Borgo abbandonato di Marzanello Vecchio
Vairano Patenora (CE)
Hidden gemVillages
The story
A stone village born around the year 1000 and emptied out without anyone knowing why: what is left are walls devoured by brambles and the little church of San Nicola, still standing guard over a borgo (old village) of ghosts.
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More gems in Vairano Patenora
- History & archaeology
Taverna della Catena (l'incontro del 26 ottobre 1860)
Vairano Patenora (CE)
Here, at a dusty crossroads in front of an eighteenth-century tavern, the army's official war diary places the handshake that made Italy — while the schoolbooks go on calling it the meeting of Teano.
- Sacred art
Abbazia di Santa Maria della Ferrara
Vairano Patenora (CE)
The first Cistercian abbey of the Kingdom of Naples lies dying among the fields: under the broken vaults survives the fresco of the burial of Malgerio Sorel, and beside it the face of the hermit pope Celestino V.
More gems: Villages
VillagesMercato di Porta Nolana
zona Garibaldi
Beneath the Aragonese arch of Porta Nolana the fish market erupts with voices, crates of seawater and shellfish still alive: Naples at its most unvarnished.
VillagesLa Pignasecca
Montesanto
The oldest market in Naples unspools through the alleys of Montesanto: fish stalls, fry shops and old-time botteghe (traditional shops) in a hubbub that never stops.
VillagesBorgo Marinari
S. Lucia
At the foot of Castel dell'Ovo, the little fishermen's borgo (old village) is now a marina of boats and restaurants: stone, salt air and the legend of Virgil's egg hidden in the foundations.
- Villages
Borgo di Casamale
Somma Vesuviana
The medieval heart enclosed by Aragonese walls and towers, a tangle of alleys where every four years the Festa delle Lucerne lights thousands of little lamps.
- Villages
Marina Grande di Sorrento
Sorrento
Below the town's cliffs, the old fishermen's borgo (old village) with houses faded by the salt, boats hauled ashore and trattorias fragrant with frying.
- Villages
Marina Corricella
Procida
The oldest fishermen's borgo (old village) on Procida, an amphitheatre of pastel houses tumbling down to the harbour, where the boats sleep beneath the hanging laundry.