The Aragonese Castle

Aragonese Castle (Italian: Castello Aragonese) is a medieval castle in Ischia Ponte.

Ischia Island from the Aragonese Castle

Ischia Island from the Aragonese Castle

The castle stands on a volcanic rocky islet that connects to the larger island of Ischia by a causeway (Ponte Aragonese).

The Aragonese Castle

The Aragonese Castle is the most impressive historical monument in Ischia, built by Hiero I of Syracuse in 474 BC. At the same time, two towers were built to control enemy fleets' movements. The rock was then occupied by Parthenopeans (the ancient inhabitants of Naples).

The Aragonese Castle

The Aragonese Castle

In 326 BC the fortress was captured by Romans, and then again by the Parthenopeans. In 1441 Alfonso V of Aragon connected the rock to the island with a stone bridge instead of the prior wood bridge, and fortified the walls in order to defend the inhabitants against the raids of pirates.

The Aragonese Castle

Around 1700, about 2000 families lived on the islet, including a Poor Clares convent, an abbey of Basilian monks (of the Greek Orthodox Church), the bishop and the seminar, the prince with a military garrison. There were also thirteen churches. In 1809, the British troops laid siege to the island, under the French command, and shelled to destroy almost completely. In 1912, the Castle was sold to a private owner. Today the castle is the most visited monument of the island.

The Aragonese Castle

The Aragonese Castle

Nowaday, the Aragonese Castle is accessed through a tunnel with large openings which let the light enter. Along the tunnel there is a small chapel consecrated to John Joseph of the Cross (San Giovan Giuseppe della Croce), the patron saint of the island.

The Aragonese Castle

The Aragonese Castle

A more comfortable access is also possible with a modern lift. After arriving outside, it is possible to visit the Church of the Immacolata and the Cathedral of Assunta. The first was built in 1737 on the location of a smaller chapel dedicated to Saint Francis, and closed after the suppression of Convents in 1806 as well as the nunnery of the Clarisses.

The Aragonese Castle

From the Aragonese Castle you have many panoramic views to Ischia Island, to the closest islands; Vivara, Procida and Capri and also to Naples Bay.

We higly recommend you to visit it, it really worth it! You will spend a really pleasant and quiet moment. We were impressed by the beauty of the place and the surrounded views.

The Aragonese Castle of Ischia is open all year, seven days a week, from 09:00 am until sunset.

Adults // € 10,00

Groups (from 20 people) // € 9,00

Children aged 10-14 and companions of the disabled and blind // € 6,00

Children aged 0-9 and disabled people with proof of disability (over 51%) // Free

The Aragonese Castle of Ischia is located in the Municipality of Ischia (at Ischia Ponte).

You can reach us from Porto d'Ischia using bus route number 7.

The tour lasts approximately an hour and a half.

The tour path is accessible by elevator or by foot.

Pets are welcome.

Along the tour path you will find two cafes and a bookshop.

Contact

Telephone +39 081 992 834 / +39 081 991 959

info@castelloaragonese.it

Pietratorcia wine cellar Ischia

The cellars of Pietratorcia among the best Italian wine producers, were born in Forio, on the western side of the Island, thanks to the efforts of young enthusiasts who wanted to continue to enhance the traditions of old island families, Iacono, Regine and Verde. 

 

The old family cellars were renovated and equipped, the 7 acres of land were selected with vines and today, thanks to the assistance of the technicians of the prestigious Institute of San Michele, fine wines are prepared in small productions want to recover the great calling that wine ages in the public tearing of Ischia have created the soil on the slopes of Epomeo. 

Pietratorcia wine cellar Ischia

Opening:

from 15/06 to 15/09 from 17:30 late in the night

from 01/04 to 14/06 and from 16/09 to 15/11 from 10:00 to 13:00 and from 16:00 to 20:00

Friday, Saturday and Sunday open also in the night

Pineta Mirtina, Ischia

Here the ancient and majestic pine trees dominate, the forest floor is composed of Arbutus, heathers, spurge, Lecci, phillyrea, brooms, myrtles. 

Then are the popular Asparagus and Mushrooms. The show, which increased the Pinewood offers a view of the spring, is a carpet of wildflowers along all paths. 

