Italy without a car. Castellammare di Stabia
What to see There are a lot of sights in Maiori, but the most important here is the Castello di San Nicola de Thoro-Plano Architecture-nature beautiful landscapes. This is the place that you can admire every day. Leisure and Leisure Spiaggia Di Minori is an excellent place to relax. Leisure nature won't hurt anyone. Hotel base The average price of a hotel in Maiori is $90 per room. Everything depends on your needs. Safety-cleanliness Maiori is one of the cleanest... May 8, 2019
I had some doubts about the Stabiae - is it worth going to Castellammare di Stabia for the sake of two more Vesuvian villas? On the one hand, Stabiae are mentioned on a par with Pompeii and. On the other hand, there are practically no eyewitness reviews on the Internet. Even at the Villa Poppea in Oplontis, someone at least occasionally, but got there, but nothing definite about the Stabiae, only historical information.
In general, I decided to go on exploration. Also, I would like to see resort town Castellammare di Stabia, in which, by the way, our aristocrats also liked to relax in the 19th century, and welcomed Gogol there (in 1838, Nikolai Vasilyevich moved here from Rome at the invitation of Repnina-Volkonskaya and worked all summer on "Dead Souls" ).
From Naples to Castellammare di Stabia there is an electric train (Circumvesuviana branch, direction towards Sorrento).
I went there from Torre Annunziata, after a tour. To be honest, I had absolutely no idea where the Stabian (or Stabian) villas were located, hoping to find out everything on the spot. And so it happened.
My itinerary from Castellammare di Stabia station to Via Nocera station, stopping at Villas Ariadna and San Marco
Time breakdown: 45 minutes - from Naples to Castellammare, 20 minutes from the station to Villa Arianda, in the villa - about 40 minutes, then 25 minutes transfer to Villa San Marco, there is about an hour, and from the second villa to Via Nocera station another 15-20 minutes. And back to Naples about 40 minutes.
It is possible to make a roundabout from Via Nocera station. I just wanted to see more Castellammare.
In general, I got on the train and went.
The next stop after Torre Annunziata was Pompeii (Pompei Scavi). Many got off at this station.
Soon the wooded Lattar Mountains arose to the left. The train then dived into the next tunnel, then again found itself in the light. We drove almost back to the steep slope.
Castellammare di Stabia. Way to Villa Ariadne
I got off at the Castellammare di Stabia station.
To the right of the tracks, towards the sea, the city stretched out; to the left, mountains rose. From the city to the top of the mountain Monte Faito stretches cable car. On the other side of the mountain range lies the Amalfi Coast. From Castellammare to the pass can be reached by car in an hour or twenty hours.
I walked around the town a little - without much emotion. The entrance to the beach was blocked off with a red mesh - something was being redone there, preparing for the summer season. On the wall of one house I saw a sign that the author of the Neapolitan hit "Funicular, Funicula" Luigi Denza was born in this house.
There were locals outside the coffee shop. I asked how to get to "scavi" (excavations). All at once began to warmly advise me something, and one girl tried to convince me that there was no need for a scavi, it was better to take a funicular to the mountains - very beautiful views.
The magazine seller gave me a map of the city and marked the first villa with a pen. Somehow I felt too far away.
But in fact, quite quickly I rose above the city (from the station square Unita d’Italia along Regina Margherita street), reached the ring, and the woman I met in time told me where to go next.
We had to cross the busy Via Puglia and follow Via Varano. This street leads to the plateau of Varano, where the ancient villas of Stabia are located.
I didn't like Varano Street right away. It was narrow and deserted, stretching along a narrow corridor between a fence and a slope, and walking there alone, clutching a SLR and a bag, was unpleasant.
Soon, however, orange orchards and dachas began.
I perked up. And then an iron gate appeared with the inscription " Villa di Arianna I sec D.C.»
I came to Ariadne's villa. The journey from the station to the villa took 20 minutes.
Before we go to the villa, I will tell you a little about the Stabiae.
Stabiae - Castellammare. Brief historical background
In the 8th century BC. the first settlement appeared on the slopes of the Lattara Mountains, which eventually turned into a beautiful ancient city Stabiae.
