Enhancing Social Resilience Through Fruition of Geological Heritage in the Vesuvio National Park

The Vesuvio National Park, established in June 1995, is the green area closest to Napoli megacity, which suffers the absence of urban green spaces and could hence offer to citizens the opportunity to enjoy healthy places in a peculiar environment as the landscape of an active volcano. We here propose two trails with several stops, named the Ancient Railway Track and the Valle dell'Inferno. They start from San Sebastiano al Vesuvio and Ottaviano towns, located on two opposite sides of northern Somma-Vesuvio area, and are both directed towards the Vesuvio crater. Along the trails, the visitors can enjoy several volcanic forms and products (the Somma caldera rim, dykes, lava domes, ropy lava flows, pyroclastic fall deposits) together with historical remains, such as the Cook Railway track, and the typical botanic association, the Mediterranean bush. The stops were illustrated with panels describing in detail both geological and landscape features with pictures and simple text boxes, clear and engaging for a wide set of excursionists of different ages and cultural backgrounds. The quality of the two trails was assessed through a quantitative evaluation of the single stops considering the different typologies of expected visitors. The project of promotion and fruition of green spaces in an active volcanic area here proposed contributes to encourage healthy living and raise well-being and could represent one of the means to achieve a better level of resilience for a society exposed to high volcanic risk.