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Casamicciola Terme and Lacco Ameno |
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The island is at its most developed along its northern and western
shores - heading west from Ischia Porto. The first village you reach,
CASAMICCIOLA TERME , is a spa centre with many hotels and a crowded
central beach - though you can find a quieter one on the far side of the
village. Ibsen spent a summer here, and the waters are said to be full
of iodine (apparently beneficial for the skin and the nervous system),
but otherwise you may as well push on to LACCO AMENO , a brighter little
town, again with a beach and with spa waters that are said to be the
most radioactive in Italy.
Lacco Ameno has two museums which are worth at least a peek. The first
is accessed via the pink confection of the church of Santa Restituta on
the main square (Mon-Sat 9.30am-12.30pm & 5-7pm, Sun 9.30am-12.30pm;
L5000/¬2.58). Persevere past a jumble of lamps and pots to the
excavations below ground-level, where the graves of the island's
inhabitants - "Proto Campanian", Hellenistic, Roman and Paleochristian -
are piled on top of each other in bewildering but intriguing confusion.
Amongst the displayed artefacts are Neolithic idols, Mycenean pottery,
and a lovely fragment of Attic pottery, depicting a smiling reclining
man.
Above the main square away from the sea in Villa Arbusto is the Museo
Archeologico di Pithecusa (daily: April-Oct 9.30am-1pm & 5pm-7pm;
Nov-March 9.30am-1pm & 3pm-9pm; L10,000/¬5.16; www.pithecusae.it ). This
is an altogether more orderly affair with plenty of information in
English, which displays finds from the acropolis of Monte di Vico, in
continuous use from the eighth to the first centuries BC. Pithecusa
(modern Ischia) was the first and most northerly Greek settlement in the
West, a thriving and vital staging post at the western end of routes
from the Aegean and the Levant - in addition to local artefacts, the
museum displays grave goods imported from Syria, Egypt and Etruria. The
epigram on the modest-looking Coppa di Nestore makes a light-hearted
challenge to the cup mentioned in Homer's Iliad , while a shipwreck
scene on a locally made bowl is thought to be the oldest example of
figurative painting in Italy.
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