In 89 BC, during civil war The Stabiae were destroyed by Sulla's legionaries.
In its former form, the city was no longer revived, but on Varano plateau, on these fertile lands with numerous mineral springs, rich patricians began to build country villas.
During a memorable eruption in 79, all these rich luxurious villas were buried under a layer of volcanic ash.
Considering that Stabiae is located 15 km from Vesuvius, you can imagine with what force the red-hot masses escaped to the surface of the earth and what path the flows of lava and ash made.
It is believed that few people died in the Stabiae themselves. The most famous victim who died here during the eruption of Vesuvius was the historian Pliny the Elder. He arrived here to observe the course of events (during the entire eruption, the scientist took notes), spent the night there at his friend's villa. The next morning it became clear that it was impossible to stay in the Stabiae: red-hot stones and ashes flew at the city, it was dark as night. Pliny and his companions tried to get out of the city along the sea, at some point he fell behind and got lost. His body was found three days later.
Centuries passed, and the memory of the cities buried under a layer of lava and ash gradually began to fade.
A city arose on the site of the ancient Stabiae Castellamarre di Stabia, famous for its thermal springs and mineral waters and shipyard.
The mineral waters of Stabiae were valued by the ancients, the same Pliny studied their effect. In this place, mineral waters are very diverse in their composition. Now there are two thermal complexes:
— Old terms located in the center of Castellammare and also serve as the cultural center of the city
— New terms, a modern medical center located in the foothills.
And what about the ancient city, you ask, are excavations underway?
Excavations are underway, and it seems that in this place, where you don’t dig the earth, you are likely to stumble upon traces of former lives. So, a necropolis with burials of the 8th-2nd centuries BC was found here.
In 1749, at the direction of King Charles of Bourbon, excavations began on the Varano plateau. Three villas have been discovered: San Marco, Shepherd and Ariadne. The frescoes and valuable items found on them were transported to the Royal Palace in Portici, and then to.
Soon the attention of archaeologists switched to Pompeii and Herculaneum, and work on the Varano plateau temporarily stopped.
In the middle of the last century, excavations resumed in the Stabiae, and they continue to this day. The villas of Ariadne and San Marco are now open to the public. They are located 25 minutes walk from each other. Both villas have a combined ticket for 4 euros, which also includes visits to Villa Poppea in Oplontis and the Museum in Boscoreale.
Villa Ariadne
So, I ended up in front of the gate to the villa. Just outside the gate stood a small house and a lone car with him. A woman came out of the house and checked my ticket.
From the gate, I went along the path, along which lay fragments of capitals and earthenware jugs, and soon came to a green, flat field with olive trees.
The villa itself is located a little lower, you need to go down the stairs to it.
The Varano Plateau is a wide terrace, a kind of flat step on the side of a mountain. Its edge abruptly breaks down, and on this edge is the villa of Ariadne (and the subsequent villa of San Marco, too). In front of the villa, along the cliff, a balcony created by nature and people stretches, from which a view of the modern city rising from below stretches. A piece of the sea is visible, and Vesuvius, of course, also rises in the distance.
From the left edge of the villa stretches a wide rectangular field, the so-called "Great peristyle". (Peristyle is a courtyard surrounded by a colonnade). This peristyle is really huge. There used to be a garden inside it.
In the villa, frescoes on the walls and mosaics on the floors in the form of black and white geometric patterns have been preserved in some places.
Figure with a book in the window opening
Each room is provided with explanations of what is depicted here (if the fresco remains) or what was depicted (if the fresco was moved to the Archaeological Museum in Naples or the British Museum in London). Most of the frescoes have perished. They say that when you try to remove them from the walls, they crumbled into small pieces.
And here is the same fresco with the sleeping Ariadne, from which the villa got its name. Dionysus arrives in Naxos and sees Ariadne.
What expressive eyes Dionysus has:
There is a fresco with Ariadne in the triclinium. The Triclinium is the hall where feasts were held. The triclinium could accommodate several tables.
