Tour Guide, Caserta, Italy
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The Amphitheatre, Santa Maria Capua Vetere
You descend similar red brick steps below the ground. Now it is almost dark. There are occasional square holes in the roof above you that allow natural light to enter. There are grooves in the walls that may be held flaming torches. A well-built water channel runs along the floor. The passages extend outwards, well beyond the perimeter of the amphitheater. To where? The cages that held the half-starved wild animals? To the Ludus, the gladiator school?
Suddenly you are startled. You come across a small door leading out onto the arena. Then a larger door, one larger enough for wild animals. Even now, 2000 years on, this place has the power to shock. I have never before experienced what it is to be caught in a deadly trap. These walls still seem to contain the sheer terror!!
San Leucio
So who was their mysterious benefactor? Certainly, it would have to be a person with power and wealth. In this case a man with immense power and wealth. Aman whose family had ruled France in the 16th century and whose personal empire extended across the whole of southern Italy and Sicily- the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The great Bourbon king, Ferdinand IV.
He had controlled his kingdom from the splendour of his palace in Caserta (the subject of my next post). However, he had tired of the rituals and intrigues of court life and had retreated to the hills outside the town. There he reconstructed and extended a hunting lodge into what was to become the glorious silk palace of San Leucio. As Ferdinand, himself, stated in 1789: 'I did not find the silence and solitude to meditate and rest my spirit.......and therefore to find a more secluded place, almost a retreat. I thought of San Leucio's hill'.
On the 17th December 1778, a personal tragedy occurred that was to change the king's mind about the purpose of San Leucio. This was the death of his eldest son and heir, the Crown Prince Charles Titus. Determined that good would come out of the tragedy.
The card that gives you access to art and culture sites in Naples and throughout the Campania region (museums, archaeology, contemporary works, places of sacred art, underground tours and theaters) and use of the Unicocampania public transport system, for those types of card that include this option.
Plus: admission without queuing, special events, discounts, and benefits.
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