Campania

Settled by the Greeks, Romans, Normans, Swabians, Angevins, Aragonese and the Bourbons - all of whom have left something behind in this region.   In Naples the Royal Palace of Capodimonte and Castel dell'Ovo, at Benevento the Arch of Trajan, at Caserta the 18th century Royal Palace built by Vanvitelli, at Avellino the Shrine of Montevergine and at Salerno the Cathedral.    At Paestum, get a glimpse of Greek civilization; at Herculaneum and Pompeii, come into contact with the Romans.   At Capo Palinuro recall the poetry of Homer and Virgil, for this is where Ulysses landed. 

Campania is a region for holidaymakers: the Bay of Naples, Ischia, Capri, the Amalfi Coast, with Ravello, Amalfi, Positano, Sorrento, and spa resorts: Ischia, Agnano, Castellammare di Stabia.   Typical dishes include maccheroni, clam and mussel soup, pizza and sfogliatelle pastry.   Wines: Falerno, Epomeo, Gragnano and Lacrima Christi.

Top

Province of Napoli

It is densely populated, and rotates around the spectacular gulf, that fascinates and attracts visitors from all over the world, to the city of Naples itself (the Italian proverb says "Vedi Napoli e poi muori" = see Naples then die), the home of pizza, songs, and the Neapolitan dialect and character, and to the other wonderful destinations of the Gulf. 

Naples with the Vesuvius in the background

What to see The list of art, archeological, religious and cultural sites, many of them unique in the world, and included among the Unesco World Heritage Sites, is endless: the ruins of Pompeii, the splendid islands of Capri with the towns of Capri and Anacapri Ischia with the six centers of Casamicciola Terme, Ischia, Barano, Lacco Ameno, Serrara Fontana and Forio and Procida.

The artistic tradition of the three islands of Gulf of Naples (Capri, Ischia, Procida)has very deep roots, dating-back to millenniums before Christ's birth, and it can satisfy art keens of every period, from the middle ages era, to contemporary art, as well as applied arts. The territory offers the possibility to admire different artistic expressions, such as for example: Roman villas, churches of every epoch, museums, paintings, reliquary busts, altars, and everything that was located in a certain church or building, from ten, one hundred, or one thousand years now, has become the keeper of traditions, secrets and legends characterising all populations. 

This is a tour leading through the city halls of the neapolitan islands, searching for an artistic - historical patrimony wich conceals hidden secrets.

Top

Naples

Naples (Italian Napoli) is the largest town in southern Italy, capital of the Campania region.   The city has a population of about 1 million, and together with its suburbs, the metropolitan area has 3 million inhabitants.   It is located just halfway between the Vesuvius volcano and another volcanic area, the Campi Flegrei.    It is rich in historical, artistic and cultural traditions and food. The Neapolitan dialect is by its own right a language, which was used in some of the most celebrated Italian songs. 

The chair lift operated from 1953 to 1984.   Many Neapolitan songs are also famous outside of Italy, as for example "'O Sole Mio", "Santa Lucia" and "Torna a Surriento".   Traditionally the home of pizza, Napoli is also famous for its excellent pasta dishes, and Neopolitans also claim that the best espresso coffee in the world is made in their town thanks to special kind of Neapolitan air and water. 
 

Naples has an important port that connects to Cagliari, Genoa and Palermo, and good ferry connections to nearby islands (Capri, Ischia) and Sorrento, and fast rail connections to Rome and the south.    Naples has seen many of its children spread out through the world, setting up their own 'Little Italy' in many countries.  The majority of these Neapolitans who left Italy went to the Americas, especially the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Argentina.

What to see:

•  Galleria Umberto I  (1887-1890)
Above has a splendid iron and glass covering 57 meters high, and below an elegant inlaid marble floor.  There are shops, cafès and bookstores inside besides the Santa Brigida Church, which makes up part of the complex,  has a beautiful fresco called Heaven, by Luca Giordano, in its dome.

• Castel dell’Ovo
Castel Nuovo, named so as to distinguish it from the older royal residences - Castel dell’Ovo and Castel Capuano) is also known as Maschio Angioino.   The name of Castel dell’Ovo (Castle of the Egg) derives from a legend tied to the poet Virgil, to whom the medieval Neapolitans attributed magical powers.   One of the wizard’s talismans was said to be hidden in the castle: an egg preserved in a jug, locked in an iron cage, therefore, the castle would never crumble as long as the egg remained intact. 

