Naples, the largest city in Italy. It sprawled almost voluptuously in the early afternoon sun, curving in a wide crescent along the shores of the bay that bore its name, flanked by the mountains of Vesuvius and Posillipo to north and south. It was the first of these that naturally occupied Nathan’s attention on their approach from the north, for though it was not the first volcano he had seen, it was by far the most active. The cloud they had observed from far out to sea was now revealed as a thick pyre of smoke, and he could see the smouldering ashes it had dumped along the rim and several small fires they had started in the sparse brush among the rocks and scree. The last eruption, only a few years before, had blown the top right off the mountain, leaving a distinctive crater between the two peaks, but there were few signs now of the devastation it must have wrought. The summit rose out of dense forest, and its lower slopes were clothed in the most abundant crops and vegetation: fields of golden wheat interspersed with olive and citrus groves and the more vibrant green of vineyards and other crops he could not name.
