BAIA, THE ROMAN PARADISE BENEATH THE SEA IN BACOLI

Musings of The Grandma...

There are places where history lies beneath our feet. In Baia, history lies beneath the sea. Hidden along the coast of the Campi Flegrei (Phlegraean Fields), just a few kilometres from Pozzuoli, Baia was once the most luxurious seaside resort in the entire Roman Empire. Senators, generals and emperors escaped the noise of Rome to spend their days surrounded by thermal springs, magnificent villas and breathtaking views across the Bay of Napoli.

If ancient Rome had a Riviera, this was it. Julius Caesar visited. Cicero owned a villa nearby. Emperors including Nero, Hadrian and Septimius Severus all spent time here. Luxury was not simply part of Baia. Luxury was the reason Baia existed.

The volcanic activity beneath Campi Flegrei had created countless hot springs, allowing the Romans to build some of the most sophisticated thermal baths of the ancient world. Vast domes covered enormous bathing halls, while engineers channelled naturally heated water through an intricate network of pools and steam rooms.

The so-called Tempio di Mercurio, Tempio di Venere, and Tempio di Diana are not temples at all. They are the surviving domed halls of an immense Roman bathing complex, remarkable examples of engineering that anticipated architectural techniques later perfected in monuments such as the Pantheon.

Even today, their soaring brick domes inspire admiration. Yet the greatest wonder of Baia cannot be seen from land. It lies beneath the waves. Over many centuries, the same phenomenon that continues to shape the Campi Flegrei -bradyseism- slowly caused large parts of the ancient city to sink below sea level. Streets, villas, mosaics, statues and harbours gradually disappeared beneath the Bay of Napoli, not because of a catastrophic disaster, but through the almost imperceptible movement of the Earth's crust. The sea became an unexpected guardian. Instead of destroying Baia, it preserved it.

Today, the Parco Archeologico Sommerso Di Baia is one of the world's most extraordinary archaeological sites. Divers can swim along ancient Roman roads, admire colourful mosaic floors, pass elegant marble columns and encounter statues that appear to emerge from the blue Mediterranean water.

More information: Parco Archeologico Sommerso Di Baia

Few museums allow visitors to float above two thousand years of history. For those who do not dive, glass-bottom boats reveal a remarkable underwater landscape where archaeology and marine life coexist in perfect harmony. Fish now weave through rooms that once echoed with the conversations of Roman senators. Octopuses shelter among marble ruins. Sea grass gently covers ancient mosaics. Nature has quietly reclaimed an imperial city. Baia was famous not only for its beauty but also for its reputation.

Ancient writers often described it as a place of extravagant parties, political intrigue and endless indulgence. The poet Sextus Propertius even warned respectable citizens to stay away, while the philosopher Seneca criticised the excesses that had become synonymous with the town. Whether entirely deserved or slightly exaggerated, Baia became the Roman symbol of luxury without limits. And yet, walking through its ruins today, another thought emerges. Power fades. Empires disappear. Nature remains. Perhaps that is what makes Baia so extraordinary. It is not simply an archaeological site. It is the meeting point of three great forces that have shaped the history of Campania: volcanic geology, Roman civilisation and the Mediterranean Sea. Together, they created a place unlike any other on Earth.

Baia reminds us that history is not always buried underground. Sometimes... it sleeps beneath the waves.

The Grandma was fortunate enough to visit the underwater ruins of Baia before they became the organised archaeological park we know today. As a student at the University of Napoli Federico II, she had the rare privilege of diving among villas, statues and mosaics that had rested beneath the sea for centuries. Back then, visitors were even allowed to gently touch some of the sculptures -a privilege that would rightly be unthinkable today. It was one of those experiences that forever changes the way you understand history.

What impressed her most was not simply that an ancient Roman city had sunk beneath the sea, but that it still felt alive. Fish swam through rooms where senators once walked. Sunlight danced across mosaics laid almost two thousand years ago. Time itself seemed suspended beneath the Mediterranean.

In the 1990s, Campania struggled to preserve such an immense archaeological heritage. Resources were limited, and much of Italy's cultural attention -and funding- naturally focused on Rome. Today, thanks to European investment, scientific research, growing tourism and a renewed appreciation of Napoli as one of Europe's great cultural capitals rather than merely a city of old stereotypes, many of these extraordinary sites are finally receiving the care they deserve.

The task, however, is almost impossible in the best sense of the word. Campania possesses so much history that archaeologists often joke that every excavation uncovers another chapter of the ancient world.

