A casual discovery, like most of those that since the 18th century have returned the archaeological treasures in the shadow of Vesuvius.

Until a few decades ago, characteristic wooden boats sailed on the Sarno river, used for fishing and for collecting reeds.

The excavations searching for the ancient Herculaneum buried by the eruption of 79 AD were started in 1738, but the fame of the city emerging from the mud was soon supplanted by that of Pompeii which is just about 20 kilometers away.

Il mito ne collega l’origine a Ercole. Ma furono gli Osci, che si insediarono su quel tratto di costa dell’ampio golfo nell’VIII secolo a.C,, a fissare per la prima volta in un’iscrizione il nome di Stabia.

Pompeii stands on a plateau 30 meters above sea level and at a short distance from the mouth of the Sarno river. The fortune of the city was in fact linked to its position next to the sea, that made it a port for every centre of the Campania hinterland, in competition with the Greek cities of the coast.

For centuries they have embellished the collections of museums in half Europe and across the Atlantic. Discoveries, revealed to the world, stripped of their most valuable content and then, almost always, returned to the earth and oblivion.