Belvedere del Deserto — Sant'Agata sui Due Golfi
Massa Lubrense
KnownSacred art
The story
From the old Carmelite convent the gaze takes in both gulfs at a single turn, Naples and Salerno, high above Sant'Agata.
Access
10 min climb, seasonal opening hours
The story
Sant'Agata sui Due Golfi, an upper hamlet of Massa Lubrense at almost four hundred metres, owes its name to its unique position: suspended between the Gulf of Naples and that of Salerno. Above the village, on the hill, stands the ancient Benedictine convent called 'il Deserto', with a terrace that takes in the two gulfs.
What to see
From the belvedere of the Deserto, a 360-degree panorama that ranges from the Gulf of Naples with Vesuvius, to Capri and Li Galli, as far as the Gulf of Salerno: one of the widest and most celebrated views of the peninsula. In the village, the church with its seventeenth-century altar.
Tips
The panoramic terrace of the Deserto is run by the religious sisters and is visited with its own hours: check on site or on the convent's channels. You go up on foot or by car from Sant'Agata. Come on a clear day to enjoy both gulfs; the sunset on the Capri side is memorable.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Deserto of Sant'Agata sui Due Golfi?
An ancient Benedictine convent on the hill above Sant'Agata, with a panoramic terrace that takes in the gulfs of Naples and Salerno.
What can you see from the belvedere of the Deserto?
A 360-degree panorama: the Gulf of Naples with Vesuvius, Capri and Li Galli, and the Gulf of Salerno.
How do you visit it?
The terrace is run by the religious sisters and has its own hours, to be checked on site; you go up from Sant'Agata on foot or by car.
More gems in Massa Lubrense
NaturePunta Campanella
Massa Lubrense
The furthest tip of the Sorrento peninsula, a wind-beaten marine reserve between the two gulfs, with its watchtower and Capri an arm of sea away.
◆ Free beachesFiordo
Massa Lubrense
A cleft in the rock where the sea slips in, narrow and green, almost always shaded beneath high walls: you don't come here for the sun, but for the silence.
- Nature
Tempio di Atena
Massa Lubrense
Near the tower survive the traces of the sanctuary of Athena that legend says was founded by Ulysses, where the Greeks worshipped the goddess sheer above the sea.
- ◆ Free beaches
Cala di Mitigliano e grotta
Massa Lubrense
A path through olive trees drops down to the rocks, Capri looks an arm's length away, and the cave opens in the water like a hall of shadow and salt.
- ◆ Free beaches
Marina di Crapolla
Massa Lubrense
Seven hundred steps down from Torca lead to a tiny landing place, where the chapel of San Pietro rests on Benedictine ruins and fishermen carve boat shelters out of Roman columns.
- Hiking
Anello di Punta Campanella
Massa Lubrense (NA)
At the tip of the Sorrento peninsula the trail reaches Punta Campanella, where a watchtower gazes at Capri opposite, across a narrow, blue arm of sea.
More gems: Sacred art
Sacred artCappella Sansevero (Cristo Velato)
Napoli (NA)
Beneath a veil of marble that still seems to breathe, Sanmartino's Cristo Velato rests in the chapel's half-light, and the whiteness of the stone deceives every eye.
Sacred artDuomo di Napoli
Napoli
Three times a year the city holds its breath as the blood of San Gennaro waits to liquefy, among Gothic naves and the gold of the chapel devoted to him.
Sacred artCappella del Tesoro di San Gennaro
Napoli
Behind a bronze gate lie silverware, gems and the jewel-studded mitre of the saint: a treasure heaped up over centuries by the devotion of Naples.
Sacred artChiesa del Gesù Nuovo
Napoli
The facade of pyramid-cut piperno stone hides symbols carved into the blocks, while inside the Baroque bursts out in marble and in the memory of the physician Giuseppe Moscati.
Sacred artChiostro di Santa Chiara
Napoli
A garden of pillars clad in yellow and blue majolica, where lemon pergolas and eighteenth-century scenes painted on the tiles keep the noise of the city at bay.
Sacred artSanta Maria delle Anime del Purgatorio ad Arco
Via Tribunali 39
Bronze skulls stand guard at the entrance, and down in the hypogeum the cult of the anime pezzentelle (adopted souls of the dead) still leaves flowers and prayers beside abandoned crania.