HerculaneumHerculaneum (hɜːrkjʊˈleɪniəm; Neapolitan and Ercolano) was an ancient Roman town, located in the modern-day comune of Ercolano, Campania, Italy. Herculaneum was buried under volcanic ash and pumice in the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Like the nearby city of Pompeii, Herculaneum is famous as one of the few ancient cities to be preserved nearly intact, as the ash that blanketed the town protected it against looting and the elements. Although less known than Pompeii today, it was the first and, for a long time, the only discovered Vesuvian city (in 1709).
CapriCapri (ˈkæpɹi , USalsokəˈpɹiː,_ˈkɑːpɹi ; ˈkaːpri) is an island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrento Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in the Campania region of Italy. The main town of Capri that is located on the island shares the name. It has been a resort since the time of the Roman Republic.
PositanoPositano (Campanian: Pasitano) is a village and comune on the Amalfi Coast (Province of Salerno), in Campania, Italy, mainly in an enclave in the hills leading down to the coast. The climate of Positano is very mild, of the Mediterranean type; the winters are very warm with minimum temperatures that almost never fall below , while the summers are long, warm and sunny but often refreshed by the sea breeze. Thanks to the mild temperature and the beauty of the landscape, Positano has been a holiday resort since the time of the Roman Empire, as evidenced by the discovery of a villa in the bay.
LavaLava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or underwater, usually at temperatures from . The volcanic rock resulting from subsequent cooling is also often called lava. A lava flow is an outpouring of lava during an effusive eruption. (An explosive eruption, by contrast, produces a mixture of volcanic ash and other fragments called tephra, not lava flows.
Ancient RomeIn modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC), Roman Republic (509–27 BC), and Roman Empire (27 BC–476 AD) until the fall of the western empire. Ancient Rome began as an Italic settlement, traditionally dated to 753 BC, beside the River Tiber in the Italian Peninsula.
Colonies in antiquityColonies in antiquity were post-Iron Age city-states founded from a mother-city (its "metropolis"), not from a territory-at-large. Bonds between a colony and its metropolis remained often close, and took specific forms during the period of classical antiquity. Generally, colonies founded by the ancient Phoenicians, Carthage, Rome, Alexander the Great and his successors remained tied to their metropolis, but Greek colonies of the Archaic and Classical eras were sovereign and self-governing from their inception.
ComuneA comune (koˈmuːne; plural: comuni koˈmuːni) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions (regioni) and provinces (province). The comune can also have the title of città ('city'). Formed praeter legem according to the principles consolidated in medieval municipalities, the comune is provided for by art. 114 of the Constitution of Italy. It can be divided into frazioni, which in turn may have limited power due to special elective assemblies.
Mount VesuviusMount Vesuvius (vᵻˈsuːviəs ; Vesuvio veˈzuːvjo, -ˈsuː-; 'O Vesuvio o vəˈsuːvjə, also 'A muntagna or 'A montagna; Vesuvius wɛˈsʊwi.ʊs, also Vesevius, Vesvius or Vesbius) is a somma-stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of several volcanoes forming the Campanian volcanic arc. Vesuvius consists of a large cone partially encircled by the steep rim of a summit caldera, resulting from the collapse of an earlier, much higher structure.
NaplesNaples (ˈneɪpəlz ; Napoli ˈnaːpoli; Napule ˈnɑːpələ) is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's administrative limits as of 2022. Its province-level municipality is the third-most populous metropolitan city in Italy with a population of 3,115,320 residents, and its metropolitan area stretches beyond the boundaries of the city wall for approximately 20 miles.
Phlegraean FieldsThe Phlegraean Fields (Campi Flegrei ˈkampi fleˈɡrɛi; Campe Flegree; from Ancient Greek phlégō 'to burn') is a large region of supervolcanic calderas situated to the west of Naples, Italy. It was declared a regional park in 2003. The area of the caldera consists of 24 craters and volcanic edifices; most of them lie under water. Hydrothermal activity can be observed at Lucrino, Agnano and the town of Pozzuoli. There are also effusive gaseous manifestations in the Solfatara crater, the mythological home of the Roman god of fire, Vulcan.