Pineta Mirtina

As testimony to the volcanic nature of the place is the widespread water vapor in the air: are the fumaroles and hot springs of groundwater. This very special microclimate has allowed the presence of special shapes of plants on the island and found only in tropical climates such as the famous "Papyrus of the fumarole" (Cyperus polystachius). 

In the lower part of the Pinewood demonstrates a number of sources of water including the source Mirtina whose water was even bottled and sold, and a large area with a stage dedicated to summer events and concerts.

Casa Museo Ischia

Cava Pallarito marks the boundary line between the town of Barano and Serrara Fontana. A place of other times, wild and fascinating, because it has not been distorted by human hands. Over the centuries only nature has transformed the site into a spell of purity and authenticity.

The tall oaks seem to touch the sky and clouds, an abundance of oaks and ashes.

That gorge carved by wind and water erosion is dominated by two high ridges, in one of which in ancient times was dug a cellar that farmers used to put the barrels of wine and the tools of the land. 

Going up a steep and long staircase there are caves and ravines that at the time served as a shelter for goats, mules and men.

This small kingdom was inherited by Salvatore Di Meglio, who is mason and is proud to have achieved his dream: to transform those environments in a "house museum". For more than fifteen years has been his home, there were born three sons, now adults.

Casa Museo Ischia

Although fond of that little paradise, he had to leave because it was too wet and cold during the winter. For a long time everything was in a state of disrepair. Only doves, hawks and other birds flew undisturbed around what might be called a small hive. But for about seven years there is new life in the desolate quarry, which for us residents and tourists was only a transit point.

Salvatore with his clear blue eyes peering in depth, spends many hours of the day in the museum. He welcomes the visitor with naturalness and simplicity, speak little and listen much. 

In his free time, he carves wood and stone creates so little masterpieces, which affect because they are very primitive in form, seem to belong to a remote world, whose we have lost track. The cellar is full of many tools that belonged to the rural life, small and large objects that are made everyday and we would not be able to admire and even excite touching, if Salvatore had not taken them available to all those who miss the past and our roots. But not only, this is important for the new generations, who must learn that history is made not only of the deeds of men, but also of the objects of which they have used.

Casa Museo Ischia

The long staircase leads to a terrace overlooking the quarry and the driveway. All around there is silence and the pungent fresh that comes from the gorge through the mountain. In the caves there are still hundreds of tools of a past era, stylized drawings on the walls, that Salvatore has made as smooth stones from the sea. 

There is also a tunnel called “The Cave of Fortune”, along which were hung many horseshoes, (the ancients used them against the evil eye), traveling, there is really a feeling of inner purification and positivity. 

Casa Museo Ischia

Other steps carved into the tufa, leading to the top, along the way the bleating of goats coming in and out of the various ravines, accompany the visitor with their eyes, magnetic and mysterious. Although out of breath, the emotion is deep when it comes to the big ridge of the high plateau, at that time one has the impression of having arrived on the roof of the world. The feeling is that the body and spirit, surrounded by wild nature, will rise toward other worlds.

I think the "house museum", with the candor of those who carried it out with such passion and without any pretense, can stimulate to dream, to fantasize, to surprise us. Like children who look at the world through the eyes of innocence.

Free admission.

Contatti Casa Museo 

Via ex S.S. 270 tra Buonopane e Fontana, 80070 Serrara Fontana, Isola d'Ischia, Italia 

Tel. 3497198879 - Email: dimeglio69@yahoo.com

Santa Restituta Museum

Ischia is a magical land where history, myth and nature intersect continuously until they merge. A privileged destination for nineteenth-century Grand Tour, that cannot be renounced for training program of every European traveller caught and that in all the lands of the Gulf of Naples could be reflected in the stories of the Greek and Latin classics. Not only myth, but also traditional and religious events such as those dedicated in May, to Santa Restituta, African martyr and patron saint of the island of Ischia.

And it is from the piety that comes to life a small archaeological gem worthy of careful attention to every visitor alive to the history and deepest identity of the places: the Museum of the ruins of Santa Restituta, an underground complex where the process of musealization occurred in the same places of the revival.

We are in the historical centre of the town of Lacco Ameno, whose physical configuration corresponds in principle to that one of the ancient Pithekoussai, Greek allocation dating back to the eighth century. B.C. of the urban setting well-defined: the necropolis in the Valley of San Montano, the acropolis of Monte Vico, the district metallurgical and manufacturing area of the excavations and the hill of Mezzavia, landing stores along the marina, which then enjoyed other spaces for bradyseism very different from those of today.

