ISCHIA
campania
Sites: Ischia Porto, Casamicciola Terme, Sant'Angelo d'Ischia
Ischia is the greatest island in the Gulf of Naples, with a surface of 47 sq.kms. and a population of 50.000 inhabitants. Its territory is divided into six municipalities: among them the main one is the town of Ischia, which occupies the northeasterly corner of the island and which is by tradition divided into the two zones of "Ischia Porto" (Ischia Harbour), the most recent one built around the harbour, and "Ischia Ponte" (Ischia Bridge), the historic centre risen under the Aragonese Castle.
ISCHIA PORTO
The harbour of Ischia had been inaugurated on September 17th 1854 by the King of Naples Ferdinand II of Bourbon, who made it built in the small natural lake which occupied an old volcanic crater. Before the warm thermal water flowing on the lakeshore favoured a flourishing fish-breeding, but often in summer transformed it into a marsh, so this area was not inhabited up to the XVII century, when they made an excavation to join the lake with the fresh sea water, but closed by a gate to keep all the fishes inside.
When the marsh was drained, then were built the first houses. On the small hill near the southern shore of the lake it was built in the 1735 a villa for the vacations of the First Court Surgeon Francesco Buonocore, which became soon a sort of luxury clinique and royal annexed to host the most important guests of the King, who could there enjoy a pleasing holiday and the thermal cure. After the Neapolitan Revolution, whose exponents occupied the villa for its symbolic value, it came under the direct Royal property and was called "Casina Reale" (King's House), name still used nowadays, despite of the fact it is seat of the Army of Italian Republic. For the inauguration of the harbour they prepaired a magnificient celebration: a great parade of more than two hundreds boats came into the port, guided by the Royal Barge, followed by some military ships and a multitude of steamboats, sailing boats and rowing boats, all filled with jubilant people. The King enjoyed the spectacle on the top of the incline which is on the westerly side of the harbour mouth, where later he made build a villa in oriental style, called "La Pagoda" and which today hosts some public gardens with pinewood and a lookout terrace over the port on the inside and over the Gulf of Naples on the outside. The construction of the Bourbon harbour provoked a strong rising of the economic activities: new roads and new buildings were built on the whole area between the harbour and the historic centre of "Ischia Ponte", till then mostly occupied by large and luxuriant pinewoods. At the beginning of the XX century Ischia became the preferred resort by Neapolitan middle classes for their summer vacations: they take for rent a house from the inhabitants in the new centre near the harbour and by a short walk they came to the large beach of "Villa de' Bagni" (Swimming Villa). Thermal baths, seaside and pinewoods: a wonderful combination for health and for the touristic development. The new centre of Ischia developed around the axis of Corso Vittorio Colonna, the main street for the evening stroll and center of the worldy life of the island, who runs parallel to the waterfront of Villa de' Bagni (between "Punta San Pietro"near the port and "Punta Molina") and then of "Spiaggia dei Pescatori" (Fishermen's Beach, between "Punta Molina" and "Sant'Antonio" near Ischia Ponte).
.jpg "Ischia - Harbour of Ischia")
From the harbour you reach the promenade through "Piazza Antica Reggia" and "Via Roma" (Rome Street) where are concentred boutiques and stores for the shopping and the entartainment of island's guests. At night these streets get busy and give an unforgettable impression to enjoy a collective festivity, a great sole party under the stars. In front of the harbour there is the Church of "Santa Maria di Porto Salvo" (Our lady of Safe Harbour), also built by Ferdinand the Bourbon, in order to provide the harbour with its own religious center. At a few distance from the port there is a Funicular leading to the top of the hill called "Montagnone" (Big Mountain) where is a lookout terrace from which you can look over the whole centre of Ischia Porto, with Procida and the Phlaegrean Fields on the background.
CASAMICCIOLA TERME
Casamicciola Terme is the town located in the middle of the northern side of Ischia island, between the towns of Ischia and Lacco Ameno. The tradition says that the name comes from "Casa Nizola" (Nizola's House) a Roman matron who couldn't walk anymore and who recovered by dipping her legs into the warm water of a stream flowing near her house. That stream has been located in the fountain of Gurgitello, the most plentiful thermal basin in the island. This legend has been represented also in the banner of the municipality of Casamicciola (showing a lady with her legs into water) which in the 1956 added to its name the qualification of "Terme" (Thermal) to emphasize its thermal vocation. The development of Casamicciola began in the XVII century, when on the fountain of Gurgitello it had been built the thermal complex of "Pio Monte della Misericordia" of Naples, divided into two sections: one for religious and the other for the laymen. It had been enlarged several times and in the XIX century it hosted up to 2.000 people per season, an extraordinary amount for that time, when tourism and travelling were reserved to few lucky people. Nearby, around the "Piazza Bagni" (Baths' Square), they rouse during the second half of XIX century several other thermal establishments, which made Casamicciola the most renown and appreciated thermal resort in Europe: here came Kings and Princes, noblemen and notables, artists and writers. At those times the sand shore of Casamicciola , used as landing shore for boats, wasn't inhabited. The small town developed around "Piazza Maio" (Maio Square) but the house were mostly spread on the hills all around, especially on "La Sentinella" (The Sentry), where the noble villas were soon turned in luxury hotels to host the eminent guests. That Golden Age for Casamicciola was unfortunately and suddenly interrupted in the night on July 28th 1883, when a tremendous earthquake with its epicentre right under Casamicciola destroyed completely the whole town with its villas, its hotels and the thermal establishments. The reconstruction after the earthquake was fast and the thermal establishments were all fully restored, but the consternation around the high society was strong and Casamicciola were left out of the international circles of elite tourism. The reconstruction privileged the coastline, creating the new centre around "Piazza Marina" (Marina Square) in front of which it had been built also the harbour in the Twenties of XX century. However Casamicciola has continued to be a frequented and appreciated thermal resort: its water was even sold in barrels, carried by ship to Naples.
