Located : The largest city in southern Italy and capital of Campania Region

It was in Naples, in the 'Castel dell'Ovo' (Castle of the Egg), that Romulus Augustus, the last Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, was imprisoned after being deposed in 476. In the sixth century, Naples was conquered by the Byzantines during the attempt of Justinian I to recreate the Roman Empire, and was one of the last duchies to fall in Norman hands in 1039, as they founded the Kingdom of Sicily.

Frederick II Hohenstaufen founded its university in 1224. In 1266 Naples and the kingdom of Sicily were assigned by Pope Clement IV to Charles of Anjou, who moved the capital from Palermo to Naples. In 1284 the kingdom was split in two parts, with an Aragonese king ruling the island of Sicily and the Angevin king ruling the mainland portion; while both kingdoms officially called themselves the Kingdom of Sicily, the mainland portion was commonly referred to as the Kingdom of Naples. This kingdom was much larger than just the city; it covered about the southern third of the boot of the Italian peninsula.

The two parts would stay separate until 1816, when they would form the kingdom of Two Sicilies. The two kingdoms were united under Spanish rule 1501, until 1715, when Naples became Austrian until 1734. Under the enlightened Bourbon monarch Charles, king of both Sicilies (Utriusque Siciliarum) (later known as Charles III of Spain), gained independence. In 1799, a Jacobin revolution (backed by the French Army) gave birth to a short-lived republic (January - June 1799).
In 1861, the kingdom was conquered by the Garibaldines and was handed over to the king of Sardinia. In October 1860 a plebiscite sanctioned the end of the kingdom of Sicily and the birth of the state of Italy.

The opening of the funicular railway to Mount Vesuvius was occasion to the writing of the famous song Funiculì Funiculà, one more song in the centuries long tradition of Neapolitan songs. Many Neapolitan songs are also famous outside of Italy, as for example "O Sole Mio", "Santa Lucia" and "Torna a Surriento".

On April 7, 1906 nearby Mount Vesuvius erupted, devastating Boscotrecase and seriously damaging Ottaviano. In 1944 the activity closed with a spectacular and devastating eruption; images from this eruption were used in the film The War of the Worlds.

Tacitus records that there were twelve Imperial villas in Capri. Ruins of one at Tragara could still be seen in the 19th Century. Suetonius reports that when the foundations for the villa were being excavated, giant bones and 'weapons of stone'were discovered, which Octavian Augustus ordered to be displayed in the garden of his main residence, the Sea Palace, one of the first displays of fossils.

Located : Around the Bay of Naples Campania Region

It is late morning on August 24th in the year 79 A.D. A thick black cloud rises from Mt. Vesuvius. The cloud takes the form of a huge pine tree, and gets larger by the minute. In just a few hours it completely covers the sky, while burnt rocks begin falling everywhere. The Earth continues to tremble and in full daylight night falls on Pompeii and its surroundings. The most disastrous and deadly phase of the eruption arrives in just a few hours, at sunrise on the 25th. The sea withdraws, and burning floods of vapor filled with ash expand at the velocity of a hurricane on top of trees, humans, and anything in the way. This petrifies the people of Pompeii, who try leaving the city while protecting themselves from the falling rocks with pillows and blankets. Pompeii becomes buried and time has completely stopped. Oil-lamps, necklaces made of precious stones, weights, gladiator helmets, aqueduct and drainage pipes, beds, incisions on the entrances of grocer's shops, amphoras, carts, frescoes in the houses of the rich, streets, kitchen utensils in bronze and iron, statues of Gods, even a lover's last kiss. All things are immobilized in their last breath of life which they must infinitely repeat. We have found first-hand accounts from distances far away. Two extraordinary and touching letters exist by Pliny the Younger -- the historian of the Roman era who found himself in Campania at the time of the volcanic eruption -- in which he narrates what he saw and what he heard from the few survivors who fled Pompeii just in time.

The town was founded around the 6th century BC by the Osci or Oscans, a people of central Italy, on a hill near the mouth of the Sarno River or Sarnus River, already in use as a safe port by Greek and Phoenician sailors. When the Etruscans threatened an attack, Pompeii allied with the Greeks, who then dominated the Gulf of Naples. In the 5th century BC, the Samnites conquered it (and all the other towns of Campania); the new rulers imposed their architecture and enlarged the town. It has been supposed that during the Samnites' domination, Rome conquered Pompeii for a while, but these theories have not been verified.

Pompeii took part in the war that the towns of Campania initiated against Rome, but in 89 BC it was besieged by Sulla. Although the troops of the Social League, headed by Lucius Cluentius, helped in resisting the Romans, in 80 BC Pompeii was forced to surrender after the conquest of Nola. It became a Roman colony with the name of Colonia Cornelia Veneria Pompeianorum. The town became an important passage for goods that arrived by sea and had to be sent toward Rome or Southern Italy along the nearby Appian Way.

In 62 a violent earthquake severely damaged Pompeii and many other towns of Campania. In the time between 62 and 79 (the eruption), it was rebuilt, perhaps richer than before in houses and artworks.

The town offers a snapshot of Roman life in the 1st century. This moment in time shows that Pompeii was a lively place before the eruption, and evidence abounds of literally the smallest details of everyday life. For example, on the floor of one of the houses (Sirico's), a famous inscription Salve, lucru (Welcome, money), perhaps humorously intended, shows us a trading company owned by two partners, Sirico and Nummianus (but this could be a nickname, since nummus means coin, money). In other houses, details abound concerning professions and categories, such as for the "laundry" workers (Fullones). Wine jars have been found bearing what is apparently the world's earliest known marketing pun, Vesuvinum. Graffiti carved on the walls shows us real street Latin.

At the time of the eruption, the town could have had some 20,000 inhabitants, and was located in an area in which Romans had their vacation villas. Many services were found: the Macellum (great food market), the Pistrinum (mill), the Thermopolia (sort of bar that served cold and hot beverages), the cauporioe (small restaurants), and an amphitheater.