty, “Ah, I have made you famous. My work will live when you are forgotten. Still, per chance, in the dim ages to come you will be remembered as the proprietor of the Peacock Room.” It has now been moved to the Freer Gallery of Art (part of the Smithsonian) in Washington, DC.
The favorite possession of Whistler’s friend Oscar Wilde (who wrote an essay about and poems to the Peacock Room and gave lectures about on his 1882American tour) was his blue porcelain collection, of which he said “I am finding it harder and harder everyday to live up to my blue china”.
One of Oscar Wilde’s best-known (if apocryphal) quips was from when he came to the United States on a lecture tour. Asked by a Customs official if he had anything to declare, he said, “Only my genius!”
When Groucho Marx was returning to the US, he told the story that he handed in his form for customs with the occupation listed as “smuggler” and when asked “Do you have anything to declare?”, he wrote “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
Marx said later that didn’t recommend anyone follow his example.
Harpo Marx’s original name was Adolph Marx , but he later changed it to Arthur. He was Jewish.
There was an American Roman Catholic bishop named Adolph Marx
Between the death of one Roman Catholic Pope and the election of another by a conclave of the College of Cardinals, also known as the sede vacante (empty seat), the Vatican’s day-to-day affairs are run by the Cardinal Camerlengo (chamberlain of the Vatican household). Just two such men have themselves been elected Pope, Leo XIII in 1878 and Pius XII in 1939.
Former NFL offensive lineman Conrad Dobler, chosen in 1975 by Sports Illustrated as “Pro Football’s Dirtiest Player”, still managed an apotheosis as the result of a St. Louis-New Orleans trade after the 1977 season, when he was promoted from Cardinal to Saint. 
New York’s Yankee stadium has its “Monument Park” to honor great former Yankees. Four of those honored never played for the Yankees – though three of them are all former Cardinals.
Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul II, and Pope Benedict XVI, all of whom held mass in Yankee stadium.
Two of the Yankees honored in Monument Park, Miller Huggins and Roger Maris, also played for the St. Louis Cardinals. A third, Yogi Berra, was born in St. Louis and tried out for the Cardinals, but was rejected in favor of his neighbor and friend, Joe Garagiola.
Benedict XVI served as Cardinal of Ostia before being elected Pope. He was born in 1927 in Marktl, Bavaria, Germany. He was (involuntarily, he says) a Hitler Youth member and Luftwaffe flak assistant during World War II, deserting in the last days of the war and serving several months in an Allied POW camp.
While ABBA is thought of as a Swedish group, member Anni-Frid Lyngstad is actually the child of a 19 year old Norwegian mother and a married German Nazi soldier. Her father was transfered soon after she was conceived, her mother died when she was two, and her maternal grandmother decided to emigrant to Sweden to avoid raising Frida with the stigma of being a German war baby.
The word “Nazi” is taken from the German pronunciation of NSDAP, the German National Socialist Workers’ Party. The party legally existed from 1919 to 1945.
When Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark (not yet Duke of Edinburgh and essentially penniless high nobility at the time) married Princess Elizabeth of England two years after WW2 several of his relatives were not invited to the wedding due to their ties to the Nazi party, most famously his sister Sophie whose first husband, Prince Philip of Hesse, had been a Nazi party member and high ranking assistant, consecutively, to both Göring and Himmler.
Frida trivia pt. 2: Frida’s third marriage was to the German Prince Heinrich Ruzzo Reuss of Plauen, making her formal name Her Serene Highness Princess Anni-Frid Synni Reuss, Countess of Plauen. When her husband died, she inherited his vast fortune and is now the richest former member of ABBA.
The former movie star Grace Kelly’s honorific as Princess of Monaco was also “Her Serene Highness.” She predeceased her husband, Rainier III, and their son Albert II is now the ruling Prince of Monaco.
A 1974 Dodge Monaco is the vehicle Elwood Blues drives for much of the film The Blues Brothers. Other Monacos serve as Illinois State Trooper and Chicago Police cars in the movie.
The Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix, first held in 1929, is raced entirely on streets that extend over most of the principality. Each of its racing-unique curves and its tunnel are named for local features, including the Casino curve, the Station downhill hairpin, La Rascasse (a restaurant) curve, Piscine (around a swimming pool), and Tabac (a curve which used to feature a tobacco billboard).
Claudia Schiffer, Placido Domingo, Ringo Starr & Barbara Bach, and Boris Becker are a few famous official residents of Monaco (meaning all own a home there and declare it as their nation of citizenship) and in all cases it is for tax purposes.
Barbara Bach’s sister Marjorie is married to Joe Walsh of Life’s Been Good and Rocky Mountain Way fame.