Early morning I made my way to the train station, to catch a train to Baia to visit the underwater archaeological park with a glass bottom boat. But as I´ve already told you I got the wrong train and had to go all the way etc and when I called them to change my booking for the afternoon boat, I was told that all boat tours had to be cancelled because of the rough sea. So I just decided to leave the train at Pozzuoli, take a walk around the city and then take the bus to the Campi Flegreri and the Solfatara volcano.
Macellum di Pozzuoli
The market building of the Roman city of Puteoli was excavated in the 18th century and first misidentified as the city’s “serapeum” or Temple of Serapis.
Pozzuoli started as Greek settlement until it became a Roman one in 194 BC and the food market was built between the late first and early second century AD.
The building was in the form of an arcaded square courtyard, surrounded by two-storey buildings. Shops lined the marble floored colonnade forming an arcade with 34 grey granite columns. The main entrance and vestibule were positioned on a main axis, which lined up across a tholos in the centre of the square to the exedra for worship which had a porticoformed by four large cipollino marble columns. (Wikipedia)
Pozzuoli Harbour
During Greek times Pozzuoli (back then called Dicaearchia) and also Roman times was the main port for Campania, the grain ships from Alexandria and all over the Roman world. Also for goods exported from Campania, including blown glass, mosaics, wrought iron, and marble. Nearby Miseum was the largest Roman naval base and it was also the site of the Roman Dictator Sulla’s country villa, where he died in 78BC.
Pozzuoli was the major trading harbour under the Romans.
It was the harbour where the apostle Paul landed on his way to Rome, He stayed for seven days and his journey by the Appian Way to Rome.
l`Anfiteatro Flavio
The Anfiteatro Flavio Puteolano is the third largest Roman amphitheatre located in Italy, it was probably built by the same architect who had designed the Roman Colosseum. There was enough space for 50.000 spectators.
The site of the structure was chosen at the nearby crossing of roads from Naples, Capua and Cumae. It was abandoned when it was partially buried by eruptions from the Solfatara volcano. During the Middle Ages, the marble used on the exterior was stripped, but the interior was left alone and is perfectly preserved. (Wikipedia)
When you´ve been to the Colosseum in Rome you probably remember the huge crowds of tourists, in Pozzuoli, I was almost alone all the time, the few people visiting got really lost in the huge complex.
After some lunch and caffé, I was ready to go on to the Campi Flegreri and the Solfatara. I found a bus stop, asked someone and started waiting. After about one hour I was still waiting, others waited too but for different buses and absolutely none were coming and nobody knew why… So the Campi Flegreri and the volcano have to wait for another time! I went back to the train station and took the next train to Baia to visit the old Roman Terme di Baia.
