With our cars you can take a beautiful tour of the island to fully enjoy the beauties in full comfort.
We can assume to start the tour of the island starting from Forio starting from the southern border that is from the fraction of Panza, the most important fraction of the municipality of Forio.
The good climate combined with the fertility of the soil make Panza the area with the best wine production of the entire island of Ischia. It is no coincidence that some of the most important winegrowers on the island have important plots of land and, in some cases, even their cellars. Do not miss the Farmers’ Museum at the end of Via Andrea D’Ambra, the road named after the founder of the oldest winery on the island, the homonymous D’Ambra Vini, easily accessible by car.
Going down towards Forio center home of our rental Nausicaa rent, you meet the plain of Montecorvo, a quiet residential area that still bears many traces of the agricultural past of the territory. At the end of Via Pietra Brox, right next to the entrance of the Giardini Arimei estate of the Muratori family, a path begins that leads to the fumarolico field in the area of Via Bocca. The volunteers of ProLoco di Panza who have restored this and other trails of the hamlet, have emblematically renamed the largest of the fumaroles “Bocca di Tifeo”, connecting to the Greek myth of the giant forced by Zeus to lie under the weight of the island.
Continuing with our cars in comfort, we cross the hamlet Cuotto, the area with the highest density of accommodation on the island of Ischia, with many hotels, pensions and B&Bs all overlooking the beautiful bay of Citara, at the end of which there are the renowned Poseidon Gardens, Among the most beautiful and largest thermal parks in Europe.
Immediately after you arrive at the port of Forio, where we are with our beautiful rental ready to offer exciting experiences with cars, scooters, electric bikes and inflatables all new. After passing the port, you immediately arrive at Lacco Ameno, the smallest of the six municipalities on the island of Ischia. Here parking in the parking lots outside the town our car is worth stopping for a moment and see and photograph the Mushroom.
Lacco Ameno is the territory where they landed Calcidesi and Eretriesi coming from the island of Euboea in the middle of the eighth century BC.
Lacco Ameno is the territory where it is said to have landed the body of the dead African martyr Santa Restituta, patron of the island of Ischia. Lacco Ameno is the territory where the tourist revival of Ischia began, thanks to the patronage of the Milanese publisher Angelo Rizzoli who made in this small town on the north-western side of the island most of his hotel and real estate investments.
Taking back the car we continue to Casamicciola Terme, the oldest spa on the island. The first town to live of tourism already in the nineteenth century, so much so that the terrible earthquake that hit it in 1883 was renamed by the Italian press as the “earthquake of the rich” so much was the presence of foreign and Italian tourists who came to make the spas and baths in this thermal town north of the island of Ischia.
Except for the Marina, Casamicciola Terme is mostly hilly, with the complexes of Monte Tabor, Rotaro, Sentinella, Maio and Castiglione that draw the orography of the places.
The hill of Castiglione represents the geographical border with the municipality of Ischia.
The Belvedere certainly deserves a stop in fact stopping the car you can enjoy a wonderful panorama.
The municipality of Ischia is composed of the two main coastal towns of Ischia Porto and Ischia Ponte and the hamlets of San Michele, Sant’Antuono, Campagnano and Sant’Alessandro.
The itinerary starts from the Church of Santa Maria in Porto Salvo, right in front of the port of Ischia, a symbol of the development of the island.
Not everyone knows that it was once a volcanic lake and that it was the Bourbons, to be precise Ferdinand II, who transformed it into a port through the cut of the crater rim.
Once the external variant is finished, you can reach, keeping to the right, the aqueduct of the Pillars, today the border point between the two municipalities of Ischia and Barano, a time fundamental work of civil engineering for the water supply of the “village of Celsa”, ancient name of Ischia Ponte. The water was channelled from the Buceto Spring, which is located in the cave of the same name south of Fiaiano, a hamlet of the municipality of Barano.
Continuing easily by car you reach the town of Barano that extends in the south-eastern part of the island of Ischia. The predominantly hilly trend of the territory gives almost the impression that the towns of Piedimonte, Fiaiano, Vatoliere, Testaccio and Maronti, which is the largest beach on the island, appear in front of unexpected.
After passing Piazza San Rocco, which is the main centre of Barano, the walk continues through the ancient peasant village of Buonopane, up to the famous bridge, where legend has it that “murupanesi” and “baranesi” have challenged each other To solve the very intricate matter from which moves the folk dance of the ‘ndrezzata. Right under the bridge is the source of Nitrodi, whose waters are particularly suitable for the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis and alopecia, so that the Ministry of Health has recognized its medicinal properties with a special decree. Here you can stop with our car and get off to visit it also enjoying the beautiful view. Finally, before returning to Forio, you arrive at Serrara Fontana which is located on the southern side of the island of Ischia. Of the six municipalities of the island is the least populated; the highest on sea level; the one to which belongs the highest peak of the island; the one to which belongs the southernmost part of the island, the Torre di Sant’Angelo.
In addition to the two main hamlets of Serrara and Fontana, the other towns that make up the territory are Noia, Calimera, Ciglio, Succhivo, until the already mentioned Sant’Angelo. Do not miss the viewpoints of Serrara and Fontana, especially the first overlooking the plain of Succhivo and the village of Sant’Angelo. Right from the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, in piazza a Serrara, starts the excursion of Via Andrea Mattera, a provincial road with a difference of more than 300 meters that leads to the beach of Maronti, passing through the hydrothermal basin of Cavascura, or to the square of Sant’Angelo through the upper part of the village called the “Madonnella”.
Going down from Serrara Fontana we meet the Ciglio, before returning to Panza, a place that has kept numerous traces of the ancient rock architecture of the island of Ischia: the dry walls, the so-called “parracine” but, above all, the houses dug in the famous local green tuff that draws almost entirely the orography of this side, geologically the oldest on the island. Do not miss the Church of San Ciro al Ciglio, completely renovated in 2011.