Welcome to the site Napoliforme

Misenus, son of the wind god Aeolus and friend of Hector at Troy, followed Aeneas as a pilot and trumpeter on his long journey across the Mediterranean to the Campanian coast near Baia. His almost divine music made him proud and haughty, so much so that he challenged the gods to a musical contest. To punish his presumption, the god Triton threw him into the sea and Misenus drowned miserably in the waves. When Aeneas found his companion's body on the beach, he built a monumental sepulchre on the highest point of the coast, which takes its name from the hero (Aeneid VI, 235-250). Capo Miseno (167 metres above sea level) looks like a huge tumulus from the ground - hence the myth of the tomb - and is the remains of an ancient crater, largely eroded by the sea, made of yellow tuff. Just beyond the village of Miseno, an uphill road (about 1.5 km) climbs among villas, farms and Roman ruins to reach the lighthouse built in the 19th century on the site of a 16th-century watchtower and destroyed and rebuilt several times, until the structure after the Second World War (1948). From a height of 79 metres, it offers a magnificent view of Procida, Ischia, Capri, the Sorrento peninsula, Vesuvius and Posillipo hill. A path leads to the top of the promontory, the extreme point of the Phlegraean coastline, for more spectacular views along the flat perimeter of the peak. It is the magical, timeless atmosphere of Aeneas' journey towards the prophecies of the Cumaean Sibyl.