Page 489 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Italy

SOUTHERN IT AL Y  487

NAPLES AND

CAMPANIA

The capital of Campania, Naples is one of the few
European cities of the ancient world that has never
been completely extinguished. Founded by Greeks,
it was embellished and enlarged by the Romans and in
subsequent centuries was the much-prized booty of foreign
invaders and Imperialists – most prominently the Normans,
Hohenstaufen, French and Spanish.
Naples today is a chaotic yet spectacular The ancient history of Campania is linked
metropolis sprawling noisily and dirtily to the Etruscans and the Greeks, whose
around the edge of the Bay of Naples. massive ruins can be seen at Paestum.
To one side is Mount Vesuvius; facing from Next came a time of great prosperity
the sea are the islands of Capri, Ischia and under the Romans; archaeological
Procida. Pompeii and Herculaneum, lying evidence of this still exists at Benevento,
in the shadow of the volcano that destroyed Santa Maria Capua Vetere and Pozzuoli.
them, contain the most revealing Roman The hinterland, with its rich, well-
ruins in Italy. cultivated plains, is eclipsed by the
For centuries Naples dominated the Amalfi coastline with its breath-taking
Italian south, or Mezzogiorno (land of the views and the terrific seaboard of the
midday sun). Unemployment and crime Cilento. The mountainous interior, remote
are a problem – the Camorra is as deep- and unvisited, contains small towns that
seated here as the Mafia is in Sicily – but were settled by the Greeks, developed by
there is also an attractive, rude ebullience the Romans and often abandoned in the
to the city. wake of malaria and Saracen attacks.

Tall buildings lining a typical street in the historic centre of Naples
Picturesque beach and town of Amalfi, the largest town on the Amalfi Coast

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