Welcome to the site Napoliforme

At Posillipo, at the end of the Coroglio descent, a bridge-dam over a stretch of sea about 300 metres long joins the island to the mainland. Called Nesis (small island) by the Greeks and a place of delight for Roman patricians, it has an almost circular shape due to its volcanic origin; in the crater, opened towards the sea by wave erosion, is the characteristic Porto Paone, shaped like an amphitheatre. The birth of the island is intertwined in legend with that of the promontory opposite it, both generated by Posillipo's ardent and unrequited love for the beautiful and contemptuous Nisida. The two live in opposing houses and the young man, gripped by the despair of seeing his beloved maiden hopelessly lost, one day seeks death at sea. But Fate intervenes and transforms Posillipo into a promontory and the beautiful enchantress into the small island opposite: a beautiful land loved by poets and travellers, as opposed to a rocky and solitary island, "a nest of crimes" and a refuge for Barbary pirates.In the first century B.C. in Nisida, in the villa of Marcus Junius Brutus, the most famous conspiracy in history was planned, in secret meetings with Cassius and the other protagonists of Caesar's assassination. In the spring of 44 BC Brutus left Nisida for Greece and died in the defeat at Philippi, and the villa became the scene of the bloody suicide of his wife Portia, who swallowed coals of fire on hearing of his defeat. Archaeologist Amedeo Maiuri suggested that the villa was on the highest part of the island, but the only ancient evidence are four grottoes dug out of the tufa on a panoramic terrace, with traces of stucco decoration on the walls. Nisida is dominated by the large building of Angevin origin, probably built on the Roman villa, which became a castle in the 16th century, then a Bourbon prison for political prisoners and now the juvenile correction institute.