Itinerario consigliato
Mattina: Pozzuoli, visita all’Anfiteatro flavio e alla Solfatara.
Pranzo: Pozzuoli, a sacco nelle aree della Solfatara.
Pomeriggio: Cuma visita all’acropoli, all’antro della sibilla, alla zona del foro.
“The most astonishing landscape in the world… ruins of unimaginable luxury, seething waters, caves exhaling sulphur fumes, slag hills forbidding all living growth…luxuriant vegetation, taking root wherever it can…thus one is tossed about between the acts of nature and the acts of men”. (J .W. Goethe)
The area Northwest of Naples is very large and includes the cities of Pozzuoli, Baiae, Miseno, Bacoli, and Cumae overlooking the Gulf of Pozzuoli. This is a vast area, of huge archaeological and natural value where you can almost breathe in history, legends, myth and mystery. Its charm, depicted by the greatest poets, is tremendously strong. Retracing the Greek’s routes in Italy, we can nearly hear Virgil and see Aeneas who, after visiting the Cumaen Sibyl, entered the Ade – lake Avernus (the mythological entrance to Hell) – to meet his father. And then Miseno, his dear bugler, who died there and, according to legend, is still buried under that small promontory. Today the soil is burning a lot less than three thousand years ago, when the Greeks, amazed by the volcanic activity, decided to set the stories of Prometheus’ and Volcano’s kingdoms there. This area saw Hercules and Daedalus who, in the aftermath of the tragic event, erected a temple dedicated to Apollo on the acropolis of Cumae, the land of Homer and Virgil, Cicero, and Seneca. The volcanic nature of the Phlegraean Fields’ soil, and all its geological events which are still happening today – such as Solfatara and bradyseism –, fed the imagination of its ancient inhabitants and instilled fear, making the area sacred and legendary. The Romans reserved that area for their otia (spare time), where they built sumptuous villas. Belvedere points offer a view of all the wonderful landscapes and marines surrounded by archaeological finds, some of them visible and some other hidden underground. The Baiae Castle, built by the then ruling Aragonese dynasty, stands out against the surrounding area. It used to be a military prison, but nowadays it houses the new museum of the Phlegrean Fields. The whole area is covered with vineyards, so that its history, myth and archaeology can be enjoyed over a glass of wine.