Somma Vesuviana

The town's name is the name of the old volcano: after the eruption of 79 the massif split in two, and while the new cone stayed Vesuvius, the ancient rim took the name of monte Somma. Here, in the Starza della Regina district, archaeologists from the University of Tokyo have been digging since the year two thousand and two at an enormous Roman villa — they have uncovered only a part of it, and the structures run on in every direction. The villa already existed before 79, was repaired after the eruption (which destroyed the coastal cities but only partly damaged those inland) and stood for centuries, until in 472 another eruption buried it to half its height: the peplophoros statue found in its original place is eroded exactly to the level the ground reached then. Scholarly tradition links this villa to the death of Augustus — whom Suetonius, however, places apud Nolam, «near Nola»: the two towns have been disputing it ever since.

The Casamale, the walled quarter, takes its name from the Causamala, a family that appears in a lease of 1011; the Aragonese walls were strengthened by king Ferrante in 1467, and there were four gates to enter by. Inside, the alleys are so narrow that the roofs seem to touch and the sun does not get through. Beside it stands the castle Alfonso of Aragon built for Lucrezia d'Alagno, his mistress, where she went to live when the king died; and to a king of Aragon is owed the catalanesca grape too, brought here from Catalonia and planted on the sand of the volcano. Every four years the Casamale is covered with ferns and chestnut branches, and at sunset «'o mast' e festa» lights the first lamp with a candle: from that one all the others are lit, and the fountains are turned on. This is the feast of the Lucerne, pagan in origin, with the table laid before the puppets and the old devotional songs sung by women's voices you cannot see.