On three sides of each table there were beds for those who were feasting, and food was served on the fourth side. It was supposed to eat lying down, leaning on the elbow. Three people could fit on one bed (at an angle to the table). Considering that the feasts lasted for several hours, one can imagine how painful it was to lie in one position. However, they must have been trained since childhood.
Kitchen, office space
Staircase to the second floor
Spacious atrium with pool in the middle
The enfilade of rooms stretches endlessly along the edge of the cliff. Behind the main part begins the so-called Second Complex.
There were no visitors at the villa except for me. My loneliness was broken only by the museum curator - a girl who from time to time came across me on the way.
I liked Arianda's villa. And with enthusiasm I went to the next Villa San Marco.
Villa San Marco
From the villa of Ariadne I went to the left, along the same Via Varano, only now the street was inhabited, gardens and private properties came across on it.
One of the modern villas along the road
Villas, meanwhile, did not exist and did not exist. I had been walking for about twenty minutes, and even began to doubt whether I had missed her for an hour. There were few people along the way, only occasionally cars passed by. But rare passers-by confirmed the correctness of the direction. In the end, I was almost running, because it was approaching 5 o'clock, and the entrance to the villa stopped from 5 o'clock, the museum was open until 6 pm. And I already knew from experience that the Italians (especially the southern ones) will not sit out a minute at work and will not miss the opportunity to close the museum early.
At last the pointer to the Villa San Marco appeared. I turned left inside the quarter, got a little lost, and behind one of the houses (in the photo - a house made of gray stone) I found the entrance to the villa.
Behind this house, on the right, is the Villa San Marco
Time was 5 hours 2 minutes. At the box office sat a full uncle in years. Seeing me, he vigorously shouted: "Closed." I—out of breath and indignant—expressed my indignation in a mixture of Italian and English, and he waved his hand.
Descent to the villa
True, there were people at the villa - two married couples who soon left, and I, like the first time, walked around the villa alone, only occasionally meeting with the caretaker (who was also not happy about my sudden appearance).
Villa San Marco is bigger and more interesting. First of all, the visitor enters a high peristyle-atrium with an outdoor pool in the middle.
One of the frescoes
One art critic said that since the discovery of the frescoes in Stabiae, Impressionism has aged two thousand years. Can not argue.
An interesting detail is that in front of the entrance to different rooms, in the doorway, on the floor there is a rectangular “rug” made of mosaic, each “rug” has its own pattern.
Thermal complex
Magnificent nymphaeum with swimming pool
The frescoes along the wall alternate between trees on a yellow background and medallions on a red one. The frescoes are made in the IV Pompeian style (about the styles of frescoes -)
Like this unusual shape had Villa San Marco - similar at the same time to the plane and the airport
Adjacent to the nymphaeum are rooms where frescoes have also been preserved. Perseus with the head of Medusa, Iphigenia with a torch
Copy of a marble vase with reliefs found in the Villa San Marco (the original is in the Archaeological Museum in Naples)
Bronze bird decorating the fountain in the garden (also a copy)
Villa San San Marco has two levels. From the nymphaeum I climbed the ramp to the upper peristyle
Column with relief
Views from the terrace
The caretaker was already following me relentlessly and giving me expressive glances. I did not delay the two museum employees much, quickly finished my inspection and left the villa. Before I even reached the main road, a cashier in his car rushed past me.
And I soon went to railway, crossed it over the bridge and ended up in the middle of the city. It turned out that there is a station nearby. Via Nocera(I walked from Villa San Marco to the station in about 15 minutes). Such a funny station. Imagine: around people, cars. Suddenly a whistle blows, the barrier goes down. An electric train of four carriages slips past houses and cars, and city traffic is turned on again.
You will not envy the inhabitants of the first floors of this house
So at the Via Nocera station my acquaintance with the town of Castellammare di Stabia ended, I took the train and went to.
My day turned out to be “archaeological”: in the morning -, then - Villa Poppea in Oplontis, in the evening - two villas in Stabiae.
All three villas are different, all interesting and worth visiting. Getting to Villa Poppea was not difficult, but getting to the villas in Stabiae is inconvenient. Public transport from the station to them does not go, you have to rely on your feet. As I understand it, Stabiae is visited, as a rule, by those who travel in their cars. Or those who came to rest in Castellammare di Stabia or the nearest cities: Vico Equense and Sorrento.
