Southern Italy Study Tour: Castellamare di Stabia

After two days of full breakfast buffets (with eggs and bacon!) in the Naples hotel, it was time to make our way further South. We took a bus tour of various archeological sites along (and out of) the way. Our first stop was Cuma, which is actually North of Naples, where there are Greek ruins of an oracle's cave and a Temple to Jupiter. We had about an hour to explore these ruins before we moved back down the coast.

Cave of the Sibyl

Our next stop was Baia, an ancient imperial palace complex built into the side of a hill. These ruins were like a huge playground, just waiting for us to run around, climb, and explore. The highlight of Baia was definitely the so-called "Temple of Mercury." It was a huge, flooded domed space with 4 side windows and a central oculus. The acoustics and rippling movement of light reflected off the water were what made the space fascinating. Even the faintest sound was amplified and echoed throughout the space.

The so-called "Temple of Mercury"

The next stop after Baia was the Anfiteatro di Flavio, an ampitheater where, unlike the Colosseum in Rome, some of the seating and the floor are still preserved. You can actually go into the underground cells of the ampitheater, which were really neat because it gave a much clearer representation of how Roman ampitheaters would have worked than just gazing at the ruins of the Colosseum did. The Flavian Ampitheater in Rome was a disappointment; the Flavian Ampitheater just north of Naples was fascinating.

Underground cells at the Anfiteatro di Flavio

We finally arrived at our hostel at Restoring Ancient Stabiae in the town of Castellamare di Stabia in the late afternoon. In our free time before dinner, a group of us decided to walk down to the beach and admired Mount Vesuvius from the southside.

Vesuvius from Castellamare di Stabia

Eventually, we headed back up to our hostel to watch the sunset from our hilltop fourth floor terrace. That was another thing I noticed about Southern Italy: where we were along the coast there were a lot of cliffs and hills. The long, uphill and downhill treks around the cities we visited left almost everyone feeling sore and tired by the end of the trip.

Sunset view from the hostel at Castellamare di Stabia