Campania, Italy

Campania is a region of Southern Italy, bordering on Latium to the north-west, Abruzzo and Molise to the north, Apulia to the north-east, Basilicata to the east, and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west. The region covers 13,595 sq.km and has a population of 5.8 million.

The name derives from Latin, as it was called by Romans Campania felix ("fortunate countryside"), a name that is shared by the French province of Champagne.

Tourist attractions include the Sibyl's cave at Cumae, the Greek temples at Paestum, the Roman ruins at Pompeii and Herculaneum, the volcanoes of Vesuvius, Campi Flegrei, the Amalfi Coast (Costiera Amalfitana) , the Sorrento Peninsula (Penisola Sorrentina) and the islands of Capri, Ischia and Procida.

Campania was part of the Magna Graecia, the Greek colonies of southern Italy; the first Greek colony was founded at Cumae, north of present day Naples, in the 8th century BC. Etruscans and Samnites gave way to the expanding Roman Republic.