The Sunken City of Baia

[dogs4fun]

Does anyone have any experience with visiting/touring the sunken city of Baia and the Phlegraean Fields? Anyone snorkel or take a glass bottom boat tour re: Baia? Any help or recommendations would be sincerely appreciated.

[cruisemom42]

I've visited Baiae -- the part still on land -- three times. But because I generally am in the area in the off-season, I've never been able to visit the underwater part. Is that primarily what you're interested in, or are you looking for info on the entire area?

 

Baiae makes for a nice daytrip together with the excellently preserved amphitheater at Pozzuoli (better underground area than the Colosseum) or a visit to the ruins at Cumae, including the so-called Cave of the Sibyl there.

[dogs4fun]

I've visited Baiae -- the part still on land -- three times. But because I generally am in the area in the off-season, I've never been able to visit the underwater part. Is that primarily what you're interested in, or are you looking for info on the entire area?

 

Baiae makes for a nice daytrip together with the excellently preserved amphitheater at Pozzuoli (better underground area than the Colosseum) or a visit to the ruins at Cumae, including the so-called Cave of the Sibyl there.

I'm interested in the entire area - any info would be greatly appreciated! Online info regarding tours is scant. Did you tour or DIY? Any books you can recommend? Will check-out the cave of the Sibyl - never heard of it.

Thanks much!

[euro cruiser]

Although you can get there on your own, I think you have to be with an official tour to get to the underwater part. There are links in the partner section for the dive company and others with access to the site.

 

More info on that here: http://www.parcoarcheologicosommersodibaia.it/parco.php?id_lingua=en

 

The Cumana rail line goes there.

[cruisemom42]

I'm interested in the entire area - any info would be greatly appreciated! Online info regarding tours is scant. Did you tour or DIY? Any books you can recommend? Will check-out the cave of the Sibyl - never heard of it.

Thanks much!

 

The first time I visited Baiae, I stayed in Pozzuoli for several nights, specifically to visit the Roman sites in the area. We rented a car and hired a private guide for two days (who came highly recommended and regularly provided tours for Context Travel). Second time I did it using public transportation from Naples (in company with euro cruiser!) on a day when we also visited the Pozzuoli amphitheater and Cumae. If you are interested I could email you my notes and directions.

 

The third and most recent time was on a Yale archaeological tour with Diana Kleiner (who teaches a well known online course on architecture of ancient Rome).

 

I have several guidebooks that cover the area. One, Romans on the Bay of Naples includes just about all the sites in and around the old Roman area of Campania and some of the Campi Phlegrei, including Baiae, and it's very well written. Perhaps you can find a used copy for a reasonable price: https://www.amazon.com/Romans-Bay-Naples-Archaeological-2009-07-06/dp/B01NAOFK02/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497142889&sr=8-1&keywords=Romans+on+the+Bay+of+Naples

 

I also have a guidebook just covering Baiae, purchased at the museum there (which is in a castle that was likely built over the site of Julius Caesar's villa :)). The museum is well worth a visit, but has odd hours (closes very early some days). If you're interested I can dig it out and give you the name -- you might be able to locate a copy online.

 

I also have an English-language version of an Italian guidebook of the Campi Phlegrei. And (lest I forget), I have some fantastic little guidebooks from the 1950s and 1960s written by the sort of "state archaeologist" who excavated at Pompeii, Baiae, Cumae, and other sites and who put these together to be sold at the sites. They are dated in some respects but give wonderful in-depth descriptions of the sites that you cannot find in modern guidebooks. (Modern tourists don't seem to have the attention span, sadly....!) The author's name is Amedeo Maiuri, if you want to see if you can find any of them.

 

The Cave of the Sybil was a very famous ancient "must visit" site in the Campi Phlegrei. There were many sybils in ancient times (like the one at Delphi), but the Cumaean sybil is the one who sold the book of prophecies about Rome's future to the last King of Rome, and these prophecies were carefully guarded and consulted throughout Rome's Republican and Imperial years. She also told the fortunes of Rome's rich and famous who came to relax at Baiae. (She was unhappily immortal...)

 

Three "possible" locations for her cave or grotto have been located in the area, and I've visited two of them. One is just outside the site of Cumae (a Greek foundation that was eventually conquered and held by Rome) and can be visited together with that site. The other is located in a cave on private property just steps from Lake Averno (Avernus) -- that lake which, in ancient mythology, was a portal to Hades. Birds who flew over it were said to drop dead, and it's the place Aeneas (in Vergil's story) ascends to the Underworld -- guided by the Cumaean sybil. Our private guide on my first visit arranged for us to see it, and it was certainly one of those experiences you don't forget. Here's a brief write: http://www.napoliunplugged.com/grotta-della-sibilla.html

 

Carlo, the owner, is apparently too ill to guide tours now, but when we visited, he guided us into the dark tunnel, with only the dim light of electric lamps we hand carried. He recited the history of the place in sonorous Italian (translated sotto voce by our guide). With his gnarled walking stick in hand and his faithful dog following behind, it was quite the adventure -- the kind of thing that's hard to find in these days of Disneyfied tourism.

