Mount Vesuvius Audio Guide

Mount Vesuvius: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Vesuvio

   Welcome to Vesuvio, the Great Cone, rising inside the Parco Nazionale del Vesuvio above the town of Ercolano. You are standing in the story of one of the most famous and most studied volcanoes on Earth. A quick word on what this guide covers. It tells the story of the mountain itself and of the Ercolano slope that climbs toward it. For live details such as trail conditions, opening arrangements and tickets, check with the park before you set out. Here is the setting. Ercolano lies at the western foot of the volcano, on the Gulf of Naples, just southeast of the city of Naples. Over the next few stops we will look at how the mountain is built, how it wrote the most famous disaster of the ancient world, and how people have watched it ever since.

2. 02

   A Mountain Inside a Mountain

   Vesuvius is a stratovolcano, and its shape is easy to read once you know the trick. The mountain is really two peaks in one. The outer cone is called Monte Somma. Inside it stands a younger cone, the Great Cone of Vesuvius, which is the one you came to see. Think of it as a younger volcano growing up within the ruins of an older one. The Somma forms a broken rim around the newer summit, which is why the skyline looks like a tall peak with a lower, jagged companion beside it. The active crater sits at the top of the Great Cone, at an altitude of 1,282 meters. It measures about 650 meters across and is ringed by fumaroles, vents where volcanic gas escapes. They are described as resting, but they are a quiet reminder that this volcano is still alive.

3. 03

   The Day the Sky Changed

   In the year 79, Vesuvius erupted and buried the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Herculaneum stood on the very slope below you, in what is now Ercolano. We have an unusually vivid account from Pliny the Younger, who watched from Miseno across the bay and described it to his friend Tacitus about 30 years later. He wrote of a cloud rising above a distant mountain, and nobody could say which one at first. Its shape, he said, was best compared to a pine tree. It was later understood that the mountain was Vesuvius. His uncle commanded the Roman fleet at Capo Miseno and set out toward Herculaneum to help the family of his friend Cesio Basso. He tried to approach by sea but was forced to change course, and he headed for Stabia, where he was hosted by Pomponiano. The emperor Titus, who had succeeded his father Vespasian that June, helped the survivors, even drawing on his own wealth. Even so, Pompeii and Herculaneum were never rebuilt.

4. 04

   Living and Watching Beneath the Volcano

   The people of Ercolano have always lived with the mountain overhead, and the town carries that history in its name and its ground. The medieval town of Resina grew on the lava stream that followed the eruption of 79, and the modern name comes from the ancient city of Herculaneum that lay beneath. Ercolano later became a favored place for summer villas, especially in the Bourbon era, when it was closely tied to the Neapolitan aristocracy. The volcano also gave the town its own flavor. Its slopes are linked with the wine called Lacrima Christi, Tears of Christ. And people have long kept watch. The Vesuvian Observatory was founded in 1841 by Ferdinand the Second of Bourbon, and it is regarded as the oldest volcanological observatory in the world. It can be reached by car and houses a museum of films, illustrations, rock and mineral collections, historic instruments, books and paintings.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Before you move on, take a moment to look at the mountain's outline once more. Can you pick out the broken rim of Monte Somma and the younger Great Cone standing inside it? Once you see that double shape, you will not be able to miss it. The climb toward the crater has traditionally started on foot from the plateau at about 1,000 meters of altitude, in the territory of Ercolano. The walk takes about three hours and rewards you with rarely beautiful views over the surrounding land and the Gulf of Naples. As you look out, imagine Pliny's pine-shaped cloud, and imagine how many generations have glanced up at this summit each morning. There is more to explore below, in the ruins of Herculaneum and the streets of Ercolano, where the volcano's story keeps unfolding.