Santa Restituta Museum

The excavations are born thanks to the passion and tenacity of Don Pietro Monti, rector of the church dedicated to the worship of Santa Restituta, but also that bit of luck that turns in their favour small coincidences of life. At the dawn of the '50s, when was decided to remove the tiles which, since 1711, formed the floor of the church, it was discovered another floor below in majolica tiles of 1470. It was not over: it continued digging and came upon a beaten earth floor, even below a Roman floor and three late Roman tombs in earth.

Since that time, the exploration of the soil no longer has ended.

The excavations have allowed the researchers to identify both a cemetery and an "industrial" area where there were ovens for baking the clay. The vases were in fact Pithecusan processed and cooked at that point, only to be sold and exported throughout the Mediterranean Sea.

You can then observe, among the many findings come to light, shards and fragments of amphorae for wine, coins minted around the fifth century. BC, a rich collection of amulets in the shape of beetles imported from Egyptian cult, fragments of statues or plates depicting divine figures such as, for example, the Head of the nymph Arethusa (IV century BC) and the Head of Demeter (also dating back to the IV century BC). The cult of Apollo is witnessed by a patera (dish) containing votive projecting the image of the god lying smooth, that of Eros statue that depicts him as a young, naked, with his bow and arrows, and wings vigorously. And yet a lekythos of clay and black paint, clay antefix in red paint or even arula of white marble polished chisel dating to the third century BC. Tangible signs of woven and laminated succession of cultures and civilizations of the past.

Santa Restituta Museum

In a corner of the excavations of Santa Restituta was rebuilt the environment of a typical Pithecusan house. The weights of the frame, those that were tied to the ends of each group of warp threads, are original. In an urn are placed small clay toys (horses, donkeys, boats, dolls and birds) which entertained the children of the time. As rightly highlights the archaeologist Giorgio Buchner "Today the scientific purpose of the excavation is no longer to recover individual handsome objects but that one to know, through the media and other information gathered during the excavation, history of the populations of the past, understood not so much as the political history of kings and wars, but as knowledge of ways of life, the social structure of human settlements, trade indicated by the articles imported or exported for over regions, the mutual influences made between different civilizations".

One of the latest discoveries is the baptistery with a hall in the centre of the circular tank, "fenced with wall raised from the floor, covered with marble, with three steps to descend to be baptized by immersion. Conclusive evidence for the Christian complex, the largest island and the only ready to house - perhaps already in the mid-fifth century AD - the relics of Saint Restituta of Carthage.

The Sea Museum Ischia

Founded in 1996, the museum is housed in the 17th-century Palazzo dell’Orologio in the historic center of the town of Ischia Ponte on the island of Ischia. 

The displays occupy seven rooms on three floors.  There are exhibits of nautical instruments,  naval uniforms, model ships, a philatelic exhibit of stamps dedicated to the sea,  and a photographic exhibit dedicated to both the maritime navy and commercial fishing fleet. 

The Sea Museum Ischia

Given the Greek and Roman history of the area, the museum houses, as well, a display of maritime archaeology. 

Contact: Via Giovanni da Procida, 3, Ischia, tel: 081 981124.

http://www.museodelmareischia.it/home.htm 

Palace of Caserta; Ischia Surroundings

The Royal Palace of Caserta (Italian: Reggia di Caserta) is a former royal residence in Caserta, few hours from Ischia, constructed for the Bourbon kings of Naples. It is one of the largest palaces erected in Europe during the 18th century. In 1997, the palace was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site; its nomination described it as "the swan song of the spectacular art of the Baroque, from which it adopted all the features needed to create the illusions of multidirectional space". In terms of volume, the Royal Palace of Caserta is the largest royal residence in the world with over 2 million m³ and covering an area of about 235,000 m².

The construction of the palace was begun in 1752 for Charles VII of Naples, who worked closely with his architect, Luigi Vanvitelli. When Charles saw Vanvitelli's grandly scaled model for Caserta, it filled him with emotion "fit to tear his heart from his breast". In the end, he never slept a night at the Reggia, as he abdicated in 1759 to become King of Spain, and the project was carried to only partial completion for his third son and successor, Ferdinand IV of Naples.

