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Once a Roman quarry for tufa blocks, this cavern became a gruesome depository for the city’s dead during the cholera epidemic of 1884. Graves and tombs were emptied all over Naples and the skulls stacked here – some 40,000 in all, with the addition of still more during the cholera outbreak of 1974.

Most of the ancient city of Baia now lies underwater, due to the shifting of the coastline and slow seismic disturbances. What you can still make out just below the surface of the water, however, are remnants of the grandiose port and parts of various villas and temples (see Baia).

Cumae was founded in the 8th century BC and played a significant part in history, due to its resident seeress. The Cumaean Sibyl, priestess of Apollo and similar to her counterpart at Delphi, was an oracle who exerted great influence, and the leaders of Rome depended on her prophecies and guidance in times of crisis. A visit to the Sibyl’s Grotto, with its weird trapezoidal entrance tunnel, remains an enigmatic experience.

For special events of any kind, you can’t do better than this. The food is excellent, focusing on a rich assortment of seafood antipasti notable for its delicate finesse, while the views are sublime, taking in the sweep of the entire bay. Be sure to commandeer a terrace table; the striped canopies and delightful multicoloured tile floor create an irresistibly charming impression.

This traditional amusement park might be showing its age a bit and isn’t giving Disney any competition, but kids of all ages will find plenty to enjoy. Rides include a Big Dipper, a Ghost Train, a Canoe Flume and Bumper Cars, as well as several more high-tech options. A low-tech, old-fashioned choice that never fails to delight is Le Nuvole, a theatre group that features puppets and mime.

With all the hills in the area, both in Naples and around the bay, these fun people-movers have proved a charming necessity. The most accessible and important ones, that inspired the rousing ditty “Funicolì, funicolà” , are those that take you from the historic centre up to Vomero.

This town, largely a resort in ancient times located right on the sea, was also buried alive by by mud and lava from Vesuvius. The resulting preservation is, if anything, even better, bringing down to us wooden structures and other more perishable materials. However the excavations began in the 18th century when the science of archaeology had yet to be developed, so diggers were not very careful, being mostly on a royal treasure hunt for statuary, mosaics and fresco paintings (see Herculaneum, Oplontis & Stabiae).

The island of Ischia is surmounted by an extinct 788-m (2,585-ft) volcano, Monte Epomeo, and the many hot mineral springs here (some of them radioactive) have drawn cure- and pleasure-seekers to their soothing sources since ancient times. Green and rugged in appearance, the island also benefits from fine, long beaches. Like Capri, Ischia has had its share of famous residents – in the 19th century the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen wrote Peer Gynt during a stay here, while in the 20th century the English poet W.H. Auden and his homosexual circle scandalized the locals. The island was also the first place in the area to be colonized by the Greeks, in the 8th century BC.