The path ends on the rock and the island opens up beside you. Below is the Chiaia bay with its dark sand, to the left the semicircle of the Corricella, and above the bulk of Terra Murata. There is no railing, there is no kiosk, there is no sign. There is the wind, and that is all.
Punta Pizzaco is the rocky headland that closes the Chiaia bay to the south, on the south-eastern coast. You get there on foot from Piazza Olmo, along Via Pizzaco. It is free, it is always open and few people go, which is exactly the reason to go.
What you see
The view is the classic one of the island seen from the south: the Chiaia beach below, the Corricella at an angle with its coloured fronts and, at the top, Terra Murata with the walls. Three places you see separately elsewhere, and here you read them together, as a single sequence.
The headland closes the bay to the south, and that explains why the Chiaia is the most sheltered beach on the island: the rock acts as a screen for it. From above you see it clearly, and it is one of those things you cannot work out from the sand.
The good moment is the late afternoon, when the sun comes from the west and lights the coast side-on. In the morning the bay is against the light and the colour of the Corricella does not come out. The fact that it is an exposed headland also means the wind is there almost always: take something to put on, even in summer.
What we do not know
On this place there are no official sources. We have not managed to verify the height of the headland, the length of the path, or whether there is a made-up viewpoint when you get there. Other guides give figures: we are not repeating them, because they do not go back to any checkable source.
We prefer a short honest page to a long invented one. What we can tell you for certain is little and useful: it is on the south-eastern coast, above the Chiaia, you get there on foot from Piazza Olmo by Via Pizzaco, you do not pay and it never closes.
For the rest, expect an unsurfaced path, steep and exposed, with no parapets, no lighting, no facilities and no shade. That is our deduction from the type of ground, not a published figure: take it as a caution and act accordingly, that is closed shoes, water and back before dark.
Getting there
You set off from Piazza Olmo, which is also the point where the other path down to the Chiaia starts, the one on Via dei Bagni. From there you take Via Pizzaco and carry on towards the headland. There is no vehicle access all the way and there are no facilities along the route.
Do not expect signposts. The route is not signed as a tourist attraction and appears in almost no official itinerary, which is part of the reason why you find few people on it. If you are unsure of the direction, ask in Piazza Olmo: it is a name everybody knows.
The sensible combination is this: a morning on the beach at the Chiaia, back up to Piazza Olmo, and Pizzaco in the last hour of light. Anyone who wants to see the same stretch of coast without walking does it from the water: a boat trip round the island passes under this headland and gives you the same scene the other way round.
What is nearby
Below, the Chiaia: dark volcanic sand, shallow water, the most sheltered bay on the island, reachable only on foot or by sea. The main stairway comes down from Via dei Bagni and the sources contradict each other on the number of steps — 186 according to one, 182 according to two others: count on about 180 and think no more about it. On the beach there is La Conchiglia, one of the two small beach clubs, which is also a restaurant.
The comparison between all the island’s beaches is in the guide to Procida’s beaches. If you are building your day, look also at what to see on Procida.
