Parco Vergiliano a Piedigrotta

This guide to Parco Vergiliano a Piedigrotta in Naples follows the Crypta Neapolitana, a volcanic-rock tunnel engineer Lucius Cocceius Auctus cut through the hill around 37 BC for the general Agrippa's fleet route to Naples. You'll hear how the tunnel's near-perfect equinox alignment fed a medieval legend that the poet Virgil carved it himself overnight by magic, and how Spanish rulers kept reinforcing the passage for centuries after. It follows the path up to the ridge where Virgil's tomb is said to stand, and where the poet Giacomo Leopardi was later reburied nearby.