More information: BBC

Pompeii shows the day a city died.
Baiae shows how a city slowly 

disappeared beneath the sea.

The Grandma

THE SOLFATARA, WALKING ON THE BREATH OF THE EARTH

Musings of The Grandma...

There are places where nature whispers. There are others where it shouts. The Solfatara of Pozzuoli, just west of Napoli, does something in between. It breathes.

My first visit remains one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life. I had seen volcanoes before, but nothing prepared me for a landscape where the ground was warm beneath my feet, clouds of steam drifted continuously from the earth, and the unmistakable smell of sulphur filled the air. It felt as if the planet itself were alive.

The Solfatara is one of the best-known craters within the Campi Flegrei (Phlegraean Fields), a vast volcanic caldera that has shaped the landscape of Campania for tens of thousands of years. Although the crater has not produced a magmatic eruption since 1198, it remains an active volcanic system.

The volcano has never truly fallen asleep. Instead of lava, it releases heat. Instead of ash, it exhales gases. The most famous feature of the crater is the Bocca Grande, a powerful fumarole where steam rich in water vapour, carbon dioxide and sulphur gases escapes continuously from deep underground. Temperatures can exceed 150°C (300°F), reminding every visitor that molten rock still lies far below the surface.

The white and yellow colours covering much of the crater are not paint or dust. They are minerals created by volcanic gases reacting with the surrounding rocks. Sulphur crystals form delicate golden deposits, while acidic vapours slowly alter the volcanic soil, creating a landscape that appears almost extraterrestrial.

Standing there, it is easy to understand why ancient people believed this was one of the entrances to the Underworld.

The Greeks associated these lands with the realm of Hades, while the Romans built temples and thermal baths nearby, convinced that the volcanic springs possessed remarkable healing properties.

For centuries, travellers undertaking the Grand Tour considered the Solfatara an essential destination. Artists, natural philosophers and early geologists came here to witness one of the few places in Europe where the hidden forces shaping our planet could be observed so directly.

Few natural laboratories have inspired so much curiosity. Yet the Solfatara is far more than a geological wonder. It is one visible expression of the enormous volcanic engine beneath the Phlegraean Fields. The same heat that produces the fumaroles also drives the phenomenon of bradyseism, causing the ground around Pozzuoli to rise and fall over decades.

Here, geology is not something that happened millions of years ago. It is happening now. One detail has always stayed with me. When I first visited the Solfatara, I could hardly believe there was a campsite beside an active volcano. Coming from Barcelona, it seemed almost surreal. Families were enjoying their holidays only a short distance from steaming fumaroles and sulphur vents. Only in Naples.

The Neapolitans have a remarkable relationship with nature. Living between Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields has taught generations that uncertainty is simply part of life. Rather than allowing that uncertainty to dominate them, they have embraced life with extraordinary passion, humour and resilience. Perhaps nowhere else could a campsite beside an active volcano have felt so perfectly normal.

Today, however, the Solfatara is silent in a different way. Following the tragic accident in 2017, when three members of the same family lost their lives after leaving the designated paths, the crater was closed to visitors. The event was a painful reminder that the landscape, beautiful as it is, remains an active volcanic environment deserving both admiration and respect.

The fumaroles continue to rise. The gases continue to escape. The Earth continues to breathe. And although we may no longer walk across the crater, the Solfatara remains one of the most extraordinary windows into the living heart of our planet. Perhaps that is its greatest lesson. Volcanoes are not only mountains that erupt. Sometimes they simply remind us, quietly and continuously, that the Earth beneath our feet is still alive.

The Solfatara does not frighten because it erupts. It fascinates because it reminds us that our planet is still breathing.

More information: Visit Naples

In the Solfatara, silence has a smell, 
the ground has a pulse, and the Earth quietly 
breathes beneath every step.

The Grandma

THE PHLEGRAEAN FIELDS, UNDERSTANDING BRADYSEISM

Today, The Grandma wants to talk about the bradyseism, a phenomenon that it can be lived in the Campi Flegrei. Most people think earthquakes happen suddenly. The ground shakes. Buildings tremble. Then everything becomes still again.

The Campi Flegrei (Phlegraean Fields), west of Naples, tell a very different story. Here, the Earth doesn't just shake -it breathes. This extraordinary phenomenon is known as bradyseism, from the Greek words bradys (slow) and seismos (movement or earthquake). Unlike the violent motion we normally associate with earthquakes, bradyseism is the gradual uplift or subsidence of the ground, sometimes over years or even decades.