Even if the new centre is on the seashore, the most attractive beauties of Casamicciola are on the hills around. On the "Sentinella", where the beautiful panoramic view make us understand why the european high society chose Casamicciola as holidays destination, there is the Bourbonic Geophysical Observatory. In its interiors there is a small museum of the instruments used at those times for observations of earthquakes and a collection of volcanic rocks. On the border dividing from the municipality of Ischia, on Monte Rotaro, there are the "Bosco del Castiglione" (Castle's Wood) on the side facing the sea, and the "Bosco della Maddalena" (Magdalene's Wood) on the side towards inland. The latter is 45 hectares wide and occupies the whole "Fondo d'Oglio" between Monte Rotaro and Monte Cretaio. These hills were once all volcanic craters and the fertile ground of lavic origin produced a luxuriant vegetation. From the originary volcanic activities they remain testimonies in some "Fumarole" still active and visible inside the wood. Because of the earthquakes which stroke Casamicciola in the past, there aren't many historic buildings to visit. Besides the "Pio Monte della Misericordia", reconstruction of the first thermal establishment in the isle of Ischia, we can mention the churches of the Holy Hearth, Saint Gabriel, San Pasquale, of the Good Advice, of Our Immaculate Lady. The parish church of Saint Magdalene keep an altar of the XVII century, saved from the previous ruined church, and a statue of Magdalene given to the church by Francis II of Bourbon when he was in exile.
SANT'ANGELO D'ISCHIA
Sant'Angelo is the seafaring village which is located in front of the islet with the same name, an imposing crag with a pyramidal shape, 109 metres high and joined to the main island by a sandy strip 120 metres long. Upon the islet, which is the southern extremity of Ischia, during the Middle Ages it was built a small monastery, transformed in the XVIII century into a military stronghold, named "Torre Sant'Angelo" (St. Angel's Tower), with several powerful pieces of artillery, capable to defend the whole southern side of the island. It was attacked by the British fleet in 1809 with a shelling bombardment which caused the explosion of the ammunition magazine. It wasn't rebuilt anymore and nowadays they remain only some ruins. Up to 1948 (when it was completed the car road joining to the hamlet of Panza and then to Forio) Sant'Angelo lived in splendid isolation, since it was reachable only through the sheer paths coming from the villages of Serrara and Fontana, passing through the ravines excavated into the tufa rocks by the stream water, or through the long and hard crossing of the Maronti Beach. It had not even its own Postal office and to deliver the mail the postman came down from Serrara once or twice a week. The most part of the tourist don't venture down there, but was satisfied to see it from the Epomeo. Also for that reason Sant'Angelo was deeply loved by the few appassionate people who came here and rented a room from villagers. The fishing village had an economy based mainly upon the commerce of agricultural products coming from villages and hamlets on the southern side of Mount Epomeo, which had no other landing points on the sea: Succhivo, Serrara, Fontana, Noia, Buonopane, Barano. By the muletracks through the ravines, they came here the mules loaded with barrels of wine, exported up to Sardinia and Tunisia. The difficulties and the isolation had created among villagers a strong community feeling, symbolized by the "vira-vira", a four armed winch powered by 12-16 men used to hoist aground everyone's boat with the help of all the others.
Sant'Angelo had its first approaching to mass tourism after the rediscovering of the thermal baths of Cava Scura, belonging to the Roman Age and then abandoned: they consisted of a series of grottos excavated in the tufa with rudimental basins made out from the walls to collect the thermal water and mud baths. Together with the sand baths in the "Fumarole" on Maronti Beach (where it is possible to cook an egg only putting it into the sand) this thermal centre exerted a wide attraction, stimulating the growth of tourist offer and the transformation of the old fishing village into a sea resort. Nowadays all hotels have their own internal structure for thermal baths and mud, so the thermal grottos of Cava Scura aren't frequented anymore, but they remain as testimonies of local history. Sant'Angelo has become an exclusive tourist resort with luxury hotels, bar and restaurant at open-air which give a strong and lasting sensation of relax and peacefulness. In fact into the village and to the beach you can't arrive by car, because the road passes upside the village, without touching the characteristic set of streets and starways paved with stones and winding through houses in such an irregular way. Sant'Angelo is an hamlet of the Municipality of Serrara Fontana, while the adjacent Maronti Beach is part of the territory of Barano, but it is only a mere administrative division, becouse they constitute an indissoluble natural and historical unit.
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