Naples: Did you mean...?

In the first part of our new travel series devoted to the archaeological sites around the Bay of Naples, we shared some hints and tips as to how you can best prepare for your self-guided tour of Pompeii. In this second...

More than 2,000 years ago, extremely wealthy Romans lived on the sunny shores of the Bay of Naples at Pompeii and in opulent villas nearby, unconcerned about Mount Vesuvius in the distance. Julius Caesar...

The War of the Second Coalition (1798-1802), part of the broader French Revolutionary Wars, was the second attempt by an alliance of major European powers to defeat Revolutionary France. The Second Coalition, which included...

The Continental System was a major blockade of British trade imposed by French Emperor Napoleon I from 21 November 1806 to 11 April 1814. It was designed to cripple the British economy, thereby forcing Britain out of the Napoleonic...

Herculaneum, located on the Bay of Naples, was a Roman town which was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. Like its neighbour Pompeii, the town was perfectly preserved by a metres-thick layer of volcanic ash which...

Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) was an Italian composer of around 40 operas, including the comic operas The Italian Girl in Algiers and The Barber of Seville. Rossini championed melody and beautiful singing over operatic drama...

The Battle of Civitate was fought in southeastern Italy on 18 June 1053 between a papal army of Pope Leo IX (r. 1049-1054) and an outnumbered force of Norman knights seeking recognition of their conquests and titles. The Normans...

Saint Thomas Aquinas (l. 1225-1274, also known as the "Ox of Sicily" and the "Angelic Doctor") was a Dominican friar, mystic, theologian, and philosopher, all at once. Although he lived a relatively short life, dying at age 49...

The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare (c. 1564-1616), written in 1610 or 1611, and first performed for the court of James I of England (r. 1603-1625) on 2 November 1611. Believed to be the last play...

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) was a Corsican-born French general and politician who reigned as Emperor of the French with the regnal name Napoleon I from 1804 to 1814 and then again briefly in 1815. He established the largest...