The Vesuvius was a hill called Monte Somma where on its fertile slopes the Romans used to grow vines from which a sweet and pleasant wine filled the tables in their villas in Herculanaeum and the cellars in the various taverns in Pompei. Its first eruption in79 A.D. captured for posterity the ruins of ancient Pompei and Herculanaeum, and was the beginning of a cycle of activity. A record of hundreds of eruptions through the centuries witnessed by important people like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Boccaccio, Sir William Hamilton to name a few, made it the most renowned volcanoe in the world. Nowadays it is in a sort of hibernation and is calm and quiet, and is one of the places not to be missed once you are in the Bay of Naples. A walk up the crater is the best place for pictures of the entire Bay and once up there the wiews of the "Fumarole" - small emissions of steam and sulphuric gases - and the dark grey crater will give you the inpression of a moonscape. Excursions to the Vesuvius are available either on its own, or combined with a visit to Pompei.