Every design for Torre Annunziata

Have you ever looked at Torre Annunziata from the water? From the bay you see how narrow it is: a flat strip of land squeezed between Vesuvius and the Tyrrhenian Sea at the innermost corner of the Gulf of Naples, its beaches made of black volcanic sand. The Sarno marks its southern edge, and offshore the towered rock of Rovigliano rises from the sea, with coral growing beneath it.

The Scavi archeologici di Oplonti show what lies under the modern streets: Oplontis, a Roman settlement of grand villas buried by the eruption of AD 79 and now part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site together with Pompeii and Herculaneum. The volcano struck again in 1631, and the town still lies in the red zone, planned for evacuation if Vesuvius wakes. In between, the water of the Sarno was channelled to drive mills, and the town became famous for pasta, with more than sixty mills and pasta works at its peak. A royal arms factory founded under Charles of Bourbon survives as the Stabilimento militare Spolette, and the harbour is one of the largest in Campania.

If your family made pasta here, or you learnt to swim off the black sand, this is a map of the ground you stand on: the volcano behind you and the gulf in front.