Rocca San Felice
Rocca San Felice (AV)
Hidden gemVillages
The story
Rocca San Felice gathers its houses around a ruined castle, not far from the Mefite, the sulphurous pool the ancients believed to be a threshold of the underworld.
More gems in Rocca San Felice
- Nature & hiking
Mefite d'Ansanto
Rocca San Felice
A small lake boiling with gas and sulphur in a lifeless hollow: the ancients worshipped the goddess Mefite here, and Virgil imagined a gateway to the underworld.
- Villages
Rocca San Felice borgo
Rocca San Felice (AV)
Beneath the ruins of the medieval castle the borgo (old village) huddles in stone and steep alleys, not far from the fumes of the Mefite: here legend borders on sulphur.
- Nature & hiking
Mefite della Valle d'Ansanto
Rocca San Felice (AV)
In inland Irpinia a sulphurous pool bubbles with toxic fumes: the ancients worshipped the goddess Mefite here and imagined a mouth of the underworld, among yellow vapours and barren earth.
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.