Uncovering the past - scuba diving Roman ruins in the Naples Archaeological Park

A trip to Baie, Italy, reveals a sunken Roman city and a landscape dominated by volcanic activity. Story by Karen Moule of Milton Keynes Sub-Aqua Club.

Baie, a town in the suburbs of Naples, Italy, is the home of a 2,000-year-old sunken city where wealthy Romans would holiday and entertain. Like the Las Vegas of its day, Romans came to enjoy the lavish parties as well as relax in the city’s volcanic hot springs. But it was the seismic phenomenon known as Bradyseism – the slow subsidence or uplift of the Earth’s surface, due to the emptying or filling of an underground magma chamber – which made the sea level rise approximately six metres and sink the city.

An added attraction of Baie is that all the dive sites in the Archaeological Park are very shallow, making them accessible to all. And whether you’re new to diving or very experienced, diving on the sites at Baie is a truly unique experience that transports you back in time.

Having visited Baie in 2024 as a guest with Mid Herts SAC, I thought my fellow club divers with the Nautical Archaeology Society SAC would find this trip interesting – given their interest in sunken settlements, as well as historic shipwrecks. Also being a member with Milton Keynes SAC, I saw this trip as a great opportunity to introduce divers of all grades to some unique nautical archaeological diving.

Scan for Baia interactive map:

http://bit.ly/45gFzXq

About the Author

Karen Moule is a member with the Nautical Archaeology Society dive club and the Milton Keynes dive club.

She’s been diving since 1989 and is an Open Water Instructor. She likes organising trips, getting involved in club events and writing about both clubs’ exploits for blogs, articles and newsletters.                                    

The plan

The plan was to fly Sunday; dive Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday; have a day trip to Pompeii and Herculaneum on Thursday and fly home on Friday. With flights going from most UK airports to Naples, it’s easy to get there. The diving would be with Centro Sub Campi Flegrei dive centre in Pozzuoli, a highly professional and friendly team located on the edge of the Archaeological Park. All equipment can be hired, or take your own and just use their tanks and weights. They work closely with the Hotel Tripergola, a clean, no-frills hotel, 200m from the dive centre with very friendly and helpful staff. And they were happy to organise our day trip with an English-speaking guide.

Easy and shallow diving, 10m+ visibility, warm 20°C water, and the shorthaul flights made this trip attractive. The photos, videos, unique dive sites and the reasonable price made it irresistible! With plenty of sights to see and things to do for non-divers, I suddenly had 24 people booked - 18 divers and 6 non-divers. For five nights, and three days’ diving, two dives per day, the price was €410.

Day One

The first of our six dives was on the Villa Protiro site, the house of a wealthy Roman. At just 5m deep, the remains of the villa walls mapped out its size with the main highlight being the reception room mosaic floor – the iconic image of the Archaeology Park, as well as a white marble bathroom floor that would look at home in a modern day bathroom.

Our second dive was on Smoky Reef, a meander between the main supporting pillars of what was thought to be the viaduct over the bay. This dive had loads of marine life, and a thermal vent meadow of small streams of bubbles steadily and constantly released from the sea floor, with one large vent that was very hot, making the water shimmer like a mirage in the desert. 

Day Two

Day two began with a trip outside the Archaeological Park to Punta Procida, a wall dive where stunning deep purple soft coral fans grow at depths down to 40m, alongside lime green sponges covering the rock – all only visible with a good torch. Shoals of smaller fish played among them and at shallower depths were several octopus, one of which, having decided I wasn’t going to disturb it, demonstrated how to catch his dinner.

Our second dive of the day was back in the Archaeological Park at Villa Pisoni, which was one of the largest houses in the park, owned by one of the wealthiest families in Pozzouli back in Roman times. The walkways were long, leading to the remaining features of a large fountain in the garden area, and an intact oven in the kitchen. It looked very much like a modern-day pizza oven. There was another beautiful tulip design on a mosaic floor, but only a peek this time of a much larger floor beneath 60cm (2ft) of sand.

Day Three

Day three began with Terme Del Lacus. As you swim through what was the main doorway, the iconic large reception room with the statues, buried waist deep, and positioned in the alcoves of the room, give a sense of the opulent lifestyle and how this room would have been used to entertain powerful guests. The original statues have been removed for preservation and are now in the local museum.

The final dive saved the best for last. At Ninfeo Di Claudio, we swam along a Roman road before entering huge rooms with extensive mosaic floors of intricate designs, with beautiful colours that don’t seem to have aged over the centuries. One of the rooms was the spa with the top edging of the pool just peeking through the sand – somewhere that Romans would have laid alongside to talk, influence and persuade.

As a large group of 18, we dived in two groups. Group A dived in the morning and Group B in the afternoon, each taking it in turns to go out on the Centre’s large RIB. On the second day we had an added experience – a 4.4. magnitude earthquake. Group A experienced it underwater while the rest of us felt it on land. This is a seismically active area; it’s something the locals seem to take in their stride.

Experiencing an earthquake underwater was a new experience. One of our divers described it:

The sound was a brief but consistent sound like a pneumatic drill used to dig up the road. You don’t just hear it, but feel it through your whole body; it’s a bit like you are being shaken. None of us knew what was happening when the first tremor happened, but we realised after the subsequent two. It didn’t seem to affect the seabed or marine life, as nothing shifted on the bottom, as it does on land. Interesting, and a first for me!

 Topside attractions

The non-divers had plenty to keep them entertained with several local attractions, including:

• Temple of Serapis in Pozzouli town centre, a Roman marketplace
• The Flavian amphitheatre, the third largest Italian amphitheatre
• Some indulgent modern-day spas a short distance from the dive centre. Terme Stufe di Nerone and the Baie Club with a hot spring, are the closest
• Naples Bay Tours run a range of trips – boat trips, trips to sites like Vesuvius, Pompeii, and Herculaneum, and experiences like authentic cookery classes for homemade pasta.

Essentials 

Getting there: 

Flights go from most UK airports to Naples. Booking the flights early in November for May kept the price at a reasonable £100 return each. Hold luggage and cabin bags are optional extra costs.

What to take: The dive centre can provide everything, with plenty of kit in a range of sizes. They use a single 15litre steel cylinder for both dives within the Archaeological Park, however 12litre tanks are available on request. You can bring whatever kit you want to - I took my BCD, regs, fins, mask, hood and gloves.

Dive Centre:

Centro Sub Campi Flegrei:

Web: centrosubcampiflegrei.it
Tel: +39 081 853 1563
Email: info@centrosubcampiflegrei.it

Prices

€32.50 per dive, at time of writing. Additional dives can be booked. Deeper dive sites are available too, outside the archaeological park. In May 2025 the water temperature was 20°C and the air temperature 24°C.

Where to stay: 

Centro Sub partners with Hotel Tripergola, 200m from the dive centre, which can book rooms on your behalf. Breakfast is included. If you have any dietary requirements it may be best to take some food to be on the safe side. The dive centre will also organise transfers from the airport to the hotel and back again, if you ask them.

Need to know: 

The dive centre is happy to organise a day trip to Pompeii and/or Herculaneum for you. They will provide a breakdown of the costs, so you can ask individuals in your group for the appropriate fee. There are lots of great restaurants in Pozzouli, to cater for all tastes. As this really isn’t a touristy area, the prices are great value, and the locals are lovely. Take mosquito repellent!

This article was originally published in SCUBA magazine: 'Modern trip to ancient times,' Issue 158, September 2025. For more membership benefits, visit bsac.com/benefits.

Images in this online version may have been substituted from the original images in SCUBA magazine due to usage rights.