Naples and Caserta

This area hosts first of all the region’s capital, Naples, and secondly Caserta, playing an important role throughout history. This area is enormously rich in cultural sites. Naples, sandwiched between a sleeping volcano and the steaming Campi Flegrei, Naples is a rumbling mass of contradictions. Grimy streets hit palm-fringed boulevards, crumbling façades hide baroque ballrooms and cultish shrines flank cutting-edge clubs. The city is extremely plenty in museums, civic, historic and religious monuments, onto many remarkable piazzas. The city of Naples is characterized also by an underground city, the also called Napoli Sotterranea, hiding many centuries old archaeological and cultural sites. Caserta on the other hand boasts a very particular history, divided between Caserta Nuova and Caserta Vecchia, offering to the keen cultural traveller an authentic historical treasure trove, with the world famous Reggia di Caserta, the grandiose Italian Palace, constructed under the supervision of Luigi Vanvitelli for Carlo VII of Bourbon, King of Naples. The medieval town of Caserta Vecchia is located around ten kilometres from the splendid Reggia in Caserta. A cylindrical tower is all that remains of the ancient castle which once had six towers. It stands on the summit of the hill and dominates the village. Narrow little streets lead down from the castle to the Piazza del Vescovado. It is mainly the Cattedrale di San Michele Arcangelo attracting travellers and art historians.