Acheloo travels - Villa Campolieto, Hercolaneum

Welcome back to everyone!

This article is the result of a long and detailed historical research. We hope you will find it interesting.
The area we want to introduce is the so-called "Miglio d’oro". This is a road with beautiful baroque villas (Ville Vesuviane), that from Naples arrives to Torre Annunziata, passing through Portici and Ercolano.
In XVIII century, Naples became the cultural centre of European Enlightenment for its natural beauties and for the charm of the classical myth and history. For these reasons in 1738 the Bourbon royal family and many noble families choose Portici and the surrounding areas, to build their new royal palace and aristocratic houses,  attracted by nature and the beginning of the excavations at Herculaneum.
The XVIII century sees also the birth of the modern concept of cultural tourism. In fact to complete their education, upper-class European young men undertook  the "Grand Tour": an educational travel to Europe in search of the classical antiquity and historical myth. The trip could last from several months to several years and Naples was the last and most attractive Italian city where travellers stopped. Sometimes, arriving in Naples, the journey  had no return because  people fell in love with the place so much, that decided to stay forever. It is the case of Lord William Beckett, who fell madly in love of Ravello and settled there for the rest of his life.

Today it is not easy to have the same feelings of wonder and curiosity that characterized the protagonists of the Grand Tour, but we can still visit some places where we can share intense emotions such as those described by Goethe in his "Italian Journey":

"(...) You'll never really adjusted to give an idea of this sea, this bay, this Vesuvius of this city with its suburbs, and with its castles, and above all of this air we breathe. (...) How to describe the magnificence of the streets, squares, gardens, the sea, when illuminated by the moonlight, as I see them lit up tonight? I am taken from the vertigo of infinite space, and in this sweet charm, my mind is dreaming things that i can dream only here. "- Wolfgang Goethe

To live those emotions we have to go back over the road of  “Miglio d’oro”. There we find the Royal Palace of Portici, Villa Ruggiero, Villa Campolieto and all the other aristocratic houses nearby. All that will report at the time of the Bourbons and their court. We can not fail to visit the archaeological excavations of Herculaneum and Oplontis, and the famous ruins of Pompeii to be fascinated by the myth of Roman classicism.
Very interesting to visit in this area, the Archaeological Virtual Museum at Herculaneum, a centre of culture and technology applied to the history.
We conclude our journey with an ascent to the cone of Vesuvius, to get to the main cause of so much death and destruction, and yet of so much history.
Why you are still waiting? Contact us and we will help you to plan and live this “historical” dream.

Acheloo travels - Vesuvius and the ruins of Pompei

 

Christmas time



San Gregorio Armeno st.

At Acheloo travels we are very busy during these days, preparing our windows for Christmas: colored lights, an original Christmas tree and  so many offers to propose to our customers during this holiday period. This time we want to offer our readers something different, a return to our origins and lost traditions. A walk back in the past to find the colors, smells, tastes and sounds of Christmas in Naples streets beginning from the end of November.

We start our visit from the heart of Christmas market in Naples in Via San Gregorio Armeno: the historic center of the ancient Greco-Roman city, the largest historic center in Europe (1,700 hectares), listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, with 27 centuries of history, and more than 400 churches! Along this narrow street, a series of workshops expose and sell outside on the street, all kinds of shepherds, and all the accessories and objects necessary for the scene of nativity. In some shops, it is also possible to assist at artisans’ work, while assembling and painting their handmade shepherds.

At the end of the street of San Gregorio Armeno, we reach the little square in front of the Basilica of San Lorenzo, dating back 1200. Beneath San Lorenzo, about half of an original Roman market has been excavated . In this area each corner, each stone, each building tells a story: Naples underground, the ruins of the Roman theatre inserted into the walls of the buildings, the church of  "anime pezzentelle" (“poor souls”)


At lunchtime, the return to origins, brings us to the "Cantina", a sort of canteen. At the beginning of the century, in the old wineries in Naples, people could buy wine and they could spend some time sitting at a table with friends, eating something with a glass of wine. Today these sort of wineries are very few , but they are the only places where you can try popular dishes of the ancient Naples, eating in a warm and homely everyday atmosphere, in the heart of the city.

Contact us for information about this itinerary