Bay of Naples & Southern Italy
Now fully redesigned, this new edition contains the most up-to-the-minute practical information and listings, along with color photographs and maps. Cadogan explores the home of pizza, seeking out the pleasures of chic Positano and the Amalfi Coast, where Mount Vesuvius towers over the fantasy garden frescoes of Pompeii; the ravishing landscape of Capri; and vibrant Naples, with its world-famous restaurants and nightlife. Aside from the bright lights of the islands and the coast, the guide covers the inland regions of Southern Italy the casual tourist rarely sees: the mountain plateaux of rugged Calabria, Puglia, with its flavors of Greece and Africa, and remote Basilicata, the province of Matera, made a World Heritage Site for its astonishing neighborhoods of cave homes.
Extract: The Lady and the Dragon
The first Normans came to southern Italy in the 11th century as pilgrims to the great shrine of St Michael at Monte Sant’Angelo in Puglia. Obviously, they could have saved themselves a long journey by choosing the saint’s northern branch office, Mont Saint Michael, close at hand at Normandy. Yet Monte Sant’Angelo must have had a reputation even then; in fact, this is one of the most uncanny sites in Christendom. The light and air, the austere treeless landscape, and the dramatic mountaintop setting all conspire to strangeness, and the churches and shrines of the town only add to the effect.
Across Europe the cult of St Michael was often associated with water, especially underground water. At Monte Sant’Angelo, the sanctuary is a cave that once had a flowing fountain in it. ...click here to read the rest
Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls can be reached at: michel.pauls@wanadoo.fr
