Acerra claims a primacy that makes the world smile: being the homeland of Pulcinella. In the counts' castle — a medieval keep remodelled in the eighteenth century — a museum devoted to the mask gathers the commedia dell'arte tradition beside the peasant culture of the plain. The town is among Campania's historic dioceses, with Oscan origins and a Roman municipium, Acerrae, cited by ancient authors.
The Clanio plain made it hemp-and-wheat country for centuries; today Acerra lives the hinterland's transition, Naples twenty minutes away and Vesuvius in front. The Pulcinella festival each September is its calling card.
Near Acerra
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
