Borgo di Sant'Angelo
Serrara Fontana
KnownVillages
The story
A car-free fishing village, its terraced houses stepping down to a sandy isthmus tied to the islet: a little square, boats, and the fumarole of the nearby Maronti beach.
Access
FREE
How to get there
- Hydrofoil
- Ferry
Hours and prices
Free entry.
More gems in Serrara Fontana
Sacred artEremo di San Nicola all'Epomeo
Serrara Fontana (NA)
A hermitage carved entirely out of the tufo just below the summit of the Epomeo. Here, in the eighteenth century, Giuseppe d'Argouth, commander of the Castello Aragonese, withdrew: after a life of arms he became a monk and died here, in a cell of rock.
- Nature
Spiaggia delle Fumarole
Serrara Fontana (NA)
Near Sant'Angelo the sand burns from the steam rising underground: here eggs are cooked beneath the grains and the swim becomes a thermal ritual.
- ◆ Hiking
Bosco della Falanga
Serrara Fontana (NA)
A chestnut wood full of houses carved inside the boulders: the farmers lived in the stone, and in a pit dug into the ground they stored the snow of the Epomeo to sell it in summer as ice. The wood is still there, the houses too, empty.
- ◆ Nature
Pietra dell'Acqua
Serrara Fontana (NA)
A huge block of green tufo (volcanic tuff) with a basin carved into its top, which collects rainwater. No one knows for certain who cut it or why: some speak of an altar, some of a watering trough, some say nothing at all.
- ◆ Hiking
Sentiero dei Pizzi Bianchi
Serrara Fontana (NA)
A canyon of white tufo (volcanic tuff) pinnacles that look like melted candles, carved by water over thousands of years. The path drops down among them and ends, almost as a joke, facing the sea of the Maronti.
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.