I love mentions of Cuma. It's a sublime, simple site, definitely worth an afternoon's stroll.
It's also the birthplace of the alphabet that we are writing and reading here! That inspires me for no good reason. It's just amazing that this came out of a tiny colonial city on the edge of paradise.
p.s. The bay of Naples in general is just overwhelming with dense human history. As this article notes, the city center has basically been under continuous inhabitation for 3000 years. You can feel it everywhere!
For anyone interested in this topic: Author Robert Harris really did his homework for his historical fiction novel Pompeii, which follows the story of a water engineer in many of the towns around the bay and on the slopes of Vesuvius just before the eruption. Besides the archaeological and geological records, there are several surviving eyewitness accounts including that of Pliny the Younger not to mention Roman histories of various emperors who spent time in this area and events such as the revolt of Spartacus.
It's also the birthplace of the alphabet that we are writing and reading here! That inspires me for no good reason. It's just amazing that this came out of a tiny colonial city on the edge of paradise.
p.s. The bay of Naples in general is just overwhelming with dense human history. As this article notes, the city center has basically been under continuous inhabitation for 3000 years. You can feel it everywhere!