Pilastri Aqueduct

The Pilastri aqueduct was built in the sixteenth century, to remedy the shortage of water of the then Village of Celsa, now Ischia Ponte. About 550 meters long, it connects the Spalatriello, along the plain of the Rio Corbore, lookout hill that leads to Sant'Antuono. In 1580 the inhabitants of the Village of Celsa live the daily drama of a fair shortage of water. Main cause of the general heat is the final disappearance, after decades of bradeyism, the source of fresh water Ninfario that emerged at the Tower of Guevara (or Michelangelo). 

The complaints of the inhabitants of the Village of Celsa did not take long to reach the palace of the viceroy, Cardinal Antonio Granvela Perrenot, who did not remain indifferent to the pleas of Ischian people, promptly decided to send to the island knight Orazio Tuttavilla, a Spanish expert in water systems as "governor". 

Pilastri Aqueduct

Orazio Tuttavilla landed at Ischia in 1580 and took on the Buceto hill, accompanied by Calabrian doctor Giulio Jasolino. At an altitude of 400 meters was found a spring of fresh water, pure water, which flowed in the valleys of losing pool Fiaiano along a much steeper and therefore very favorable to build a plant in freefall, the only one knew at that time. 

The works began in 1581 with the digging 14 km deep, descent and tubes of cast iron sealed in lead. The workers yield before the fact that in front of them the plain of Rio Carbore and the climb of Sant’Antuono appeared. The rivulet of water, abundant in winter, but poor in summer, would not have pass the limits to across ground. The heavy cost were already over. These facts changed the Don Orazio’s projet, in orde to stop it. 

Pilastri Aqueduct

The turning point will be in 1673, when the bishop entered the diocese Girolamo Rocca. “Scientist” plumber began an important plan coping the building of Roman aqueducts realized avove bridges and arches, except retaining walls. The bishop Rocca ‘blessed’ the plan by dukes arrived on the occasion of the building and soon called authorities. 

A spring morning in 1685 the valiant bishop Girolamo Rocca, blessed the wonderful jet of the water of Buceto which flood the marble fountain, decorated with 4 dophins, adjoining the church of Collegiata.

Weighed on a slab of the fountain: these are waters deriving from food, thirst, as good master, learned to sustain hunger.

Cava Grado Beach - Sant'Angelo Ischia

Among cliffs to the sea, we find oasis of peace. A small inlet with sand and large pebbles surrounded by the Mediterranean maquis, in a marvelous land os sea.

Cava Grado Beach - Sant'Angelo Ischia

The beach of Cava Grado is situated in the municipality of Serrara Fontana. It's easly reachable across the street behind the square, where bus stop in Sant'Angelo, or across the path from the suburb of Succhivo.

Cava Grado Beach - Sant'Angelo Ischia

The route is covered by lines CD – CS – 1. If you prefer to move by car, an ample public parking can host your car, just a short walk from the beach.

Sant'Angelo, Ischia

Sant'Angelo is located on the southern coast of Ischia in Serrara Fontana; a pretty mixture of houses piled higgledy-piggledy on the slopes facing the sea. A small isthmus, alongside a packed beach, connects the mainland to a rocky outcrop, which was once topped by a tower destroyed by the English.

 Sant'Angelo, Ischia

Inland from Sant'Angelo and up in the hills are neighbouring villages such as Serrara Fontana, which is a good base for walks in the hills and up Monte Epomeo.

The long bay extending eastwards from Sant'Angelo is one of the island's most popular beaches, and within a short distance is an area of hot springs, which can be reached on foot or by water taxi. 

 Sant'Angelo, Ischia

Various excursions are possible by boat and water taxi, and set prices are displayed by the little jetty alongside the isthmus.

As well as a few beach shops and boutiques, Sant'Angelo is also home to some pleasant bars and restaurants with staggeringly-panoramic terraces.

 Sant'Angelo, Ischia

Sant'Angelo is connected with the rest of the island by frequent buses, which depart from a lay-by up the road from the bay.

Cava Grado Beach - Sant'Angelo Ischia

Among cliffs to the sea, we find oasis of peace. A small inlet with sand and large pebbles surrounded by the Mediterranean maquis, in a marvelous land os sea.