Imagine standing on the shore and returning years later to discover that the land beneath your feet has risen several metres -or sunk beneath the sea. That is exactly what has happened repeatedly in Campi Flegrei throughout history.

The explanation lies deep below the surface. Beneath the caldera, magma and hot volcanic fluids slowly move through a complex network of fractures. As pressure increases, the ground gently swells upward. When the pressure decreases, the land gradually sinks again. The process is usually measured in centimetres each year, but over time the changes become astonishing.

Few places on Earth provide clearer evidence of this than the Temple of Serapis in Pozzuoli. Despite its name, it was not a temple but a Roman marketplace built nearly two thousand years ago. Three marble columns have become world-famous because they preserve tiny holes made by marine molluscs. These shellfish can only survive underwater, meaning the columns must once have stood beneath the sea before rising again into the open air. Those small holes are far more than marks left by nature.

They are a geological diary written over centuries. No written chronicle could describe the slow movement of the Earth's crust with such remarkable precision. Bradyseism is not merely a curiosity from the past. It is still happening today.

Since the early 2000s, and particularly since 2018, Pozzuoli has experienced continuous uplift accompanied by thousands of small earthquakes. In some periods, the ground has risen by more than one metre within just a few years. Scientists carefully monitor every centimetre using satellites, GPS stations and seismic networks, making Campi Flegrei one of the most intensively observed volcanic regions in the world. For local residents, however, bradyseism is not simply a scientific concept. It is part of everyday life.

Doors suddenly become difficult to close because buildings have shifted by a few millimetres. New cracks appear in walls. The harbour must occasionally be adapted as the coastline slowly changes. Every small earthquake reminds people that the ground beneath them is alive. And yet, life continues. Children go to school. Fishermen leave the harbour before dawn. Families gather for dinner overlooking the Bay of Napoli. Perhaps that is what makes Campi Flegrei so fascinating. Here, geology is not hidden beneath mountains or buried in textbooks. It unfolds beneath people's homes, beneath Roman ruins, beneath cafés and narrow streets.

The Earth is constantly moving -but so slowly that an entire generation may barely notice it. Bradyseism reminds us that not all geological change is sudden or catastrophic. Sometimes the planet whispers instead of shouting. And nowhere does it whisper more eloquently than in the Campi Flegrei.

Campi Flegrei is one of the few places on Earth where you can almost feel the planet breathing beneath your feet.

More information: Io Non Rischio

We cannot stop natural disasters 
but we can arm ourselves with knowledge: 
so many lives wouldn't have to be lost 
if there was enough disaster preparedness.

Petra Nemcova

THE PHLEGRAEAN FIELDS, LIVING WITH A SLEEPING GIANT

With a significant earthquake recently reported today in Campi Flegrei, Napoli, The Grandma has been reminiscing about the years she lived in this extraordinary and captivating region while studying at the University of Federico II.

A piece of The Grandma's heart remains in this city (Napoli) and region (Campania) -a place that shares a past history with Catalunya, making walking through its city streets feel just as familiar as strolling through Catalan towns.

When The Grandma first visited the Solfatara, she could hardly believe there was a campsite beside an active volcanic crater. To her, it seemed unthinkable. To the Neapolitans, it simply felt like another beautiful place to spend a weekend. That, perhaps, says more about Napoli than any history book ever could. Living between Vesuvius and Campi Flegrei has taught generations that life is unpredictable. Their answer has never been fear, but an extraordinary determination to live every single day with passion. 

Pozzuoli is a city near Naples, best known as the hometown of Sophia Loren -that iconic Neapolitan and global legend- but also as one of the cities within the Campi Flegrei area. This region, characterized by extraordinary volcanic and seismic activity, presents a genuine challenge for geologists, volcanologists, and oceanographers alike, while also offering a fascinating destination for lovers of culture and history.

The earthquake of today, July 31, 2026 (M4.7), once again has reminded the world that the Campi Flegrei remain one of the most closely monitored volcanic calderas on the planet. The quake was one of the most intense recorded in the area in decades, causing minor damage, service disruptions, and numerous aftershocks, but it also refocused attention on the phenomenon of bradyseism, which has been slowly raising the ground level in Pozzuoli for years.

