Regione Campania

The Campania is a region of southern Italy, on the western coast of the "boot". It is south of Rome, with the Capital Napoli (Naples) right in the center.

This region is the center of Italian volcanism, with the volcano Vesuvio right behind the Capital. The whole area is covered by volcanic rocks and volcanic ashes. The last explosive eruption 79 AD produced several tens of meters of ash covering Pompei and Harculaneum. These rocks are not soluble and thus not karstified. Lava tubes also do not exist, as the volcanism is explosive. Lava tubes are formed by calm lava which flows over a long time. But because of the long history, especially the Roman empire, there are numerous subterranea, which were cut into the soft volcanic tufa.

There are several sea caves along the coast. The erosional caves are formed by the waves in the niveau of the sea level. But volcanic activities cause rather fast up and subsidence movements of the whole area, so sea caves may be high above the sea or underwater. The sea caves below sea level are world-famous with their strange filtered light. Two of them are open to the public, Grotta Azzurra on Capri island and Grotta Smeralda on the south coast of Sorrento peninsula, also called Costa Amalfitana (Amalfi coast).

At the southern part of this area are several limestone areas with impressive caves. The caves are located in and around Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park. This area was declared a UNESCO GeoPark in 2010.