Forio
20 places
Sacred artChiesa del Soccorso
Forio
White and plain on the headland of Forio, the sailors' church faces the open sea: here, among majolica tiles and ex voto, people come to wait for one of the island's most famous sunsets.
NatureGiardini La Mortella
Forio (NA)
Above Forio, the gardens that Susana Walton cultivated for her composer husband: tree ferns, water lilies and streams in an amphitheatre of volcanic rock facing the Ischia sea.
In the water & divingParco Termale Poseidon
Forio (NA)
On the bay of Citara dozens of pools at different temperatures face the sea, among flowering terraces and the sunset that sets the water of Forio ablaze.
MuseumsIl Torrione (Museo Civico Giovanni Maltese)
Forio (NA)
Built in 1480 to spot Saracen sails, this cylinder of tufo (volcanic tuff) became four centuries later the home-studio of the sculptor Giovanni Maltese, who lived here into the twentieth century. Today his sculptures still inhabit the tower that once had to defend Forio from pirates.
Sacred artBasilica di Santa Maria di Loreto
Forio (NA)
The mother church of Forio, with its majolica onion-domed bell tower, holds the canvases the people of Forio saved from raids by hiding them in the caves. Inside, gold and marble tell of a village that lived on wine and on fear.
Free beachesSpiaggia di San Francesco
Forio (NA)
Pale sand beneath the Zaro cliffs, with the little church of San Francesco standing guard. It's the beach Forio goes to when it doesn't feel like climbing the steps.
- ◆ Nature
Giardini Ravino
Forio
Between the vineyards of the Epomeo and the sea of Forio, a garden of cacti and succulents: one of the richest collections in Europe, among century-old saguaros and rare species.
- In the water & diving
Baia di Sorgeto
Forio (NA)
On Ischia, where boiling thermal springs gush among the rocks and mingle with the sea, the bay of Sorgeto offers a warm bath even in winter, under the stars.
- Villages
Centro storico di Forio
Forio (NA)
The alleys of Forio are not crooked by chance: they were designed to confuse Ottoman corsairs, a labyrinth that stole precious minutes from the escape. To walk them today is to get lost on purpose, just as they were meant to.
- ◆ Sacred art
Chiesa di Santa Maria Visitapoveri
Forio (NA)
Born as a confraternity that buried the poor and watched over the dying, Visitapoveri hides behind a sober façade the frescoes of Alfonso Di Spigna and eighteenth-century pews polished by centuries of elbows.
- Free beaches
Spiaggia della Chiaia (Forio)
Forio (NA)
The town's beach, where the people of Forio walk down from the alleys with a towel under their arm. At sunset the sun drops straight into the sea before the Torre del Soccorso.
- Free beaches
Cava dell'Isola
Forio (NA)
The only truly free beach on Ischia: no sunbeds, no rows of umbrellas, just dark sand and young people who stay in the water until eight in the evening, because here the sun dies in the sea and not behind the mountain.
- ◆ Views & panoramas
Punta Caruso
Forio (NA)
A spur of black lava plunging into a sea that shifts from turquoise to ink blue within three metres of depth. No sand: you climb down from the rocks, as the islanders have always done.
- Views & panoramas
Faro di Punta Imperatore
Forio (NA)
Built in 1884, 160 metres above the sea, it is one of the tallest lighthouses on the Tyrrhenian. You climb up on foot from Via Costa, and at a certain point the island's sounds vanish: only the wind and your own breath remain.
- ◆ Views & panoramas
Scoglio della Nave
Forio (NA)
A rock that, seen from the lighthouse, looks like a stone sailing ship that will never make port. For centuries the fishermen of Panza have used it as a landmark for finding their way home.
- Museums
Villa La Colombaia (Museo Luchino Visconti)
Forio (NA)
Here Luchino Visconti wrote, quarrelled and hid from the world, among the holm oaks of Zaro and a view that slips straight into his films. The director wanted to be buried here: the park is still his, more than the villa.
- ◆ Nature
Punta Cornacchia e Bosco di Zaro
Forio (NA)
It is the northernmost point of the island: a promontory of lava covered by a wood of holm oaks where Ischia ends and the channel to Procida begins.
- ◆ Sacred art
Chiesa di Santa Maria al Monte
Forio (NA)
Clinging to the mountainside at 400 metres, it is the church of the mountain farmers and the starting point of the trails to the Epomeo. From here the whole island is in view, and it looks tiny.
- ◆ In the water & diving
Chianare di Spadera
Forio (NA)
A coast of smooth flagstones and tiny coves below Punta Chiarito, where the tufo (volcanic tuff) splits into natural steps. Just above, archaeologists found a Greek farmstead buried by a landslide in the 6th century BC: the people fled and never came back.
- Views & panoramas
Belvedere dei Frassitelli
Forio (NA)
A natural terrace at 600 metres above the vine terraces, with Punta Imperatore and the open sea beneath your feet. It is the balcony from which the farmers watched to see if the storm was coming.