This is a land of volcanoes, extinct craters and focuses which are still active: the name of this long belt to the west of
Vesuvius comes from the Greek, and means ‘fiery earth’. The
Phlegrean Fields (Campi Flegrei) include Naples,
Pozzuoli, the promontory of the Miseno cape and, finally, Cuma, the oldest Greek colony on Italian territory. Even today, in this zone with the gentlest of climates, full of Roman settlements (such as at Baia and Pozzuoli), there is considerable geological activity, including the thermal sources of Agnano, the sulphurous
volcanoes of Pozzuoli, or the bradyseism which for centuries has been slowly making the serapes of this city sink or rise. It is also a land of lakes, which have remained imprisoned in the ancient craters, such as Lake Averno and Lake Fusaro; and finally a land of myths (such as that of the Cumaean Sybil), which still envelop it with an incredible halo of fascination."