The political and social model for Vanvitelli's palace was Versailles, which, though strikingly different in its variety and disposition, solves similar problems of assembling and providing for king, court and government in a massive building with the social structure of a small city, confronting a baroque view of a highly subordinated nature, la nature forcée. The population of Caserta Vecchia was moved 10 kilometers to provide a work force closer to the palace. A silk manufactory at San Leucio resort was disguised as a pavilion in the immense parkland.

Palace of Caserta; Ischia Surroundings

Another of the king's primary objects was to have a magnificent new royal court and administrative center for the kingdom in a location protected from sea attack, and distant from the revolt-prone and congested city of Naples. To provide the king with suitable protection, troop barracks were housed within the palace.

The Royal Palace of Madrid, where Charles had grown up, which had been devised by Filippo Juvarra for Charles' father, Philip V of Spain, and Charlottenburg Palace provided models. A spacious octagonal vestibule seems to have been inspired by Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute in Venice, while the palatine chapel is most often compared to the Royal Chapel at Versailles. Vanvitelli died in 1773: the construction was continued by his son Carlo and then by other architects; but the elder Vanvitelli's original project, which included a vast pair of frontal wings similar to Bernini's wings at St. Peter's, was never finished.

Palace of Caserta; Ischia Surroundings

From 1923 to 1943 and during World War II the palace was the location of the Accademia Aeronautica, the Italian Air Force Academy. From 1943, during the allied invasion the royal palace served as the seat of the Supreme Allied Commander; Sir Henry Maitland Wilson and later Sir Harold Alexander. In April 1945 the palace was the site of the signing of terms of the unconditional German surrender of forces in Italy. The agreement covered between 600,000 and 900,000 soldiers along the Italian Front, including troops in sections of Austria. The first Allied war crimes trial took place in the palace in 1945; German general Anton Dostler was sentenced to death and executed nearby, in Aversa. In the left hand arc behind the façade, a set of barracks were built. During World War II the soldiers of the US Fifth Army recovered here in a "rest centre".

Of all the royal residences inspired by the Palace of Versailles, the Reggia of Caserta is the one that bears the greatest resemblance to the original model: the unbroken balustraded skyline and the slight break provided by pavilions within the long, somewhat monotonous façade. As at Versailles, a large aqueduct was required to bring water for the prodigious water displays. Like its French predecessor, the palace was intended to display the power and grandeur of an absolute Bourbon monarchy. A solecism at Caserta is that above the piano reale, the King's floor, is another floor of equal magnificence. The enfilades of Late Baroque saloni were the heart and seat of government, as well as displays of national wealth. Caserta provided a royal refuge from the dust and factions of the capital, just as Versailles had freed Louis XIV from Paris. The royal palace has more than 40 monumental rooms completely decorated with frescoes when, in comparison, Versailles counts only 22 monumental rooms.

The garden, a typical example of the baroque extension of formal vistas, stretches for 120 ha, partly on hilly terrain. It is also inspired by the park of Versailles. The park starts from the back façade of the palace, flanking a long alley with artificial fountains and cascades. There is a botanical garden, called "The English Garden", in the upper part designed in the 1780s by Carlo Vanvitelli and the German-born botanist, nurseryman, plantsman-designer, John Graefer, trained in London and recommended to Sir William Hamilton by Sir Joseph Banks. It is an early Continental example of an "English garden" in the svelte naturalistic taste of Capability Brown.

Palace of Caserta; Ischia Surroundings

The palace was listed as a world heritage site in 1997. According to the rationale, the palace, "whilst cast in the same mould as other 18th century royal establishments, is exceptional for the broad sweep of its design, incorporating not only an imposing palace and park, but also much of the surrounding natural landscape and an ambitious new town laid out according to the urban planning precepts of its time."

The Caserta Palace has been used as a filming location in a number of movie productions. In 1967 it served as an US Army Headquarters in the movie, Anzio with Robert Michum.

The palace featured in Beautiful But Dangerous, starring Gina Lollobrigida, in 1955 and in the opening scenes of the film Anzio from 1968, starring Robert Mitchum. In 1997 it served as a filming location for Star Wars, used as the setting for Queen Amidala's royal palace on Naboo in the 1999 film Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. It featured again in the 2002 film Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones as Queen Jamillia's palace.

