Ischia

The villa, which is surrounded by a superb park, was the residence of the movie director Luchino Visconti. It is now the seat of a cultural institution dedicated to Visconti, which is involved in promoting cultural activities such as music, cinema, theatre, art exhibitions, work-shops, and cinema reviews. There is a museum dedicated to Luchino Visconti as well. The villa and the park are accessible to public visits.

This park is at Forio d’Ischia and used to be the property of the English composer William Walton, who lived in the Villa next door with his Argentinian wife, Susanna. The composer, arrived on the island in 1946, planting wonderful tropical and Mediterranean plants, some of which have now reached amazing proportions.

Botanical Garden with one of the richest collection of cacti and succulents cultivated outdoors in Europe. The garden, along with the mature areas around Villa Ravino, is the result of 50 years of great passion and loving work of Captain Giuseppe d'Ambra, the owner of the Villa. The exotic trees include palms, olive, lemon and orange, surprising scenery and rare and precious botanical specimens. Giardini Ravino is at Forio d’Ischia. A rich collection of cacti and succulents cultivated outdoors, constantly enriched with new species from all over the world and embellished with the extraordinary presents of the Woolemi Pine, the most sensational discovery of the century.

Since at least the 9th century many towers were constructed along Ischia coastline to provide warning and to defend the island from raids by pirates. One of those tower, called “Torrione” still exists. This tower is in Forio, near the harbour. It was built in 1480, and has two floors: the ground floor has no access from outside and was used as for storing weapons and munitions, and a rain-water tank; on the upper floor, there was accommodation for the garrison (about 10 people) led by a “torriere” that had the task of quickly sighting of any enemy ships and sounding the alarm. On the top, there was a terrace provided for four cannons. Historians notice that many similar towers were built in Forio until the 18th century, however although many of them were now used as private residences of noble families. Sixteen similar fortresses have been counted between 1480 and 1700, plus five more towers built in the district of Panza, some with a squared base and others with a circular base. Many of these towers are still standing and are mainly private residences. The “Torrione”, after it had been restored, became a municipal Museum (on the lower floor) while the upper floor was the home of the artist Giovanni Maltese from Forio and is now an art gallery hosting his pictures and sculptures collection.

This church is devoted to "Santa Maria della neve" (Saint Maria of the snow), and was built on a steep promontory from which it takes its name. As with the "Torrione" tower, it is the symbol of the town of Forio and it is one of the most original architectural structures on the island. The Soccorso was founded as an Augustinian convent in about 1350 but it was suppressed in 1653, with its present form going back to 1864. The church is accessible by 20 steps of piperno, which leads to a small atrium with five crosses of pipernio. This church is world famous not only for its location but also for its singular façade, which is white and adorned by precious 700 majolicas representing saints and scenes of the Passion of Christ. The Soccorso's style is very original, it reassumes some architectures as Greek-Byzantine, Moorish and Mediterranean in harmonic shapes. The inside is very interesting because of the many types of volta. In the left chapel there is a thaumaturgical cross, a sculpture of Catalan inspiration, surely made on the 16th century. Close to this cross there are two marble medals, that were found in a medieval sarcophagus that was found in the castel of the antique cathedral of Ischia. This church retains various artifacts such as a shovel made by Cesare Calise that represents Saint Augustine, and a small basin of pipernio dated from the 9-10th century. On 5 May 2002, during his Pastoral Visit, Pope John Paul II met with many young people in a square adjacent to the church of Our Lady Help of Christians.

One of the most striking monuments on the island. It stands on a small island near Ischia Ponte and is reached by crossing a stone bridge. The castle is about 113 meters high and the climb can be made on an old mule track or by using a modern elevator that was installed in the 1970s. The castle was built in 1441 by Alfonso D’Aragona on top of the ruins of an old fort that dated back to 474 BC. This fortified castle was used to protect Ischia’s population from pirate attacks. One of the exhibits in the castle is dedicated to various forms of medieval torture.

The tower represents Castello Aragonese, one of the best known symbols of the island. It is called Guevara or Michelangelo’s Tower and is in front of the Castle, and is surrounded by a lawn and facing the Sant’Anna rocks. The tower was rebuilt over the ruins of an earlier ancient fortress: it is likely one of the defence towers built from the 15th century to protect the Castle and the coast against enemy attacks. The tower derives its name from the Dukes of Guevara who were the owners since 1800. Its second name derives from a legend that] Michelangelo, who was a friend of the poet] Vittoria Colonna, stayed in the tower when he was visiting the island. The tower is now used as arts exhibition centre.

The villa was built in 1785 by Don Carlo Acquaviva, Duke of Atri, in the same place where a farm called “dell’arbusto” (“arbusto” means “ shrub”, in this case the reference is to a particular plant growing in the garden surrounding the building) existed. Over the years the villa had many owners, until 1952, when it was purchased by the publisher and movie producer Angelo Rizzoli who sponsored the reconstruction of the ancient thermal bath, the construction of some large hotels and the restoration of Piazza Restituta in Lacco Ameno's main piazza.