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Punta Campanella - Protected Area
The establishment of the Marine Protected Area “Punta Campanella” has the aim to preserve one of the most beautiful and rich stretches of Italian coast from a naturalistic point of view, both for the terrestrial and for the underwater environment. The 40 Km of coasts are a succession of green promontories and welcoming inlets: the Baia di Ieranto is famous, since it offers to the visitor a unique landscape. Historical-Artistic Monuments The Roman Villas
Athena's Sanctuary The cultural horizon in which the cult of Athena in Punta della Campanella must be read is a horizon “integrating earth and water, coast and open sea in relationship with the ideal needs of navigation”. The cult can “legitimately be considered addressed to the patronage of the maritime access of the Gulf since ancient times". The coastal towers The watching towers characterizing all the coasts of the Kingdom of Naples were built according to the will of the viceroy Don Parafan de Ribera and mainly accomplished during the vicekingdom of Don Pedro di Toledo. Zones Vervece Zone
From the surface to the bottom, the Vervece holds all the charm of diving into the Mediterranean Sea. Just below the surface of the water, the walls seem gardens in bloom, because they are covered with Parazoanthus with the open octopuses ready to catch planktonic particles. Red starfishes lie down on the yellow colonies, while hundreds of multicolored small fishes circle around the divers. Vetara Zone The small cliff of Vetara lies on a seabed of about fifty meters, its walls degrade by alternating gentle slopes to steep falls. Flora and fauna enrich it from its first meters and a luxuriant “coralligenous” colonizes each ravine. At less than one hundred meters from the cliff there is a shoal linked to it with its top at -6 meters, and it is possible to glimpse it through the crystalline water.
The Riserva Naturale Marina Punta Campanella is provided with the following structures:
The area of Punta Campanella is at about 1,5 miles from Positano on a side, and at 2 miles from Sorrento on the other side.
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Nearby sights
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Located between Sorrento and Positano, the territory of Punta Campanella Area is characterized by homogeneity in the landscape and in the natural aspects of
great importance at a global level, by the historical and cultural quality of
the sites, by the presence of tourist settlements, of food and alimentary and
artistic craftsmanship, by commercial activities, and by high-quality tourist
services. Because of the calcareous nature of the peninsula, the area is
characterized by karst phenomena leading to the formation of a considerable
number of emerged cavities, which became underwater because of tectonic
movements and of the raising of the sea level. Among the most spectacular ones
there is the Grotta della Cala di Mitigliano in which, at not a very great depth,
you can explore the charming world of the underwater dark caves.
Already during the 1st century BC Roman villas began to be built by the Roman
elite in the most panoramic points of the coast: as a matter of fact, the Roman
elite had chosen already in the previous century the Gulf of Naples as a place
of idleness and holiday. The impressiveness and the luxury of these aristocratic
residences of Sorrento is documented by some finds worthy of the capital. 
The cliff of Vervece, situated at about one thousand meters from the small
harbor of Marina della Lobra (Massa Lubrense), can be considered a real sea
Sanctuary for the presence at 12 meters of depth of the statue of the Virgin
Mary which protects divers.
When you dive, you will imagine to be in a tropical atoll: groups of
multicolored Labridae, clouds of Ray's breams, Blotched picarels, and Boces.
Sworms of small anchovies, sardines, and mackerels attract greedy shoals of
Little tunnies and Greater amberjacks. On the slope facing the open sea, at -15
meters there is a small cave full of Shrimps Parapandalus narval, with red
colors and long white antennas. At a greater depth, the walls are covered with
yellow and red Gorgonians, adorned by clusters of delicate and pink laces of
Briozoan (Sertella beaniana) and by thick “bouquets” of transparent Ascidians
(Clavelina lepadiformis). In the fissures of the walls you can catch sight of
White Breams sharing their den with Brown Meagres and Greater Forkbreads, and
also with some rare Groupers. On the bottom there is the Pinna nobilis and big
cup-shaped brown Sponges.