Every design for San Giorgio A Cremano

Did you know that San Giorgio a Cremano chose its patron saint to stand up to a volcano? Its people saw the eruptions of Vesuvius as a dragon breathing fire, so they took Saint George, the dragon-slayer, as their protector, and the name has stayed with the town ever since. It was settled in the tenth and eleventh centuries on the western foothills of the mountain, and Vesuvius has troubled it at fairly regular intervals since then.

What makes it unique is the Miglio d'Oro, the Golden Mile of Vesuvian villas running from here towards Torre Annunziata. When San Giorgio was a fashionable resort, nobles of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies built summer houses such as Villa Bruno and Villa Vannucchi, and together with Vesuvius the Golden Mile now sits on UNESCO's biosphere list. After Italian unification the town declined, was swallowed by the growing city of Naples and became one of the most densely populated places in the European Union. It also has a strong theatre tradition, whose best-loved face was Massimo Troisi, the actor of Il Postino.

If you grew up somewhere between San Giorgio Alta and San Giorgio Bassa, with the Museo Nazionale Ferroviario di Pietrarsa on the border with Portici, this map is your own Golden Mile.