Naples:In the Shadow of the Volcanoes

Follow a Bourbon descendant to discover the history, culture, and beauty of Naples through the city’s most prestigious palaces, private villas, and hidden cultural gems.

Beneath the shadow of Vesuvius, Naples reveals itself as a city of contrasts—divine and earthly, radiant and somber, exuberant and restrained. In this richly illustrated volume, Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice of Bourbon Two Sicilies invites readers to rediscover her ancestral city through a narrative that blends history, art, and personal reflection. From its volcanic origins and classical legends to its enduring faith and ritual life, Naples emerges as a place where the sacred and the everyday coexist in a rare harmony. The reader moves through cloisters and chapels, palaces and gardens, witnessing the city’s transformation through centuries of triumph and loss. Its shadows, catacombs, and ruined splendor reveal a civilization that has faced catastrophe and renewal with grace and resilience.

Through revolutions and restorations, the city has retained a singular vitality—its identity shaped by the Bourbon legacy, yet always reinventing itself with the rhythm of the sea and the fire of the mountain.

Lavishly illustrated with new photographs by Massimo Listri, the book captures Naples as both spectacle and spirit—a living palimpsest where every vista tells a story, and every ruin breathes with memory. | HRH Princess Beatrice of Bourbon Two Sicilies is a descendant of the royal House of Bourbon Two Sicilies. Deeply engaged in cultural and humanitarian work, she has devoted much of her life to preserving the artistic and historical heritage of southern Italy. Massimo Listri is an internationally renowned photographer whose work has been featured in exhibitions and is celebrated for its serene compositions and extraordinary sense of light and space.