HIDDEN GEM:THE PHLEGRAEAN Fields are the highly seismic, volcanic zone on the northwestern corner of the Bay of Naples.
This is the geological context of the unearthly Solfatara of Pozzuoli, with its noxious fumaroles; of Lake Avernus, a volcanic lake so menacing that the ancients believed it was the entrance to Hades; and of Baiae, the ancient Roman spa par excellence, known mostly for its, um, nightlife, but also taken seriously as a place to get well. The dying Emperor Hadrian had himself carried there as a last resort.
Molten magma still seethes under the earth’s crust in Pozzuoli, making mud boil and rocks spew steam. The ancients supposed the Solfatara’s rugged crater above the town was the entrance to the underworld, and you can see why as you amble between the ash piles, melted mudbanks and hissing fumaroles, or spurts of sulphurous steam, which puff out their pungent bad-egg stench. Black mud bubbles luxuriantly; the walls of the crater smoke away busily. At the far end the Bocca Grande, the biggest fumarole of them all, stains the rocks bright yellow as it spurts out a forceful pillar of steam.
The ancient site of Cumae (above) is where Greeks founded their first colony on the Italian mainland in the eighth century BC. Cumae was known as the seat of a sibyl, or prophetess, and even today the site is an evocative spot where groves of holm oaks grow over the ruins. At its heart, in the midst of the ruins of temples, is the long passage, carved through the pliable volcanic rock and still well preserved, along which suppliants accosted the sibyl for her words of wisdom.
** A local train serves Pozzuoli and Cuma from Naples. A ticket costs 77c and is valid for 90 minutes of unlimited travel
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