However, as my experience shows, if you wish and if you have four hours of free time, you can do this journey on your own: come by train from Naples and walk to both villas, and return to Naples from the Via Nocera station.
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In the evening, having descended from, we went to see Castellammare di Stabia. There is nothing unusual in it. Standard coloration, characteristic of the region of the Gulf of Naples. There is gouging in the air, everything around is unsettled, but nice.
View of Vesuvius, behind it somewhere Naples, and if you look to the left of Vesuvius, then in good dry weather you can see the rocks of Capri.
The city faces west, so here you can catch "touchdowns" - the moments when the sun touches the horizon.
When Vesuvius is in the frame, it is much more interesting. 
Here is a view of the volcano at night. 
In Castellammare, two things are immediately shocking. Black beach. The Gulf of Naples owes such beaches to the volcano. And an incredible amount of garbage and the accompanying stench. 
We can say that this is a local tourist flavor. And not only and not so much local residents are to blame. For 15 years now, garbage collection in Naples has been controlled by the local mafia "Comorra". She turned it into a fairly profitable business, the annual turnover of which is estimated at 7 billion euros. True, this is a business for the health of the Neapolitans, all the inhabitants of Campania and tourists. During for long years the mafia used landfills not only to bury local garbage, but also brought waste, including toxic waste, from the north of the country. As a result, the polygons were gradually filled and closed, new ones were opened. This continued until the densely populated region ran out of free space. Solid waste landfills began to be created even on the territory national park Vesuvius.
At the same time, near Naples, two waste incineration plants have been waiting for quite a long time to be put into operation, which could partially solve the problem, moreover, providing the region with an additional source of energy. However, the Comorra directed all its efforts to prevent their launch.
In 2008, the confrontation between the local authorities and the "Komorrah" reached its climax. Despite intimidation and copious bribes, the mafiosi were unable to secure new garbage collection rates. Comorra suspended the work of companies that removed waste. For several weeks, Naples was mired in mountains of rubbish. locals took to the streets, demanding to clean up the city in the literal sense of the word. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi flew in to solve the problem personally. The crisis was resolved, but only temporarily. Cars with waste were sent to landfills in neighboring regions. The Neapolitan "trash card" has long been a political trump card that is played when votes are needed.
Similar crises recurred in subsequent years. In 2010, residents of one of the villages near which the new landfill was built even blocked the road leading to it. Garbage trucks were able to get to the landfill only under police protection, and even then with a fight.
Despite the fact that now it seems that cleaning is underway, the consequences of the events of 2008 have not yet been eliminated. Spontaneous dumps remained. The beaches are littered with rubbish. The salvation of those drowning in shit is the work of the drowning themselves. In Castellammare di Stabia, a civic initiative has been created to clean up the local beach, which was closed due to mountains of garbage. Every day, four volunteers come to the seashore and clean up plastic bottles, wrappers and other household waste for a couple of hours before sunset. So far, it has been possible to clear about 300-400 meters of a long beach several kilometers long. 
But okay, enough of the sad stuff. Castellammare has a promenade with a number of catering establishments. On Saturdays and Sundays, there is a spontaneous market with Africans selling counterfeit goods and some crafts, and local "entrepreneurs" with popcorn, donuts, grilled corn and other nonsense.
Monument to sailors 
In the harbor area 
Exact time 
This is how fruits are cooled, and they simply do not let them wither. 
And so they trade 
local italians 
A very funny sculpture. Only from a certain angle it can be seen that this satyr grabbed the nymph by the leg. And so it seems that his head is growing out of ... 
They let out lanterns 
Selling stupid souvenirs 
and living creatures 
A helicopter flew in to put out forest fires. He took water from the bay and flew somewhere to the mountains.
Only after sunset did the helicopter-winged firefighter decide to rest. 
One day we got to sagra. This is a public holiday held in honor of some product. Everyone gathers and eats at large tables, listens to performances by local artists, donates money for the needs of the municipality and other charity. We saw the sagra of some seafood and small fish.
