Campania, Italy — Towns & Travel Guide

What is Campania known for?

Campania draws its fame from the volcano and the ruins beneath it. Pompeii and Herculaneum were buried by Mount Vesuvius and later dug from the ash, and they remain among the most complete Roman towns anywhere, walked daily by visitors who come for the frescoes and streets. The Amalfi Coast lines the cliffs to the south.

Capri sits offshore. The Royal Palace of Caserta and the Historic Centre of Naples round out a region thick with old stone.

Where is Campania?

Campania occupies the south-western part of the Italian Peninsula, along the Mediterranean. Naples anchors the region. The capital stands on a broad bay, with the cone of Mount Vesuvius rising close behind it, the volcano whose ash and slopes have shaped the land and its farms over many centuries.

Most of Campania lies on the mainland, yet the region also reaches well out to sea. The small Phlegraean Islands and the island of Capri sit off the coast near the bay. At the foot of Mount Vesuvius lie Pompeii and Herculaneum, the two Roman towns the volcano buried and preserved.

South of Naples, the Amalfi Coast follows a line of cliffs that fall straight into the water, the shore road bending around one rocky headland after another. The terraces above it carry lemons and vines. Mount Vesuvius is held within the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves, a recognition of the volcano and the habitats on its flanks.

Inland, away from the sea, the land rises toward Benevento and Caserta and the quieter towns of the interior. The plain around the bay stays among the most worked farmland in southern Italy.

What is Campania like?

Campania carries more ancient history per mile than almost any region in Italy. Naples is the heart of it. The Historic Centre of Naples layers ancient streets, churches and palaces into one dense quarter that has been lived in without a break for a very long time.

Pompeii and Herculaneum hold the other side of that story, two Roman towns stopped mid-life by Mount Vesuvius and studied ever since as a record of the ancient day-to-day. Together they make one of the country's deepest concentrations of antiquity. Later rulers left their own marks.

The Royal Palace of Caserta stands inland as one of the grandest palaces the old kingdom built, its formal gardens stretching well beyond the long facade. At Benevento, the small Longobardian Church of Santa Sofia survives from the Lombard era. The Amalfi Coast adds a different register of lemon terraces, ceramics and sea-facing towns.

Campania also keeps a place on the wider stage, hosting NATO's Allied Joint Force Command and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean near Naples. Churches, ruins and the sea run through all of it.

What is the history of Campania?

Layer on layer, Campania has been settled since deep antiquity. Roman towns like Pompeii and Herculaneum thrived beneath Mount Vesuvius until the volcano buried them, sealing their streets for the archaeologists who would later dig them out. Naples became a royal capital.

The Longobardian Church of Santa Sofia at Benevento and the Royal Palace of Caserta mark the long stretch of Lombard, then royal, rule that followed. Campania took its modern form as an administrative region of Italy in 1970.

What is the climate of Campania?

Campania has a Mediterranean climate, shaped by the sea on almost every side. Campania's summers turn hot and rainless. Along the bay and the Amalfi Coast, the water keeps the worst heat off and holds the warmth late into autumn, so the coastal towns stay mild while the inland plain bakes.

Winters are gentle and wetter, with rain rather than snow on the lowland. Higher ground near Mount Vesuvius and the interior turns cooler and cloudier.

How do you get to Campania?

Most travellers reach Campania through Naples. The capital is the regional hub for trains, roads and boats, and from its port the ferries fan out to Capri, the Phlegraean Islands and the towns of the Amalfi Coast. Trains run inland to Caserta and Benevento.

Buses and the cliffside road carry visitors along the coast, where parking is tight and the boat is often the easier way in. From Naples, the rest of southern Italy lies within easy reach.