Forio (known also as ''Forio of Ischia'') is a town and ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' of c. 17,000 inhabitants in the

Metropolitan City of Naples The Metropolitan City of Naples () is a Metropolitan cities of Italy, metropolitan city in the Campania region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Naples. The province was established on 1 January 2015 and contains 92 ''comuni'' (: ''comune''). ...

, southern

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, situated on the island of

Ischia Ischia ( , , ) is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It lies at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples, about from the city of Naples. It is the largest of the Phlegrean Islands. Although inhabited since the Bronze Age, as a Ancient G ...

Overview

Its territory includes the town of Panza, the only ''frazione'' of Forio and of the island of Ischia. Panza has always been an independent village since the 16th century when a first governmental organization was introduced on the island. In the 1975 the inhabitants of Panza tried to become an independent ''comune'' but the

referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

, claimed by the inhabitants of Forio, was denied by the Campania's Regional Government. There are numerous coastal

watchtower A watchtower or guardtower (also spelt watch tower, guard tower) is a type of military/paramilitary or policiary tower used for guarding an area. Sometimes fortified, and armed with heavy weaponry, especially historically, the structures are ...

s, built from the Middle Ages against

Saracen upright 1.5, Late 15th-century German woodcut depicting Saracens ''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Rom ...

and African pirates raids. In the 20th century, Ischia inspired at least two well-known English language poets. Ischia was the site where W.H. Auden composed one of his most famous poems, In Praise of Limestone. And the American Poet, Theodore Roethke, dedicated his poem The Storm, to "Forio d'Ischia" as printed in Selected Poems of Theodore Rothke (Library of America, Edwin Hirsch, Ed., 2005, p.113).

Overview

See also

Twin towns

References

External links