Half an hour from Naples but off its tourist routes, Capua is an excellent base. Here is what to see within forty minutes, in order of distance from us.
Underground Capua
A maze of tunnels and galleries carved into the tuff beneath the streets of the historic centre, where Roman, medieval and Bourbon remains overlap. Guided visits on request: unmissable for anyone who loves the secrets no guidebook tells.
5 min on foot · CapuaMuseo Campano and the Matres Matutae
Housed in a Renaissance palazzo, the Museo Campano is one of the most extraordinary collections in southern Italy. Its Matres Matutae — over 150 votive statues of women holding one or more infants — are unique in the world.
8 min on foot · CapuaRoman bridge and Frederick II towers
The bridge over the Volturno dates from Hadrian’s time, with five arches carrying the Appian Way. Destroyed by bombing in 1943 and rebuilt afterwards, it still faces the bases of Frederick II’s towers. A walk here at sunset is one of the finest things Capua can offer.
12 min by car · Sant'Angelo in FormisBasilica of Sant'Angelo in Formis
Built on the ruins of the Temple of Diana Tifatina, this 11th-century Benedictine basilica holds one of the largest cycles of Byzantine-style medieval frescoes in southern Italy: whole naves covered with scenes from the Old and New Testament.
15 min by car · Santa Maria Capua VetereMithraeum of Santa Maria Capua Vetere
One of the best-preserved mithraea in the Roman world. Below street level you enter a rectangular chamber dominated by the tauroctony fresco — Mithras killing the primordial bull. Few people know it. Nobody who visits forgets it.
18 min by car · Santa Maria Capua VetereCampano Amphitheatre
Second in size only to the Colosseum, built between the 1st and 2nd century AD. What makes it immortal is a name: Spartacus. It was here, in the first gladiator school in the world, that the Thracian slave raised the revolt that shook the Empire.
Royal Palace of Caserta
A UNESCO site and the largest royal residence in the world by volume. Beyond the apartments, the real surprise is the park: three kilometres of pools and cascades up to the Fountain of Diana, and the English Garden with its historic greenhouses.
Naples historic centre
Spaccanapoli, the Veiled Christ, and the National Archaeological Museum with the treasures of Pompeii. Taking the train from Santa Maria Capua Vetere avoids the traffic entirely.