The profile of the coast is dominated by the massive tuff wall of the Castel dell’Ovo, the oldest of the city, that sits on the little islet of Megaris facing the famous Santa Lucia quarter. Now connected to land by a small bridge, the island was chosen by the roman patrician Licinius Lucullus as site for his new villa.  The impressive fortress, on which work was begun in 1279 by Charles I of Anjou but subsequently modified by the Aragonese, has a trapezoid base and is surrounded by a moat where the foundations of the five cylindrical towers stand.

It was transformed into a convent by the Saint Basil monks in about 492 AD. Under the Normans in the 12th century it became a fortress.  The Hall of the Columns, so called because it re-used the powerful columns of the original villa.   From the cannon terrace, on the high part of the castle, you can enjoy a marvellous view of the gulf.  Under the walls of the castle is Borgo Marinari, constructed in the 1800’s, it was originally meant to house fishermen, their boats and their families. It now houses nautical clubs, restaurants, bars and trendy night spots.

•  La Villa Comunale (formerly a royal park) stretches along the seafront in the smarter western end of the city, in the vicinity of Piazza del Plebiscito. They extend for over a kilometre along Via Caracciolo and the Gulf of Naples.   It contains an aquarium which is possibly Europe's oldest and is favoured by the locals for family walks on Sunday mornings. The Villa Comunale is the most prominent and visible park in the city of Naples. It stands on reclaimed land, for, as early prints show, the sea once came right up to a rather swampy area, the site mostly of fishermen's houses. It wasn't until the 16th century, the beginning of the Spanish viceroyship, that a general campaign was undertaken to make the land suitable for the construction of the fashionable villas that sprang up in the 1600s along that section of the sea front.

The Villa was the result of the wishes of King Ferdinand IV, who, in 1788, decided he wanted a large wooded area along the sea for members of the royal family to stroll in. The park, thus, was open to the public only one day a year, for the Festival of Piedigrotta. They say that many marriage contracts of the day even stipulated the husband's duty to take his wife to the gardens on that day each year. The park was opened to the general public on a permanent basis in 1869 after the unification of Italy.

The seaside road, via Caracciolo, which now lies between the aquarium and the sea, is another, more recent reclamation project added to the topography of the city. Until 1900, the sea rolled up to the villa, itself, and coach traffic passed along the Riviera di Chiaia, the road now bounding the inner side of the park.

The Villa Comunale houses the Anton Dohrn Aquarium. In 1870 Anton Dohrn (1840-1909), German zoologist and disciple of Darwin, requested and got permission to build a “Zoological Station” —an aquarium— in Naples. He was given a site within the Villa Comunale and the project was begun in 1872 under Oscar Capocci and finished by the German architect Adolf von Hildebrand. Interesting artwork within the Florentine Renaissance building include murals by the German artist Hans von Mareès, who drew inspiration from characteristic fishing scenes of the Mediterranean, especially Naples and Sorrento. Since its inception, the aquarium in Naples has not only served as an exhibition of marine flora and fauna, but has also been a working research facility in marine biology.

• Palazzo Reale - Royal Palace

This palace begun construction in the early 1600’s based on a designed project by Domenico Fontana in the 17th century, and the eight statues on the façade are of Neapolitan kings.  Enriched by Joachim Murat and Carolina Bonaparte with neoclassical embellishments and decorations, some from the Tuileries, it was damaged in 1837 by fire, and restored by Gaetano Genovese. 

Located in the heart of the city, the square on which the palace stands is one of Naples's most architecturally interesting, with a long colonnade and a church, San Francesco di Paolo, that evokes the style of the Pantheon in Rome.  At the centre of the square the two great statues of Charles de Bourbon (work of Antonio Canova) and Ferdinand I on horseback face the Royal Palace.

