There is a song about Marechiaro, and for once the song is not exaggerating. The little fishing hamlet on the Posillipo headland, at the western edge of the Bay of Naples, inspired a poem by Salvatore Di Giacomo in the 1880s about a window and a flower, and Francesco Paolo Tosti set it to music, so that "Marechiare" has been sung in Neapolitan kitchens and concert halls ever since. Locals will point out the so-called Fenestella, a small window on a wall above the sea, as the very one. Whether the poet had it in mind or not is a matter for a pleasant argument over a plate of fried fish.
The name means clear sea, and the water here is genuinely a clean, glassy green over dark rock. Posillipo is a ridge of volcanic tuff, part of the Phlegraean Fields, the caldera country west of Naples where the ground still steams at Solfatara. The Greeks called the hill Pausilypon, meaning a pause from sorrow, and Romans built seaside villas along it. Just along the coast the ruins of the villa of Vedius Pollio, a freedman and friend of Augustus, include a theatre and a tunnel cut through the hill. Close by lies the Gaiola, a marine protected area with two small islets and clear water that is worth a look.
Getting here is an exercise in Neapolitan riding. Via Posillipo winds along the cliffside from Mergellina, with the bay below and Vesuvius floating in the haze across the water, and the views are among the best in southern Italy. The road is narrow, busy, and often lined with parked cars, and the lanes down to Marechiaro itself are steeper and tighter still. Scooters weave, buses squeeze, and everyone drives by negotiation. Go slowly, watch the cobbles and manhole covers, which can be treacherous in the wet, and treat every blind corner as occupied. A weekday morning is easiest. Summer weekends bring crowds to the swimming platforms and restaurants.
Fuel is available in Posillipo and Bagnoli, each with around twenty thousand people, and in the city centre beyond. At Marechiaro itself you get the small harbour, a few rocks to sit on and some simple seafood restaurants. Try spaghetti with clams or a fried fish cone and stay for the light, which turns copper over Capri in the early evening.