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.
Access
FREE, no custodian
Hours and prices
Free entry.
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
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.
VillagesMarina 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.
- ◆ Villages
Mercato 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.
- ◆ 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.