Inside the Palazzo Reale you can visit the priceless interior, cross the courtyard and enter the Historical Living Quarters Museum (30 rooms on one floor) which has preserved the original furniture and décor; royal apartments, adorned in the baroque style with colored marble floors, paintings, tapestries, frescoes, antiques, and porcelain.   The monumental staircase of coloured marble inlay and the Small Court Theatre, a ballroom transformed in 1768 by Fernando Fuga into a gracious Rococo ambience, are beautiful.

Charles de Bourbon, son of Philip IV of Spain, became king of Naples in 1734.  A great patron of the arts, in another part of the palace, he installed a library (National Library),  one of the finest in the south, with more than 1,250,000 volumes, several priceless medieval codices and the famous papyrus of Erocolano are preserved here as well.

•  The Museo Archeologico Nazionale (National Archaeological Museum) contains a large collection of Roman artifacts from Pompei and Ercolano as well as the Farnese Marbles, some of the greatest surviving Roman statues. 

The most important and largest museum of classical archaeology in the world.  Relics from the city and from the villas buried under the ashes of Vesuvio in 79 BC mosaics, paintings, jewellery and objects recovered from the buried vesuvian homes.   A collection unmatched peer in the world that attracts, needless to say, millions of visitors.  Charles of Bourbon put the largest art collection in Italy, the Farnese collection inherited by his mother Elisabeth, into this building (the old “Study Palace” or university).

Another highlight is the classical sculpture collection, some roman copies of Greek originals, amongst which the celebrated Farnese sculptures (the Bull, the Hercules and dozens of others). The cameo and cut gem collection, which includes the extraordinary Farnese Cup, is also very rich.   The vast epigraph collection includes over 2,000 pieces representing all of the languages once spoken in Campania (from Greek to Oscan, Etruscan to Latin). The Egyptian collection is only second in importance in Italy to that of Turin. There is a section dedicated to the Papyrus Villa, the famous roman house in Ercolano that brought to light so many relics, amongst which the celebrated statues in bronze and marble. The Secret Cabinet is a part of the museum that houses a 19^th century collection of Greek and Roman objects considered “obscene” at the times, reserved only for authorized visitors. It includes now sculptures, frescoes, mosaics, amulets, oil-lamps and graffiti with erotic themes from the digs at Pompei.

•  Teatro di San Carlo

It is,the oldest active opera house in Europe, which opened its doors on November 4, 1737.   It was named after its patron Charles of Bourbon,  The building, partially destroyed by fire in 1816, was restored by Antonio Niccolini, the designer of its façade. In the early 1800’s the San Carlo Theatre lived through one of its most glorious seasons ever thanks to the impresario Domenico Barbaja who commissioned works by musicians such as Gioachino Rossini and Gaetano Donizetti.

•  The Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte contains art collections including work by Michelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli and Caravaggio.      The name derives from the late latin “Caput de Monte” (top of the mount) and clearly indicates its position: a hill on the highest part of the City.  Here rises the Royal Palace of Capodimonte, surrounded by a vast park.  Charles of Bourbon, a dedicated hunter, wanted to construct a hunting lodge here.  After having done so, he had it enlarged to house the precious Farnese collections. The building, designed by Antonio Medrano, was finished only in 1839. Located in the immense park are the hunting lodge of Vittorio Emanuele II, a small lodge known as “of the Queen”, the Chapel of San Gennaro, the building of the old 1737 porcelain factory of Charles of Bourbon, the hermitage of the Cappuccini monks and the Fagianeria (pheasant breeding facility).

Today, the Royal Palace is home to the National Museum of Capodimonte, one of the most important in the world for painting and the decorative arts. The main nucleus of the Museum is the Farnese Collection, started by Pope Paul III and inherited by Charles’ mother Elisabeth Farnese.  The picture gallery has more than 200 masterpieces: Masaccio, Botticelli, Raphael, Ribera, Titian, Mantegna, Correggio, El Greco, Lorenzo Lotto, Parmigianino, Carracci, and Brueghel. 

There are also two preparative drawings by Raphael for the ‘Segnatura Room’, and by Michelangelo for the Pauline Chapel in the Vatican.  Also exceptional is the gallery of 13^th-19^th century Neapolitan painting: the Saint Ludovico of Tolosa by Simone Martini, the evocative Flagellation by Caravaggio, and again the works of Ribera, Luca Giordano, and Francesco Solimena.  The section dedicated to the 1800’s is rich with the School of Posillipo painters, from Anton Smick Pitloo to Giacinto Gigante, and the masters of Naturalism, like the Palizzis.

