THE LUXURIUS VILLA OF SAN MARCO

The beautiful city of Castellammare is located on the Bay of Naples, on the route to Sorrento. The modern town lies next to the ancient Roman city of Stabiae, destroyed by the Vesuvius eruption in 79 A.D....

FORCELLA: THE BLACK LEGEND OF S. ARCANGELO IN BAIANO

Behind Corso Umberto, in the historic district of Forcella, hides the memory of a scandal that shocked Naples during the Viceroy period, a majestic place of which today remains only a structure suffocated by degradation and surrounded by modern buildings...

PARTHENOPE, THE LOST TOMB

Where is the tomb of Parthenope, the mermaid? Who was this mythological figure?The city of Naples was founded ad the end of the IX century B.C. by Greek settlers from Rhodes, who landed on the islet of Megaride and settled on the promontory of the mount Echia where they imported their cults and their beliefs, starting right from that of Partenope who gave the name to the first settlement...

NAPLES, THE VIRGIL’S MAGIC HORSE

The legend of the Virgil’s magic horse has its roots in the mysterious medieval Naples, a place steeped in traditions and superstitions. It is said that the Latin poet, having become a magician, protected the city of Naples from pestilence and sickness even before San Gennaro. One day Virgil carved a bronze horse that had the power to heal sick horses if they made three turns around the statue...

POMPEII, THE SUBURBAN BATHS

The Suburan Baths of Pompeii, dated back to the I century A.D., were used by Roman traders at their arrival to the port. The majestic thermal complex develops on two levels: at the ground floor there are several rooms accessible from the dressing room, such as the frigidarium, the cold pool decorated with a waterfall in the background, creating a great scenographic effect...

ANTIQUARIUM OF POMPEII, AN EXHIBITION ABOUT THE STOLEN ARTIFACTS

Stones, mosaics, frescoes, amphoras, artifacts of all kinds have been stolen over the years from Pompeii, with the intent to bring home a souvenir, to be then hit by the Pompeian curse. For at least thirty years anonymous parcels have been arriving at the Superintendence accompanied by letters of apology in which the disasters that struck the person responsible for the theft and his family are listed...

POMPEII, THE HOUSE OF THE VETTII

After 8 years of work, the atrium of one of the most sumptuous Roman houses can be visited again. Various were the restoration works carried out there, starting from the realization of a roofing system that ensures adequate protection to the decorative scheme, made of frescoes and mosaics of valuable workmanship...

LUCULLUS, MEGARIDE AND THE MAGIC EGG

The most famous villa in the gulf of Naples is the one of Lucullus, former lieutenant of Silla who decided to retire from public life to engage to the “otium” in his luxurious Neapolitan residence. He chose the islet of Megaride to build a palace on the sea, embracing the territory of the ancient Palepolis up to the promontory of Pizzofalcone. His villa passed to history as Castrum Lucullanum, an immense property where objects of art were collected, with a precious library and sumptuous gardens with tanks for the breeding of moray eels...

A CT SCAN REVEALS POMPEIAN HABITS

The Pompeians of 2000 years ago had no caries, but suffered from osteoporosis. This is revealed by the CT scan, an examination that allows you to visualize on a 3D screen the inside of the human body thanks to special radiation. The plaster casts of the Pompeian victims were made in the 19th century by the archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli, who had the ingenious intuition of pouring liquid plaster into the cavities left by the decomposition of the bodies under the ashes of the eruption of Vesuvius that buried the entire city of Pompeii in 79 AD.