Palace of Caserta; Ischia Surroundings

The same room was also used in Mission: Impossible III as Vatican City. In the film, a Lamborghini car is blown up in a square inside the palace.

The main staircase is also used in Angels & Demons as the Vatican's staircase. Mezzo soprano Cecilia Bartoli used the palace as the primary location for the film L'art des castrats that accompanies her album Sacrificium, dedicated to the music written for the castrato singers of the baroque period.

More information here.

Michelangelo or Guevara Tower

The Michelangelo tower is the symbol of Ischia, along with the Castello. It majestically rises in front of the Castello, immersed in an immense green field, a few meters away from the very famous “Scogli di S. Anna” (The Saint Anna rocks).

The Torre di Guevara (commonly called the ‘Torre di Michelangelo’ or the ‘Torre di S. Anna’) is a many-towered house built on the eastern stretch of the island’s coast which looks upon the Castello (the natural result of telluric commotion dating back to the 2nd century A.D.which was completely fortified by Alfonso d’Aragona in 1433 when he pre-arranged and solicited with an organized measure the construction of towers along stretches of the adjacent coast so as to protect the little island).

Michelangelo or Guevara Tower

Within the context of serving as a building for defence, the Torre di Guevara was also a house-fortress, the owners being the Guevara family—dukes of Bovino—right up until the early 1800s. Butof Vittoria Colonna on the Castello d’Ischia and Michelangelo’s friendship with the noble castle-dweller have recently substantiated, along with the unfounded belief that Michelangelo had sojourned in the Torre Guevara (an ideal stationing for a ‘loving correspondence’ with his lover), a new, improper name for the building: the Torre di Michelangelo. In fact, in an attempt to confirm the presence of Michelangelo’s presence in Ischia this name has obscured another toponymy— an accredited one—theTorre di S. Anna", This name is due to the presence of a little church dedicated to Sant’Anna on this very site. The Torre di S.Anna was the designation used when the Guevara family abandoned the building. In fact, Torre di S.Anna was also the name used throughout the cartography of the 1800s. 

Michelangelo or Guevara Tower

The building is composed of three levels above the ground, the first floor having a scarp wall which ends with a bull made of live rock. The tower has a square layout and its geometry consists of openings bordered with texture weavings made of thick volcanic rock; this contributes to its accent of marked and intentional sobriety that translates into an image of refined and sophisticated elegance. It has become known as a significant work of the Neapolitan Renaissance..

Mount Vesuvius; Ischia Surroundings

Mount Vesuvius; Italian: Monte Vesuvio is a stratovolcano in the Gulf of Naples, Italy, about 9 km (5.6 mi) east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of several volcanoes which form the Campanian volcanic arc. Vesuvius consists of a large cone partially encircled by the steep rim of a summit caldera caused by the collapse of an earlier and originally much higher structure.

Mount Vesuvius; Ischia Surroundings

Mount Vesuvius is best known for its eruption in AD 79 that led to the burying and destruction of the Roman cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and several other settlements. That eruption ejected a cloud of stones, ash, and fumes to a height of 33 km (20.5 mi), spewing molten rock and pulverized pumice at the rate of 1.5 million tons per second, ultimately releasing a hundred thousand times the thermal energy released by the Hiroshima bombing. At least 1,000 people died in the eruption. The only surviving eyewitness account of the event consists of two letters by Pliny the Younger to the historian Tacitus.

Mount Vesuvius; Ischia Surroundings

The area around Vesuvius was officially declared a national park on June 5, 1995. The summit of Vesuvius is open to visitors and there is a small network of paths around the mountain that are maintained by the park authorities on weekends.

There is access by road to within 200 metres (660 ft) of the summit (measured vertically), but thereafter access is on foot only. There is a spiral walkway around the mountain from the road to the crater.

Mount Vesuvius; Ischia Surroundings

The first funicular cable car on Mount Vesuvius opened in 1880. It was later destroyed by the 1944 eruption. "Funiculì, Funiculà", a famous Neapolitan song with lyrics by journalist Peppino Turco set to music by composer Luigi Denza, commemorates its opening.

The Torrione museum

The Torrione stands in the homonym street, was built at the expense of the university at the beginning of the XVI century, has served as a watch and defense tower. It was equipped with several guns, one of which remained there until 1787 used to shoot blanks in the days of major religious holidays.