The many artists of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s – from Domenico Morelli to Vincenzo Migliaro – complete the artistic panorama. The contemporary section is also renewed by the presence of artists such as Alberto Burri, Andy Warhol, Carlo Alfano and Mimmo Paladino. The Museum holds other surprises: the Historic Apartment, with the porcelain sitting room of Queen Maria Amalia, for example. The collection of decorative arts is one of the richest in all of Italy with unique works like the precious Farnese Box and the wall tapestries of d’Avalos, and the exceptional porcelain works like the Aurora Cart by Filippo Tagliolini.  

•   Under Naples Guided tours operate around the Stratification of Naples which shows the city through the layers laid down across history.   Subterranean Naples consists of old Greco-Roman resevoirs dug out from the soft tufo stone on which, and from which, the city is built.   You can visit approximately one kilometer of the many kilometers of tunnels under the city.  There are also large catacombs in and around the city. 

•  The Duomo, the cathedral of Naples, is dedicated to San Gennaro, Saint Januarius, the patron saint of the city.   It was built at the end of the 13^th century at the decree of Charles I of Angiò near the basilica of Santa Restituta, a 6^th century church that was incorporated into the Gothic architecture of the later cathedral, itself.   The cathedral has been restored numerous times over the centuries.    It was redone after the earthquake of 1788 and again in 1887.   Its marble portals, however, are original. 

•  The island of Procida, Capri and Ischia can all be reached quickly by ferry. 

•  The Roman ruins of Pompei and Ercolano (destroyed in the A.D. 79 eruption of Vesuvio). 

•  Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast south of Naples

Top

Ischia, the 'green' island

The most beautiful and biggest island in the Gulf of Naples, Ischia is one of the most famous seaside and touristic spa centres of Italy and the world.  The ancients called it Pitecusae-Aenaria-Inarima-Arime-Iscla.
 

Today, the island of Ischia is a well-known tourist centre for four main reasons:

1) for its unequalled natural beauty,

2) for its all-year-round mild climate,

3) for its thermal water, and

4) for its modern tourist facilities and hotels.

The island does not have at all that typical appearance of a large arid rock in the middle of the sea.  Rather, it rises from the water like a vision -  decorated with a large variety of green plant life, the pine trees and the myriads of multi-coloured flowers - make Ischia one of the most beautiful islands of the country and of the world. 

Even the peaks of the smallest rocks along the coastline are covered in rich vegetation.  Ischia's 'greenness' can even be found in the stones - for example, the famous 'green tufa' found in the Forio area, whose stones make up the beautiful and unique 'parracine' (dry stone walls) which punctuate the vineyards' thick green expanses.

 

Chiesa del Soccorso a Forio - Island of Ischia		Lacco Ameno's symbol -  mushroom shaped rock

However, the greenery does not hide the natural beauty of the lay of the land.   Ischia has a very varied landscape, including mountains, isolated hills, majestic promontories, slopes, plains, and brows of hills, all of which can easily be seen from the magnificent terrace of the soccorso in Forio from which the incredible beauty of Mount Epomeo can be enjoyed.  Also notice the clear blue sea and the clean waters which still today surrounds the beautiful island of Ischia!

The chalk white of the island houses which gives the scene the magic touch of man's presence can be glimpsed among the limpid green of the vineyards, the bluish green of the olive groves and the dark green of the orange and lemon groves.

Aragonese Castle		Aragonese Castle - Museum

The Aragonese Castle stands on a volcanic rock connected to the island by a bridge first built in 1438 by Alfonso of Aragon.   Gerone of Siracusa constructed the first castle on this site - a simple tower - in 474 BC.   The Castle was completed in 1492 and the surrounding grounds can be toured for the cost of a small sum (10 euro 2007), once paid your entrance fee, you will receive a map and a brochure.   You can eat lunch at a little cafe inside. The panoramic views of the Bay of Naples are breathtaking.   

Suggestion time: 2 - 3 hours to enjoy your self-guided tour of the castle.   If you choose, you can even stay in one of the available rooms instead of a hotel.