Parco Virgiliano (Mergellina)

It is located directly across from the Mergellina railway station and in back of the church of Santa Maria di Piedigrotta.

The site is at the eastern opening of the so-called Neapolitan Crypt, an ancient Roman tunnel that led through the Posillipo hill to connect to a major road leading north to Rome, itself.

The tunnel was probably the work of Lucius Cocceus Auctus, the Roman engineer who built the nearby Seiano Grotto and many of the fortifications of the Roman Imperial Port in Baia.

Parco Virgiliano also contains the authenticated tomb of a more recent poet, Giacomo Leopardi, who died in Naples in 1837.

The tunnel, though ancient, was kept up and even expanded in recent centuries and remained in sporadic use until quite late, until superseded by two nearby modern vehicular tunnels around 1900.