 

Some additional info on both of the grottoes: http://www.reidsitaly.com/destinations/campania/side_trips/cuma.html

[euro cruiser]

A couple of stops further along the same Cumana line you get to Fusaro, the stop for the Parco Archeologico delle Terme di Baia. The entire site is fascinating but the Tempio di Mercurio is worth the trip all by itself. Site map here: http://www.parchiarcheologici.it/italia/baia.html

 

Cumana train line schedule: http://www.eavsrl.it/web/sites/default/files/eavferro/Cumana.pdf

 

If you're in the area at lunchtime I can highly recommend Il Paolanto, which is about halfway between the Fusaro train station and the archeological site. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g1078128-d2321061-Reviews-Il_Paolanto-Bacoli_Province_of_Naples_Campania.html

Cruisemom and I had a great lunch there and an interesting chat with one of the owners (it was a rainy Saturday in February, he had plenty of time to chat with us).

[cruisemom42]

If you're in the area at lunchtime I can highly recommend Il Paolanto, which is about halfway between the Fusaro train station and the archeological site. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g1078128-d2321061-Reviews-Il_Paolanto-Bacoli_Province_of_Naples_Campania.html

Cruisemom and I had a great lunch there and an interesting chat with one of the owners (it was a rainy Saturday in February, he had plenty of time to chat with us).

 

I can still recall that lunch. Squisito! :cool:

[QueenP]

I looked at doing this but from my research it looked like the railway station close to the ruins had closed leaving a 30 minute walk to get there. I'd love to know a way to get there from naples without having to pay mega bucks! I'm traveling with senior citizens so long walks to get anywhere is too much on top of walking around the site. But we recently watched a fascinating tv programme on Baia and would love to go there!

 

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[cruisemom42]

I looked at doing this but from my research it looked like the railway station close to the ruins had closed leaving a 30 minute walk to get there. I'd love to know a way to get there from naples without having to pay mega bucks! I'm traveling with senior citizens so long walks to get anywhere is too much on top of walking around the site. But we recently watched a fascinating tv programme on Baia and would love to go there!

 

Sent from my SM-J200Y using Forums mobile app

 

Yes, the stop on the Cumana line does involve about half an hour walking. Plus the site itself (Baiae) is spread out and on several levels.

 

Possibly you could take the metro (Linea 2) from Naples to Pozzuoli station and get a taxi to talk you from there to Baiae -- the distance is relatively short so the cost shouldn't be too much. I'd arrange to have them pick you up again at a certain time, OR you could return to the ticket booth and ask them to call a taxi for you.

[euro cruiser]

If you look at the link I provided in post #6 you'll see that Fusaro, the station closest to the Parco Archeologico delle Terme di Baia (one half mile), is open and functioning.

 

I suspect you're confusing this with the Cumae Archeologico site (Cave of Sybil, as noted above by Cruisemom). The train station closest to this site, Cuma, only gets three trains per day. It's kind of a false close, though, because even if you got a train to this station it's on the opposite side of the site from the entrance. The walk from this station to the entrance is a mile and a half around the site.

 

From the Fusaro station to the Cumae site is just under two and a half miles. There is a bus but, fair warning, it doesn't come all that often. You need to time it right and get lucky. Bus schedule here: http://www.eavsrl.it/web/sites/default/files/eavbus/Miseno%20-%20Bacoli%20-%20Miseno.pdf

[dogs4fun]

Thank you cruisemom and euro cruiser - I see that I have a lot of research to do.

Cynthia - if you don't mind, I would love any notes that you would be willing to share (no rush as I won't be leaving until early September). My email address is included in my signature. Also, if you don't mind my asking ... how did you find out about the Yale archaeological tour? I'm wondering if there are similar tours offered through other universities - would absolutely love to participate in an archaeology visit to Italy at some time in the future.

[cruisemom42]

If you look at the link I provided in post #6 you'll see that Fusaro, the station closest to the Parco Archeologico delle Terme di Baia (one half mile), is open and functioning.

 

 

As usual your accuracy with directions is better than mine. I looked at my notes last night after I responded and it is indeed about a 0.5 - 0.6 mile walk; still, for slower walkers it may take 15-20 minutes -- especially as you have to navigate. It's not tricky but one does need to pay attention.

[euro cruiser]

I'll tell you where my memory is hazy ... did we walk all the way back to Fusaro from Cumae? I think we did, I remember that the sun was going down and we were nervous about waiting too long for a bus and winding up in the dark, but I'm not positive.

[cruisemom42]

I'll tell you where my memory is hazy ... did we walk all the way back to Fusaro from Cumae? I think we did, I remember that the sun was going down and we were nervous about waiting too long for a bus and winding up in the dark, but I'm not positive.

 

Yes, we did. We waited for a bit at the entrance at Cumae but no buses came along and I believe we knew they would stop running at some point. So we just started walking.....and never did a bus catch up with us.