At the end of the last century, the city donated it to the sculptor Giovanni Maltese (1852-1913) who adapted it as his home and studio. Today is home to the Museum dedicated to the sculptor.

The Torrione museum

There are works that the sculptor had with him at the time of death. The British painter's wife Fayrer Fanny Jane (1851 Cumberwell Forio 1926), gave the tower, the town of Forio before he died.

SCULPTURES

Pidocchiosi by Maltese Giovanni

Pescatore, contadino, borghese by Maltese Giovanni

Naufragio di Agrippina by Maltese Giovanni

Naufrago by Maltese Giovanni

Donna anziana by Maltese Giovanni

Donna con orecchini by Maltese Giovanni

Giovane donna del popolo by Maltese Giovanni

Pescatore foriano by Maltese Giovanni

Uomo con la pipa by Maltese Giovanni

DESIGN

Autoritratti by Maltese Giovanni

Ritratto di Jane Fanny Fayrer by Maltese Giovanni

Giovane efebo by Maltese Giovanni

Soon it will be reopened the lower hall of the Tower to host art exhibitions.

Pompeii, Ischia Surroundings

Pompeii was an ancient Roman town-city near modern Naples, in the Campania region of Italy, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area, was mostly destroyed and buried under 4 to 6 m (13 to 20 ft) of volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.

Pompeii, Ischia Surroundings

Researchers believe that the town was founded in the seventh or sixth century BC by the Osci or Oscans. It came under the domination of Rome in the 4th century BC, and was conquered and became a Roman colony in 80 BC after it joined an unsuccessful rebellion against the Roman Republic. By the time of its destruction, 160 years later, its population was estimated at 11,000 people, and the city had a complex water system, an amphitheatre, gymnasium, and a port.

Pompeii, Ischia Surroundings

The eruption destroyed the city, killing its inhabitants and burying it under tons of ash. Evidence for the destruction originally came from a surviving letter by Pliny the Younger, who saw the eruption from a distance and described the death of his uncle Pliny the Elder, an admiral of the Roman fleet, who tried to rescue citizens. The site was lost for about 1,500 years until its initial rediscovery in 1599 and broader rediscovery almost 150 years later by Spanish engineer Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre in 1748. The objects that lay beneath the city have been preserved for centuries because of the lack of air and moisture. These artifacts provide an extraordinarily detailed insight into the life of a city during the Pax Romana. During the excavation, plaster was used to fill in the voids in the ash layers that once held human bodies. This allowed one to see the exact position the person was in when he or she died.

Pompeii, Ischia Surroundings

Pompeii has been a tourist destination for over 250 years. Today it has UNESCO World Heritage Site status and is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Italy, with approximately 2.5 million visitors every year.

Church of S. Restituta, Lacco Ameno Ischia

La Chiesa di Santa Restituta is located in the town of Lacco Ameno 

Where today rises the Church of S. Restututa, in the past raised the large roman cistern. Just here the first Paleochristian basilica was erected between the IV and V century A.D.

When the Carmelite brothers arrived in Lacco Ameno, took possession of the church, but at the end of the XVI century they tore down the old church and brought about changes, so the church appears today.

 Church of S. Restituta, Lacco Ameno Ischia

The actual façade in Neoclassic style was built in 1910. Entering the church, on the first chapel to the right, on a table of the 1500 one sees the image of Madonna del Carmine, in front of another statue of the Immacolata. In the background we find three canvases by Filippo Baldi.

Above and all around the church there are paintings with scenes of the martyr of S. Restituta by Mastroianni in 1883-1885.

Address: Piazza S. Restituta

Municipality: 80076 - Lacco Ameno

Holy Masses hours: dom 11:00 - 18:00/19:00

Bus lines: 1 - CD - CS

Naples City, Ischia Surroundings

Naples is the capital of the Italian region Campania and the third-largest municipality in Italy, after Rome and Milan. 

Before or after your stay in Ischia, we higly recommend you to visit this fabulous city. 

Naples City, Ischia Surroundings

Naples is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Bronze Age Greek settlements were established in the Naples area in the second millennium BC. A larger colony – initially known as Parthenope,  – developed on the Island of Megaride around the ninth century BC, at the end of the Greek Dark Ages. The city was refounded as Neápolis in the sixth century BC and became a lynchpin of Magna Graecia, playing a key role in the merging of Greek culture into Roman society and eventually becoming a cultural centre of the Roman Republic. Naples remained influential after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, serving as the capital city of the Kingdom of Naples between 1282 and 1816. Thereafter, in union with Sicily, it became the capital of the Two Sicilies until the unification of Italy in 1861. During the Neapolitan War of 1815, Naples strongly promoted Italian unification.

