The Baths of Ischia, near Naples

Wilson visited Naples and the surrounding area in 1752 and again in the spring of 1753 with Lord Dartmouth. With its hot mineral springs and volcanic mud, the island of Ischia was a celebrated resort in classical antiquity, and the baths were popular in the eighteenth century, the most famous being those of Casamicciola on the northern coast. The view, only now identified, is taken from a position just to the east of the spa, looking west past the harbor. In the nineteenth century it was still a celebrated resort, but much of it was destroyed in a devastating earthquake in 1883, including the building on a rock in the sea.