Wonderful walk in the underground of Naples. Aflo

1. For day trips, which last about an hour, we gather in Piazza Trieste e Trento, on the famous Caffè Gambrinus,near the Teatro S. Carlo, Royal Palace and the Basilica of S.Francesco di Paola Slide and elaboration by Antonio Florino

7. The famous boys boast of belonging to the military academy in Naples Nunziatella

8. The existence of underground Naples is related to the morphology and geology of the territory, composed of tuff which has characteristics of lightness, crispness and stabilities. In later centuries the expansion of the city led to the creation of a real waterworks that collect and distribute water through a series of tanks connected to a network of tunnels. During the Roman rule the aqueduct was extended and improved, but with the advent of Anjou, in 1266, the city had a large number of buildings which, of course, an increase of extraction of the tuff from the ground to build new buildings, confirming a peculiarity of Naples to be generated from its bowels, where the buildings stand up the quarry that supplied building materials. To have a decisive influence on the fate of the Naples underground intervened, between 1588 and 1615, some edicts that prohibited the introduction in the town of construction materials, to prevent the uncontrolled expansion of Naples. Citizens meet to avoid sanctions and the need for urban expansion, thought it best to extract the tuff below the city, taking advantage of existing wells, expanding shells for drinking water and getting new ones. This type of extraction, which took place from top to bottom, requiring special techniques to ensure stability and avoid collapse of the underground side. Only in 1885, after a terrible epidemic of cholera, was abandoned the use of the old water distribution system to adopt the new aqueduct, which is still in operation. The final phase of underground was the second world war, when it offered refuge to the population to adapt the structures of the aqueduct to the needs of citizens. Were set up 369 shelters in all of Naples in cave shelters and 247 landslade. An official list of the Ministry of Interior in 1939, enumerated 616 addresses that brought in 436 refuges, some with more than one access. The construction of shelters led to a further division of the ancient aqueduct. After the war, the lack of transportation, almost all the rubble were dumped into the ground, burying with them, even all the memories of that sad period. Until the late '60s has not spoken about the underground, although many continued to use the pits as landfill sites. Since 1968, however, began to experience some failures are mainly due to broken drains or leaks of the new aqueduct such problems, which in all cities of the world are highlighted with the resurgence of sewage or surface flooding in Naples, instead, because the presence of the vast underground, there are obvious with large potholes. After 20 years of excavation and remediation, and thanks to the commitment and sacrifice of volunteers who, after work, descended into the bowels of Naples to unearth an artifact of such historic magnitude - a veritable museum of subsoil - it is still possible to see the unpublished page in the history of Naples. Guided visits in the ground, you go under the Spanish Quarter, in vico S. Anna Palace 52, where the brothers Michael and Salvatore Quaranta, the Charon of 2000, they founded the Free Underground Hikers Association that aims at a better understanding of the city "inferior." Going into the holes you can admire the old cisterns of the Carmignano and you can relive the feelings of those who fled during the warGraffiti on the walls are pages of history, names and caricatures of personalities of the age, soldiers of several nations, dates, information about the two Italian submarines - the Jasper and Amethyst - that operated during the war, and still air and tanks, as well as the utterances of those who, forced to stay in those places for the bombing, he wanted to hand down to posterity his thoughts. I do not anticipate another, it would take away the taste, to those who wish to participate in these visits to find out just how much beauty there is in Naples.

9. St. Anna di Palazzo is the other entrance to the underground city that leads to a retreat of about 3200 square meters, about 40 meters deep, which, during the Second World War, gave refuge to more than 4 thousand people. The old tanks are so become admissions still retain graffiti of that era (caricatures of heads of state, soldiers, planes, women and football schemes etc.).

16. The buildings date back to the Spanish Quarter of 1700

17. Here is the gateway to Naples Underground

21. Access to archaeological site

23. Finds from the excavations

26. And 'the winter of 1943, Carmela Mountain 25 years, long hair, eyes, blacks, on the stairs of the hospital of S. Anna di Palazzo, gives birth to her daughter. After delivery, rather than struggling every day with the fear of the bombing, he prefers to live in Naples at that shelter for war at 40 m. deep.After six months the little Anna's life was cut short by pneumonia, guilt nearly moisture, then as now, 90%.

28. Church of St. Anna

47. . A visit to the Naples underground is definitely an experience that changes the way you see the city and better than any other tour to understand the past and the long history of "Partenope". Under the crowded sidewalks and alleys of Spaccanapoli, beneath the city streets covered with slabs of Vesuvius, to more than 40 meters deep, lies a vast and fascinating maze of caves, cisterns, wells and tunnels that make up a city under the city! Already five thousand years ago the first inhabitants of the Gulf had cut the volcanic tuff of underground Naples. Successive Greek colonists also used the tuff material plenty and easy to work, to build their fortifications, temples and houses. The building material was obtained directly from above which are built underground. So as they grew Neapolis was forming deep in a mirror image of the city.

49. These graffiti were made ​​by the occasional occupants in 1940

50. The outline of a football game

53. The legend of "Monaciello" Each house in the city of Naples, could draw water from the cistern below through a well to which he had access to "pozzaro", a class of professionals, who moved deftly in these caves walking along narrow passages and climbing up the wells with holes in the distance more or less regular.These characters, real lords of the underworld had free access to all homes with wells and gave rise to anecdotes and legends still alive in the imagination like that of the Neapolitan "Monaciello, benign or malignant spirits that occupied most of the mistress of A home and a water network, and used the subway who knew, or appear to disappear under the cloak work in the shadows, to the clothes just looked like a monaco

56. This was the apartment wedding of those who were married during the bombing of Naples, about 100

58. The ceramic part of the electrical system is not working now are marked Richard Ginori

63. Nobody would have bet on my success in overcoming the challenge of the "tunnel" tight

69. Archaeologist Professor Quaranta

71. . 's output so in the courtyard of this palace of 1700 in Via Chiaia

73. . This fountain in the courtyard is part of the water system that we just visited.See you soon with new visits to little known places in Naples Hugs to all from Aflo [email_address]