Ischia
The Largest Island In The Bay Of Naples, A Volcanic Island With Thermal Springs Across It And The Fifteenth Century Castello Aragonese On Its Offshore Rock · Ischia, Campania
The largest island in the Bay of Naples and the one Italians actually go to, six times the size of Capri and with about ten times fewer day trippers per square kilometre, because it is a place people stay in for a fortnight rather than photograph in an afternoon. It is a volcano, still active in the sense that the ground is hot: thermal water comes out all over the island at temperatures up to boiling, and the whole tourist economy is built on spa gardens terraced into the hillsides where you move between pools of different heat. Off the eastern end, joined by a causeway, is an Aragonese castle on its own rock with a convent, a cathedral and a room where dead nuns were seated to decompose. The rest is chestnut woods, a volcanic summit you can walk up in two hours, and beaches where sand is hot enough to cook in. Ferries from Naples take under an hour, but this is a place to stay in for a week rather than a day trip, and picking one thermal garden and giving it a whole day is the point.
Via Iasolino, Ischia, Campania, 80077, Italy
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The structure: beaches, the causeway and the island roads are public and never close. The Castello Aragonese opens daily with a last admission before closing and shorter winter hours. THE THERMAL GARDENS ARE SEASONAL, typically mid-March to early November, with day and half-day sessions rather than open hours, and several close entirely in winter. Giardini La Mortella opens on set days in season only. Ferries run frequently in summer, thinner in winter, and stop in wind.