Naples City, Ischia Surroundings

Naples' historic city centre is the largest in Europe, covering 1,700 hectares (4,200 acres) and enclosing 27 centuries of history, and is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Naples has long been a major cultural centre with a global sphere of influence, particularly during the Renaissance and Enlightenment eras.  

Naples City, Ischia Surroundings

Popular characters and historical figures who have come to symbolise the city include Januarius (Gennaro), the patron saint of Naples, the comic figure Pulcinella, and the Sirens from the Greek epic poem the Odyssey. According to CNN, the metro stop "Toledo" is the most beautiful in Europe and it won also the LEAF Award '2013 as "Public building of the year". Naples is the Italian city with the highest number of accredited stars from the Michelin Guide. 

Naples City, Ischia Surroundings

Santa Maria al Monte

The church, Santa Maria al Monte, is located over 400 meters above sea level, is located in a natural setting of great charm and beauty, between forests, hiking trails, terraces and stone houses, ancient shelters for shepherds and farmers. 

This very beautiful church is located high up on the slopes of Mount Epomeo in Forio.

The Santa Maria al Monte Church is partially excavated in the tufa rock, it can be considered a typical example of mountain architecture. The building structure is very simple. The large courtyard in front of the stone benches, and presents an enormous cistern dug in the tuff for collecting rainwater. The facade is very simple, is topped by a rectangular structure with two bells and a spherical dome. The interior has a large central nave ending in the apse, flanked on the right side by a narrow aisle. In addition to the altarpiece depicting the Madonna with the anonymous saints Anthony Abbot and Paul the Hermit, the church has a wooden altar frontal with painted floral motifs, from the early seventeenth century, and residues of frescoes of the seventeenth century …

Address: Via Bocca

City hall: 80075 - Forio

Time of building: XVI - XVII sec.

Hour of Holy Masses: ---

Priest: Don Pasquale Sferratore

Bus lines: 1 - 14 - 2 - 9 - CD - CS

Procida Island

Procida is one of the Flegrean Islands off the coast of Naples. The island is between Cape Miseno and the island of Ischia. With its tiny satellite island of Vivara, it is a comune of the Metropolitan City of Naples, in the region of Campania. It is very densely populated with its about ten thousand people on a mere 4 km2 (hence more than 2000 people per km2).

Procida Island

Procida is small enough that you could walk most of the distances on the island. However, its narrow roads are busy with traffic and in places pedestrians have to flatten themselves against high walls as cars and buses pass. It's preferable to get around using the little island buses, which run frequently. These start on the harbour side of the church by the main port, with an additional bus stop stop close to the ferry jetty. You can buy tickets from the driver, though it's cheaper to buy them in advance in a bar or tabacchi - if you're staying on the island, it's worth buying a batch of tickets to save money on travel.

Procida Island

If you are visiting Procida for a day trip, walk up to the Terra Murata and visit the abbey if it's open. Admire the views over the Bay of Naples and of the Procida shoreline. Then head downhill to Corricella for a leisurely open-air lunch by the harbour. In the afternoon, if you have time, catch a bus to Chiaiolella where you can splash about on the beach before returning by bus to the port.

Procida Island

Procida has several beaches, of varying quality. The nearest beach to the port is just a few minutes' walk to the right as you disembark the ferry. There is another small beach on the far side of the big yachting marina, with a flight of steps climbing up towards the old part of town. Although fairly popular, neither of these beaches is terribly appealing. There is a better beach halfway along the island's length, on the eastern shore past Corricella. 

Procida Island

This beach, called Chiaia, is reached on foot, down a long flight of steps from Corso Vittorio Emanuele. On the north-western shore of the island is Cala del Pozzo Vecchio, a scenic round bay beneath cliffs, where part of Il Postino was filmed. The drawback here is that the cliffs above the narrow beach mean the sand is in shade for part of the day. Pozzo Vecchio is in an unusual setting, just beneath the island's cemetery (catch bus C1 then walk down a narrow lane on the right).