From Marina Grande to Terra Murata and the Corricella

Route map

Stop-by-stop route

1. 1

   Santa Maria della Pietà, Marina Grande

   Church 20 min

   You start from the first building you see arriving by sea. In 1616 the shipowners of the Pio Monte dei Marinai asked the viceroy, the Duke of Osuna, for a chapel dedicated to Santa Maria della Pietà: it was completed in 1619 and then enlarged twice, the last time around 1760, when the original chapel ended up swallowed into the sacristy. Inside you find a single barrel-vaulted nave, two canvases of 1722 by Antonio Fumo and a wooden pulpit of 1744-45 by the cabinetmaker Agostino Fucito. Entry is free. The hours given, 9:00-20:00, do not come from a parish source: take them as indicative and do not go in during services.

   Tip: The bus terminus is right in front. If you are thinking of coming back by bus, have a look now at where they leave from.

2. 2

   Casale Vascello

   Village 20 min

   Climbing towards the acropolis you come to the first settlement built outside the walls: a fortified courtyard settlement of the seventeenth century, built when the population began to come down from Terra Murata because the Saracen raids were thinning out. The layout is still defensive: coloured houses packed one against another to block an enemy’s way through, narrow alleys, everything organised around a large central courtyard. Here you see for the first time the vefio, the small covered balcony with an arched vault of Arab influence that you will find again at the Corricella. There are two entrances, one on Via Principessa Margherita and one on Via Salita Castello.

   Tip: It is not a monument: it is a courtyard where people live. Both gates may not be open, and if they are you go in quietly and do not photograph inside the houses.

3. 3

   The gates of Terra Murata

   Climb 15 min

   The last stretch of the climb is the steepest and has no shade. Terra Murata is a fortified acropolis: a fief of the d’Avalos family from 1529, with a defensive system of walls and towers attributed to Cardinal Innico d’Avalos d’Aragona. Of the historic gates the Porta di Ferro and the Porta di Mezz’Omo remain, and going under them is the moment you understand that you are entering something enclosed, not a scenic neighbourhood. Up there are no opening hours and nothing to pay: it is public open space.

   Tip: In the heat, do this stretch before 10:00 or after 17:00. There are no drinking fountains along the climb: carry your water up from below.

4. 4

   Palazzo d’Avalos

   Monument 60 min

   Built in the sixteenth century by the d’Avalos family, governors of the island until the eighteenth century, to a design by the architects Cavagna and Tortelli. The Bourbons turned it first into a royal military school and then into a prison: in use as a penitentiary from 1830, closed for good in 1988. It is not a single building but a complex — palace, courtyard, guards’ barracks, wing of single cells, veterans’ quarters, infirmary, governor’s house and farmland. Inside there remain rusted iron beds, prisoners’ personal effects and an operating room. Since June 2025 there has been the permanent display “Non ho aspettato altro che il giorno pieno”. A hundred and forty years of prison have left a concrete mark: almost every Procidan family keeps an object made in here.

   Tip: It can be visited ONLY with a guide and ONLY by booking, at least two days ahead, a minimum of two and a maximum of twenty people, about an hour. Entry costs 13.00 EUR. On the hours, three sources give three different calendars: check before you climb, or you risk finding it shut.

5. 5

   Belvedere dei cannoni

   Viewpoint 15 min

   This is the point from which you see everything: the Corricella below, the bay in front, Ischia on one side and the mainland on the other. The island’s tourist portal reports that the two long-range cannon placed here date from the Neapolitan Republic of 1799; that is a single source, so we give it to you as we find it, attributed. Not far off is the permanent museum that gathers the Misteri, the processional machines of Procidan Holy Week.

   Tip: It is the right place for the photograph of the Corricella from above, but the good light is early morning. In the middle of the day the village below is against the light.

6. 6

   Abbey of San Michele Arcangelo

   Church 45 min

   The monastic presence here is documented from 1026: 2026 is the Year of the Millennium. The building you see, though, is sixteenth-century. Inside there is a bellows organ in carved and gilded wood of 1770, the work of Domenico Antonio Rossi, and a statue of San Michele donated in 1811. Entry is free, with a donation to the parish if you wish, and the guided explanation is provided free of charge by the Associazione culturale Millennium. The official 2026 hours for the guided visits are: Monday 10:00-13:00; Tuesday to Friday 10:00-13:00 and 16:00-18:00; Saturday 10:00-13:00; Sunday 11:00-13:00. Mass on Sundays and feast days is at 09:30 and during the liturgy there are no visits. The opening service runs from Holy Week to All Saints.

   Tip: The underground rooms, with the eighteenth-century crib and the library, at present are NOT open to visitors: the official site states so, even though many guides still advertise them. And in the Year of the Millennium the calendar can change without notice: check again the day before.

7. 7

   Santa Margherita Nuova

   Church 20 min

   A church and former Dominican convent on the ridge between Terra Murata and the Corricella. The Dominicans came up here from the second half of the sixteenth century, abandoning Santa Margherita Vecchia at the Chiaiolella to escape the Saracen raids. In the winter of 1956 the complex suffered serious structural collapses; the restoration of the church was completed in September 2012, that of the convent is still under way. On the lower levels there is a remarkable system of cisterns for collecting rainwater. Today the building hosts exhibitions, and from the terraces you get one of the most classic views down onto the Corricella.

   Tip: We do not promise you will get inside. The hours given (Monday to Friday 10:00-19:00, closed Saturday and Sunday) depend on the exhibition running at the time and have to be checked on the spot; the ticket price does not appear to be published.

8. 8

   The stairways down to the Corricella

   Stairway 15 min

   From here you go down, and the descent is as much part of the route as the churches. The Corricella can be reached only by four stairways: the Gradinata del Pennino, which starts from via San Rocco, the Gradinata Scura, which comes down from via M. Scotti, and two that climb from the opposite ends of the harbour. They are narrow, irregular steps, in among the houses. There is no road access to the village at all, and that is not a picturesque detail: anyone arriving with luggage or with reduced mobility has a real problem to solve beforehand, not on the spot.

   Tip: Closed shoes with a sole that grips. Going down, these steps are trickier than going up, especially if they have had rain on them.

9. 9

   Marina Corricella

   Village 45 min

   The oldest fishing village on the island: the harbour as you see it today is of the 17th century. The architecture is spontaneous — arches, domes, outside staircases, loggias, fronts in every colour — and the detail to look for is still the vefio. The little square is named after Massimo Troisi: much of “Il Postino” was shot here. On the quay are the village’s restaurants, and from here the boat service for the Spiaggia della Chiaia also leaves, which is the way to avoid its stairway.

   Tip: It is the right place to stop and eat fish and end the day. If you have to climb back up, reckon on the same steps in reverse, with your legs already tired.