2 Best Sights in Pozzuoli, The Bay of Naples

Despite the wear and tear of the millennia and the loss of masonry during the Middle Ages, this site is one of the Campi Flegrei area's Roman architectural marvels. The amphitheater (seating capacity 40,000) was probably built under Vespasian (AD 70–AD 79), although some historians maintain that work started under Nero (AD 54–AD 69) and was merely completed later. As you approach, note the exterior's combination of volcanic stone masonry, arranged in a net-shape pattern, and horizontal bands of brick. This technique, typical of the late 1st and early 2nd centuries, was designed to reduce stress and minimize damage during seismic events. Despite this precaution, much of the superstructure has been lost: the outside part consisted of three stories surmounted by a decorative attic, while the sitting area would have had a portico above the top row of seats, decorated with statues and supported by columns. A surviving passageway near the ticket office leads into a complex underground network of carceres (cells), which is well worth a visit.

In classical times, the entertainment here consisted mainly of animal hunts, public executions, and gladiator fights. The hunts often involved lions, tigers, and other exotic animals imported from far-flung corners of the Roman Empire. The fossa, or large ditch in the arena's middle, may have contained the permanent stage setting, which could be raised when necessary to provide a scenic backdrop. According to tradition, several early Christians—including the Naples protector St. Januarius, or San Gennaro—were condemned to be savaged by wild beasts here under the Fourth Edict, passed in AD 304 by Diocletian, but the sentence was later commuted to a less spectacular decapitation, carried out farther up the hill in the Solfatara. The amphitheater is near the Pozzuoli Metropolitana railway station and a 15-minute walk from the Solfatara: the bubbling volcanic crater has been closed to the public since the tragic death of a family there in 2017. The Pozzuoli tourist office has event and other information.

Regarded by the ancients as the doorway to the Underworld, the fabled lake was well-known by the time the great poet Virgil settled here to write the Aeneid. Forested hills rise on three sides of the lake, and the menacing cone of Monte Nuovo (formed in 1538) looms on the fourth. Its name comes from the Greek Aornos ("without birds," Avernus in Latin). The water is "black," the smell of sulfur sometimes hangs over the landscape, and blocked-off passages lead into long-abandoned caves into which Virgil might well have ventured. Not far away is the spring that was thought to flow directly from the River Styx. It was there that Aeneas descended into the Underworld with the guidance of the Cumaean Sibyl, as famously recounted in the Aeneid. Today a gravel path around the lake is popular with joggers, cyclists, and walkers; it's well worth a detour from Lucrino through the dismal Via Italia to reach the peaceful, verdant water's edge. The lake walk is varied in its attractions: it starts by the waterfowl-flapping lakeside and Caronte seafood restaurant, then heads counterclockwise, passing Roman temple ruins, verdant slopes, and vineyards and fruit orchards, including fig trees. Among the reeds you'll spot a burgeoning population of non-native turtles. Adding to the myth-filled eeriness are a few abandoned buildings, including a discotheque and villa owned by a Camorra clan and seized by the police in 2010.