Showing 1-8 of 8 results
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Acquedotto
Deep below Naples' royal quarter lies a series of Graeco-Roman tunnels that were once part of the city's aqueduct system. Used as air-raid shelters in WWII, the tufa-rock tunnels run below Via Chiaia.
Guided tours (in Italian) are organised by La Napoli Sotterranea, and depart from Caffè Gambrinus at the times listed above.
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Anfiteatro Flavio
The third-largest amphitheatre in Italy, the Anfiteatro Flavio could hold over 20,000 spectators and was occasionally flooded for mock naval battles. Wanted by Nero and completed by Vespasian (AD 69-79), its best-preserved remains lie under the main arena. Wander among the fallen columns and get your head around the complex mechanics involved in hoisting the caged wild beasts up to their waiting victims through the overhead 'skylights'.
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Grotta di Seiano
At the bottom of a long, steep and exhausting descent, the Grotta di Seiano is not, in fact, a cave but a 1st-century tunnel linking the Roman Villa Pausilypon to Pozzuoli. Ventilated by three air ducts opening onto the sea, it was dug out of the tufa rock by Cocceius, the same Roman engineer who built the Crypta Neapolitana in Parco Vergiliano . When the villa's owner Publio Vedio Pollione died in 15 BC, he bequeathed his clifftop pad to friend and emperor, Augustus.
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Parco Archeologico di Baia
In Roman times, this 1st-century BC palace and spa complex was hot, literally and figuratively. Emperors would entertain their splash-happy guests in a series of lavish thermal baths that descended to the sea. While the hedonists have long gone, some of its treasures remain; including exquisite floor mosaics, a stuccoed balneum (bathroom), outdoor theatre and the impressive Tempio di Mercurio, with its domed swimming pool filled with goldfish.
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Parco Vergiliano
Squeezed in between a railway bridge and the cliffs of Posillipo hill, this shady urban oasis hides two historical treasures; Virgil's tomb and the world's longest Roman tunnel.
Also buried in the park is the 19th-century poet Giacomo Leopardi.
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Piscina Mirabilis
An archaeological pièce de résistance, the Piscina Mirabilis (Exquisite Pool) lies tucked away in a Bacoli backstreet. To access it, contact custodian Signora Filomena at No 9. Awaiting underground is the world's largest Roman cistern. Featuring 48 soaring pillars and a barrel-vaulted ceiling, it resembles a great subterranean cathedral, eerily bathed in shafts of sunlight.
Admission is free but save face and tip the Signora - around €1.00 will do.
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Rione Terra
Rising 33m above sea level at the western end of the seafront, Rione Terra is the Pozzuoli's oldest quarter and ancient Puteoli's acropolis. During the age of Augustus, an existing Capitolium here was lavishly restructured in white marble by architect Lucius Cocceius Auctus. Renamed the Temple of Augustus, it famously rivalled the temples of Rome.
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Tempio di Serapide
East of the port, sunken in a leafy piazza, stands the Tempio di Serapide (Temple of Serapis). Despite its name, it wasn't a temple at all, but rather an ancient macellum (town market). Named after a statue of the Egyptian god Serapis found here in 1750, its ancient toilets (at either side of the eastern apse) are considered works of ancient ingenuity. Badly damaged over the centuries by bradeyism , the tempio is occasionally flooded by sea water.
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Showing 1-8 of 8 results