There are places that leave a mark on your memory for their beauty. Others do so because they make you feel how small we really are. The Campi Flegrei (Phlegraean Fields), west of Napoli, somehow manage to do both at once.

The Grandma lived there for a while during the 1990s while studying in Napoli. Long before she knew anything about volcanic calderas or bradyseism, she simply fell in love with the place. Pozzuoli, Baia, Bacoli... every corner seemed to tell a story. Roman ruins emerged from the sea, fishermen repaired their nets in the harbour, families filled the waterfront until late at night, and life unfolded with an intensity that was impossible not to admire.

Then, on 31 July 2026, a magnitude 4.7 earthquake struck the area, reminding everyone that beneath this beautiful landscape lies one of the most fascinating -and closely monitored- volcanic systems on Earth.

Unlike Mount Vesuvius, which rises dramatically above the Bay of Naples, the Campi Flegrei are not a single volcano. They are a vast volcanic caldera, around 12–15 kilometres wide, formed by enormous eruptions tens of thousands of years ago. More than twenty craters, fumaroles, hot springs and volcanic cones are scattered across the region, many of them hidden beneath modern towns.

Walking through Pozzuoli, you are actually walking inside an active volcano. One of the most extraordinary features of Campi Flegrei is a phenomenon known as bradyseism -the slow rise and fall of the ground caused by pressure changes beneath the surface. Entire neighbourhoods have gradually lifted by several metres over the centuries before sinking again.

Perhaps nowhere illustrates this better than the Temple of Serapis in Pozzuoli. Despite its name, it was actually an ancient Roman marketplace. The marble columns still bear the unmistakable holes left by marine molluscs that once lived on them when the building stood below sea level. Those tiny shells tell an astonishing geological story: the land itself has repeatedly risen and fallen through history.

The volcanic activity beneath Campi Flegrei has intensified over recent years. Since 2018, scientists have observed increasing ground uplift together with more frequent earthquakes. Continuous monitoring by Italian authorities has become essential, not because an eruption is considered imminent, but because this restless volcanic system is constantly changing.

Yet what we remember most is not the volcano. It is the people. Neapolitans have a remarkable relationship with uncertainty. Living between Vesuvius and Campi Flegrei means accepting that nature cannot be controlled. Perhaps that is why life is embraced with such passion.

Coming from Catalunya, where we often value restraint and discretion, we found the contrast almost overwhelming. In Napoli everything seems larger than life. Conversations become performances. Gestures replace punctuation. Family lunches turn into celebrations. Even a simple disagreement can sound like an opera scene to an outsider. They laugh loudly. They argue passionately. They celebrate everything. And somehow, despite living above one of Europe's most active volcanic systems, they possess an extraordinary ability to enjoy the present.

It would be easy to describe Campi Flegrei as a dangerous place. It is more accurate to describe it as a living landscape -one where geology, history and humanity have coexisted for thousands of years.

Roman emperors built luxurious villas in nearby Baia, attracted by its thermal waters. Greek settlers founded colonies along these shores. Ancient Romans believed this was the entrance to the Underworld. Today, volcanologists install GPS stations, satellites measure ground deformation with millimetre precision, and seismographs record every tremor beneath the caldera. The technology has changed. The volcano remains. So do the people. Whenever we hear news about Pozzuoli or Campi Flegrei, we don't immediately think about earthquakes or volcanic hazards.

The Grandma remembers evenings along the waterfront. The smell of the sea. The voices filling the streets. The warmth of people who taught her that life is not measured by certainty, but by how fully we choose to live it. Perhaps that is the greatest lesson Campi Flegrei has to offer. The Earth beneath our feet is never truly still. Neither should our appreciation for the time we are given.

The first time The Grandma's Neapolitan friends discovered she was from Barcelona and supported Barça, they insisted on taking her to a tiny shrine hidden in Via Benedetto Croce. Flowers surrounded what looked like a sacred relic.

"Whose hair is that?" she asked. "A saint? Padre Pio? Some famous artist?"

They looked at her, almost offended.

"No... They belong to God."

"God?"

"Diego Armando Maradona."

Only in Napoli could such a conversation feel perfectly natural.

Perhaps, we, the Catalans recognized God before anyone else, because He wore number 10 -and Déu (God) in Catalan is spelled the same way as the number deu (ten). We simply didn't realize there would never be another God. Years later, football gave us something different -not another deity, but our own MESSIah. 

More information: Taylor & Francis Online

Living on the slopes of an active volcano 
keeps life interesting!

Steven Magee