At Caesar's time it stretched from Punta Epitaffio to the Castle, in a magic area full with villas, thermal baths, temples, pools, colonnades, domes and gardens just like in a dream; as a scenery there was the green of myrtles and vineyards, the yellow of the surrounding pozzolana hills. Along the streets or up the hills they raised thermal buildings, patrician palaces, marble staircases, perfect arches, statues made by great artists.

Often the rich, for want of space, built also over the sea, so that Baia – during the apogee of the Empire – was transformed in a wonderful spectacle of buildings and people which exactly reflected the Roman opulence.

But in its underwater casket Baia still keeps its beautiful treasures, though scratched by the offences of time, though bitten by sea parasites when they didn’t find a shelter under the sand.

… Factories, shops of artists and craftsmen, huge statues of precious marble or busts of delicate bronze, piers of the Portus Julius, thermal springs still active under the sea, trunks of columns, embroidered capitals, Pan’s pipes, vases, amphorae, coins, jewels… Everything is just like the dream of an Atlantis that is no more a legend but built in stone and marble, and that waits for an impossible resurrection, like a phoenix, perhaps from the magic wand of an American multi-millionaire, or thanks to the initiative of the Unesco countries, which moved to save the Egyptian temples in Abu Simbel. Maybe it would be enough to dam just one area of the submerged Baia, perhaps before Punta Epitaffio. It could be made by German and Dutch experts, that in their battles steal more and more space to the sea, though our technicians are very good at works of huge barrages (as all the world acknowledges). Today it’s just a mirage that arises with the memories and through the works of great poets and writers. But it’s sure that if the underwater Baia could emerge again, like Venus who protected it, it would be the most beautiful sight that we can imagine and an archaeological event unique in history, more important than the discovery of Pompeii. And that is all…