Grotta di Seiano
Posillipo
Hidden gemHistory & archaeology
The story
A Roman tunnel nearly eight hundred metres long bores through the hill in the dark, then opens onto the light of the Gaiola valley and the villa of Pausilypon.
Access
free with guided tour, closed Tuesdays
More gems in Posillipo
Views & panoramasParco Virgiliano
Posillipo
At the far end of Posillipo the terraces look out over the islet of Nisida and the open sea: from here the eye takes in the whole gulf and the Campi Flegrei.
- Views & panoramas
Terrazza di Sant'Antonio (tredici scese)
Posillipo
Thirteen flights of steps climb to the terrace of Sant'Antonio, where the gulf lines up like a postcard: Vesuvius, sea and city in a single glance.
- Views & panoramas
Via Petrarca / Via Orazio
Posillipo
The two roads run halfway up the hill of Posillipo, natural terraces suspended over the gulf: little villas, bougainvillea and the sea appearing between one bend and the next.
- History & archaeology
Parco Archeologico del Pausilypon
Posillipo
The imperial villa of Vedius Pollio looking over the Gaiola: theatre and odeion among the pines, there where the Romans called this place the pause from pain.
Free beachesIsola
Posillipo
The "cursed" island: owners struck by suicides and misfortune (Agnelli, Getty); a marine protected area with submerged ruins; guided snorkelling with CSI Gaiola ~€20, glass-bottom boat ~€12; 150 steps.
Free beachesParco Sommerso della Gaiola
Posillipo
Two islets of tufo (volcanic tuff) joined by a fragile arch, a marine protected area: you swim above submerged Roman ruins while the legend speaks of a cursed island.
More gems: History & archaeology
History & archaeologyStatua del Nilo ("Corpo di Napoli")
Largo Corpo di Napoli
A river god reclining for centuries in a quiet square, whom Neapolitans call the Corpo di Napoli: he leans his bearded head among putti and a sphinx.
History & archaeologyCappella Pontano
Decumani
A small Renaissance temple on the decumanus, which the humanist Pontano had raised for his lost wife, still lined inside with Latin inscriptions dictated by his grief.
- History & archaeology
Sedile di Nilo
Decumani
On the corner of a small Spaccanapoli square survives the seat of the old Nilo quarter, where the nobles once gathered before the sedili of Naples vanished.
History & archaeologyPort'Alba
Napoli
A seventeenth-century arch cut into the walls leads to the booksellers' street, where stalls of second-hand volumes pile up among yellowed pages and the shade of the old city.
History & archaeologyPorta Capuana
zona Garibaldi
Between two cylindrical towers an arch of white marble opens like a Renaissance triumph, the old city gate facing the road to Capua.
- History & archaeology
MANN — Museo Archeologico Nazionale
P.za Museo
One of the world's great archaeological museums: here the Toro Farnese, the mosaics of Pompeii and the Gabinetto Segreto tell the whole ancient Mediterranean in a single visit.