A walled coastal road of private villas above the water, one of them the exterior of a long running soap opera.
What Posillipo looks like
Via Posillipo runs along the clifftop for about six kilometres between Mergellina and the western end of the headland, cut into the rock with stepped lanes dropping to the water in places. High walls and iron gates line both sides of the road, screening villas and palazzos behind terraced gardens. Where the walls break, the ground falls away to the sea, with Vesuvius visible across the bay.
, on the seaward side at Via Posillipo 222, has round corner towers under a crenellated parapet above a private beach at the waterline. , near Mergellina, rises straight out of the water on arcaded lower floors under a plain upper storey. , further along the coast, has its own cylindrical tower and curtain wall above a narrow stretch of rock.
About four hundred steps lead down from the road to , ending at a small harbor with fishing boats drawn up against a rock called the Scoglione. Past Marechiaro, the water around the islets of is a protected marine park.
, set back from the road near Via Ferdinando Russo, is the Italian president's Naples residence. Its grounds hold a second colonnaded building with a sculpted frieze across its portico. The road narrows to one lane in places, with few pull offs above the drop to the water.
Shot in Posillipo
Villa Rocca Matilde, a 19th century villa with faux-crenelated towers at Via Posillipo 222, opens Paolo Sorrentino's Parthenope as a birth scene plays out in the water off its private beach. Villa Volpicelli, further along the coast, has supplied the exterior of a different fictional building for a national soap opera since 2004.
Un posto al sole, since 2004
Villa Volpicelli
Played Palazzo Palladini
Since 2004 the Rai Tre soap opera Un posto al sole has filmed the exterior of this villa as Palazzo Palladini, the fictional condominium at the center of the show. Its cylindrical tower and crenellated walls rise straight from the rocks at the edge of the water. Street View
What Posillipo can double for
Bellagio in Lake Como, Italy
Walled gardens step down to the water around Bellagio on Lake Como, a similar scale of private villa and boat landing to Posillipo's own shoreline. Como's water is flat and the light is often hazier than the open gulf, and the villas sit closer to steep, forested mountains in wide shots. Try searching walled Lake Como villa now.
Cap Ferrat in French Riviera, France
Villas behind iron gates line the headland at Cap Ferrat, built in roughly the same decades as Posillipo's own and facing open water from a similar height above the rocks. Cap Ferrat's umbrella pines and red tile roofs read differently in a wide shot, and the water is the clearer blue of the French Mediterranean rather than the Bay of Naples. Try searching villa behind iron gates now.
Montecito in California, United States
Stucco villas with tile roofs sit above the Pacific around Montecito, a similar scale of private estate behind its own gates and hedges. The chaparral hillsides and palm varieties are visibly Californian in a wide shot, and the water lacks the Bay of Naples' volcano backdrop. Try searching stucco villa above the pacific now.
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