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ARCH OF HAPPINESS (Arco Felice) CUMEAN RUINS (Rovine di Cumean) BAIA/BACOLI POZZUOLI Day Five - Feb 23, 2005 * still working on individual image descriptions for this gallery ;-) ARCO FELICE On Via Domitiana (east of Cuma) carved through Mount Grillo (Mount Cricket), you'll pass through The Arch of Happiness. Standing about 64 ft. high it was built by Emperor Domitian in the 1st century A.D. According to the legend, those who pass through the arch and kiss their lover will be happy for all their life. Located at the thirtieth mile, it connected to Rome via the Appia and reached Pozzuoli and Naples, while a minor branch conducted to Cumae and Miseno.
CUMEAN RUINS West of Naples, Cuma was one of the first outposts of Greek colonization in what is now Italy. The Cave of the Cumaean Sibyl (Antro della Sibilla) was dug by the Greeks in the 5th century B.C. and was sacred. Beloved by Apollo, the Sibyl is said to have written the Sibylline Oracles, a group of books of prophecy bought, according to tradition, by Tarquin the Proud. The Sibyl is also said to have ferried Aeneas, son of Aphrodite, across the Lago D'Averno, where he traced a mysterious spring to its source, the River Styx.
LAKE AVERNO (Lago D'Averno) West of Naples and a bit north of Baia, is a lake occupying an extinct volcanic crater between Monte Nuovo (Mount New) and Monte Grillo (Mount Cricket). Known to the ancients as the Gateway to Hades, its vapors were said to produce illness and death. Facing the lake are the ruins of what has been known as the Temple of Apollo from the 1st century A.D. and what was once thought to be the Cave of the Cumaean Sibyl. In the 1st century B.C., Agrippa turned it into a harbor for Roman ships by digging out a canal.
BAIA/BACOLI Baia -- In the days of Imperial Rome, the emperors -- everybody from Julius Caesar to Hadrian -- came here to frolic in the sun while enjoying the comforts of their luxurious villas and Roman baths. It was here that Emperor Claudius built a grand villa for his first wife, Messalina (who spent her days and nights reveling in debauchery and plotting to have her husband replaced by her lover -- for which she was beheaded). It was here that Claudius was poisoned by his last wife, Agrippina, the controlling mother of Nero. Nero is said to have had Agrippina murdered at nearby Bacoli.
POZZUOLI The port of Pozzuoli opens onto a gulf screened from the Bay of Naples by a promontory.
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We went market shopping in the morning before sight seeing where we bought larry a jacket and we got gloves for our freezing fingers! We shopped the Navy Base in Agnano in the afternoon -- where we bought, books, shot glasses, a venetian mask and a tapestry bag We had fresh Panini for lunch from a little local deli near Cumae  Larry  Annaliese We had cappuccinos at "Malibu" in Pozzuoli  Laura Annaliese Curran-Harris: "Sa'ida" Cabaret Dancer Shot this day at The Baths of Jupiter Pozzuoli, Italy That night we drove the autostrada back to Fiumicino and stayed at the Courtyard Marriot on Via Portuense near the airport near our morning flight back home |
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