Baia di San Montano
Lacco Ameno (NA)
KnownFree beaches
The story
A crescent sheltered from the winds, with shallow, clear water turning turquoise: Ischia's gentlest bay, cradled between two green headlands.
More gems in Lacco Ameno
- History & archaeology
Villa Arbusto (Coppa di Nestore)
Lacco Ameno
The museum villa of Lacco Ameno holds the Coppa di Nestore, an 8th-century BC vessel incised with one of the oldest Greek verses ever found.
Views & panoramasFungo di Lacco Ameno
Lacco Ameno
A tufo rock shaped by wind and sea until it came to look like a mushroom: it rises a few steps from the shore and has become the emblem of Lacco Ameno.
- In the water & diving
Parco Termale Negombo
Lacco Ameno (NA)
A botanical garden descending to the bay of San Montano, with thermal pools hidden among rare plants, artworks and the blue of the sea.
History & archaeologyScavi e Museo di Santa Restituta
Lacco Ameno (NA)
Beneath the basilica you descend into a layered underground: Greek kilns, an early Christian necropolis, tombs and oil lamps. Above is the martyr saint who arrived from the sea on a boat without oars; below are the real dead, one stratum after another.
- History & archaeology
Monte Vico — acropoli di Pithekoussai
Lacco Ameno (NA)
On this promontory, in the 8th century BC, the Greeks of Euboea founded the first permanent settlement of the West. From here set out the alphabet that would become Rome's, and with it everything else.
More gems: Free beaches
Free beachesIsola
Posillipo
The "cursed" island: owners struck by suicides and misfortune (Agnelli, Getty); a marine protected area with submerged ruins; guided snorkelling with CSI Gaiola ~€20, glass-bottom boat ~€12; 150 steps.
Free beachesParco Sommerso della Gaiola
Posillipo
Two islets of tufo (volcanic tuff) joined by a fragile arch, a marine protected area: you swim above submerged Roman ruins while the legend speaks of a cursed island.
- Free beaches
Lido delle Monache / spiaggia libera di Posillipo e Riva Fiorita
Posillipo
Tiny coves among the rocks, once the bathing place of the nuns of a convent above the sea: almost secret free beaches, reachable mostly from the water.
- Free beaches
Baia di Trentaremi
Posillipo
A bay closed in by high cliffs of yellow tufo (volcanic tuff), with caves cut by the Romans: no road reaches it, only the sea and the kayaks slip in among the rocks.
- Free beaches
Capo Miseno e porticciolo di Acquamorta
Bacoli/Monte di Procida
The headland that closes the gulf and, at its foot, the little harbour of Acquamorta with the boats hauled ashore and the water shallow and clear.
Free beachesBaia di Ieranto
Nerano
The bay protected by the FAI that looks across at the Faraglioni of Capri, reachable only on foot among olive trees and scrub, with the clear water of an old quarry.