RECOMMENDED EXCURSIONS

 BACOLI

• Cenni Storici

• The "Piscina Mirabile"

CENNI STORICI

The Homeric legend has it that the aerial promontory was the burial place of one of Ulysses' companions, whom Virgil transformed into Aeneas's trumpeter, Misenus. Cumae early used the port of Miseno, whose importance was more firmly established when Augustus made it the Tyrrhenian naval base. Among the prefects of the Misenian Fleet were Tiberius Claudius Anicetus, who murdered Agrippina by Nero's order, and Pliny the Elder, who perished in the eruption of Vesuvius (A.D. 79). The whole promontory and the surrounding hills of Bacoli were covered with Roman villas, of which the most sumptuous was Marius'villa, later the property of Lucullus. The emperor Tiberius died there in A.D. 3 7.
The modern town of Bacoli (in ancient times called "Bauli", owing to the cowsheds (boualia built by Hercules for the cattle he stole from Geryon) spread out around the church of St. Anne and became a self-governing commune on 19 March 1919.

THE PISCINA MIRABILE

Built during the Augustan age,this immense water reservoir, entirely dug in the tufa bank, was the terminal outlet of the Serino aqueduct. 70 m. long, 25.50 m wide and 15 m. high, its vault being supported by 48 pilasters, the piscina Mirabile had a capacity of about 12,600 cubic metres and formed a precious water reserve for the Roman fleet at Miseno.