
Posillipo
Hillside quarter of cliffside villas and a hidden Roman theater above the Bay of Naples.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Posillipo in Naples uncovers a Roman theater seating close to two thousand, carved into the hillside by the nobleman Publius Vedius Pollio after his retirement following the Battle of Actium. It follows the villa he built above the Bay of Naples, the fish ponds and baths that came with it, and his guest Emperor Augustus, whose reaction to Pollio's cruelty became notorious. From there it jumps two thousand years to the Dutch painter Anton Sminck van Pitloo, who arrived around 1815 to paint this same coastline in natural light, and the movement of artists who followed him.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Parco Virgiliano
Clifftop park of terraced gardens with sweeping views over the bay to Vesuvius and Capri.
Area Marina Protetta Parco Sommerso di Gaiola
Marine reserve of sunken Roman ruins, snorkeled and kayaked over twin islets off Posillipo.
Parco Vergiliano a Piedigrotta
Roman-era tunnel and hilltop poets' tombs set among cypress-shaded, quiet park paths.
Palazzo Donn'Anna
Unfinished seaside baroque palace carved into a tufa cliff, abandoned mid construction and never completed.
Complesso Monumentale San Lorenzo Maggiore
Layered site of a Greek agora, Roman covered market and French Gothic basilica stacked over two thousand years.
LAPIS Museum - Museo dell'Acqua Napoli
Ancient Greek quarry turned Roman cisterns, later a wartime bomb shelter forty meters underground.