Vesuvio — Gran Cono
Ercolano
FamousVolcanoes
The story
The last stretch climbs on foot over the scree to the rim of the crater, where the warm breath of the earth mixes with the view of the whole Gulf of Naples.
Access
€ 10, online booking COMPULSORY (vesuviopark.vivaticket.it)
More gems in Ercolano
History & archaeologyScavi di Ercolano
Ercolano
A Roman town petrified by volcanic mud, with wooden beams, beds and doors still in place: here time stopped more intact than anywhere.
History & archaeologyMuseo dell'Osservatorio Vesuviano
Ercolano
The oldest volcanological observatory in the world, willed by the Bourbons in 1841, with historic instruments and mineral collections, looking out over the slopes of Vesuvius.
- History & archaeology
Miglio d'Oro e Ville Vesuviane (Villa Campolieto)
Ercolano
The eighteenth-century residences of the Neapolitan nobility along the Miglio d'Oro, with Villa Campolieto and its elliptical portico facing the sea among stuccoes and gardens.
- Hiking
Salita al Gran Cono del Vesuvio (da Quota 1000)
Ercolano (NA)
From Quota 1000 the trail climbs the ash up to the rim of the Gran Cono, where the smoking crater opens up and below stretches the whole gulf of Naples.
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Ischia
The roof of the island at almost eight hundred metres: from the green tufo summit, with its hermitage carved into the rock, the eye takes in all of Ischia and the bay as far as Capri.
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An extinct crater enclosed by wooded walls, with small lakes and silent trails: once a Bourbon hunting reserve, today an oasis where the woodpecker marks the time.
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Vulcano di Roccamonfina
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An extinct volcano clothed in chestnut groves, where the crater has become a plateau and every trail smells of dark earth and ancient woods.
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Born in a single night from a sixteenth-century eruption, the youngest mountain of the Campi Flegrei holds within its crater a green silence looking out over the gulf of Pozzuoli.
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Monte Rotaro (cratere e fumarole)
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A crater 350 metres across and 127 deep, today covered in holm oaks and myrtle. Puffs of vapour still rise from the ground, and among the fumarole grows a plant that hardly grows anywhere else in Europe.
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Cratere del Fondo d'Oglio
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A perfectly circular hollow hidden in the wood: inside they still grow vines, at the bottom of a volcano. Whoever descends cannot tell where they are until they look up.