Cava Grado Beach - Sant'Angelo Ischia

The beach of Cava Grado is situated in the municipality of Serrara Fontana. It's easly reachable across the street behind the square, where bus stop in Sant'Angelo, or across the path from the suburb of Succhivo.

Cava Grado Beach - Sant'Angelo Ischia

The route is covered by lines CD – CS – 1. If you prefer to move by car, an ample public parking can host your car, just a short walk from the beach.

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.

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.

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

Pilastri Aqueduct

The Pilastri aqueduct was built in the sixteenth century, to remedy the shortage of water of the then Village of Celsa, now Ischia Ponte. About 550 meters long, it connects the Spalatriello, along the plain of the Rio Corbore, lookout hill that leads to Sant'Antuono. In 1580 the inhabitants of the Village of Celsa live the daily drama of a fair shortage of water. Main cause of the general heat is the final disappearance, after decades of bradeyism, the source of fresh water Ninfario that emerged at the Tower of Guevara (or Michelangelo). 

The complaints of the inhabitants of the Village of Celsa did not take long to reach the palace of the viceroy, Cardinal Antonio Granvela Perrenot, who did not remain indifferent to the pleas of Ischian people, promptly decided to send to the island knight Orazio Tuttavilla, a Spanish expert in water systems as "governor". 

Pilastri Aqueduct

Orazio Tuttavilla landed at Ischia in 1580 and took on the Buceto hill, accompanied by Calabrian doctor Giulio Jasolino. At an altitude of 400 meters was found a spring of fresh water, pure water, which flowed in the valleys of losing pool Fiaiano along a much steeper and therefore very favorable to build a plant in freefall, the only one knew at that time. 

The works began in 1581 with the digging 14 km deep, descent and tubes of cast iron sealed in lead. The workers yield before the fact that in front of them the plain of Rio Carbore and the climb of Sant’Antuono appeared. The rivulet of water, abundant in winter, but poor in summer, would not have pass the limits to across ground. The heavy cost were already over. These facts changed the Don Orazio’s projet, in orde to stop it. 

Pilastri Aqueduct

The turning point will be in 1673, when the bishop entered the diocese Girolamo Rocca. “Scientist” plumber began an important plan coping the building of Roman aqueducts realized avove bridges and arches, except retaining walls. The bishop Rocca ‘blessed’ the plan by dukes arrived on the occasion of the building and soon called authorities. 

A spring morning in 1685 the valiant bishop Girolamo Rocca, blessed the wonderful jet of the water of Buceto which flood the marble fountain, decorated with 4 dophins, adjoining the church of Collegiata.

Weighed on a slab of the fountain: these are waters deriving from food, thirst, as good master, learned to sustain hunger.

Sant'Angelo, Ischia

Sant'Angelo is located on the southern coast of Ischia in Serrara Fontana; a pretty mixture of houses piled higgledy-piggledy on the slopes facing the sea. A small isthmus, alongside a packed beach, connects the mainland to a rocky outcrop, which was once topped by a tower destroyed by the English.

 Sant'Angelo, Ischia

Inland from Sant'Angelo and up in the hills are neighbouring villages such as Serrara Fontana, which is a good base for walks in the hills and up Monte Epomeo.

The long bay extending eastwards from Sant'Angelo is one of the island's most popular beaches, and within a short distance is an area of hot springs, which can be reached on foot or by water taxi. 

 Sant'Angelo, Ischia

Various excursions are possible by boat and water taxi, and set prices are displayed by the little jetty alongside the isthmus.

As well as a few beach shops and boutiques, Sant'Angelo is also home to some pleasant bars and restaurants with staggeringly-panoramic terraces.

 Sant'Angelo, Ischia

Sant'Angelo is connected with the rest of the island by frequent buses, which depart from a lay-by up the road from the bay.

Cava Grado Beach - Sant'Angelo Ischia

Among cliffs to the sea, we find oasis of peace. A small inlet with sand and large pebbles surrounded by the Mediterranean maquis, in a marvelous land os sea.

Cava Grado Beach - Sant'Angelo Ischia

The beach of Cava Grado is situated in the municipality of Serrara Fontana. It's easly reachable across the street behind the square, where bus stop in Sant'Angelo, or across the path from the suburb of Succhivo.

Cava Grado Beach - Sant'Angelo Ischia

The route is covered by lines CD – CS – 1. If you prefer to move by car, an ample public parking can host your car, just a short walk from the beach.