Being perhaps the oldest Greek colony on mainland Italy, Cumae overshadowed the Phlegrean Fields and Neapolis in the 7th and 6th centuries BC, since it was home to the Antro della Sibilla, the fabled Cave of the Cumaean Sibyl -- one of the three greatest oracles of antiquity -- who is said to have presided over the destinies of men. In about the 6th century BC the Greeks hollowed the cave from the rock beneath the ridge leading up to the present ruins of Cumae's acropolis. Today you can walk -- just as Virgil's Aeneas did -- through a dark, massive 350-foot-long stone tunnel that opens into the vaulted Chamber of the Prophetic Voice, where the Sibyl delivered her oracles. Standing here in one of the most venerated sites of ancient times, the sense of the numen -- of communication with invisible powers -- is overwhelming. "This is the most romantic classical site in Italy," claimed famed travelogue writer H. V. Morton. "I would rather come here than to Pompeii."

Cumae was founded in the third quarter of the 8th century BC by Greek colonists. The name has legendary origins: myth has it that Euboean mariners found a woman who had miscarried a baby on the beach here, and the fetus was washed out to sea by great breakers on the shore. Thinking this an omen from the gods of fertility, the mariners built an altar here and called their new settlement kuema (or "fetus" in Greek). Centuries later Virgil wrote his epic of The Aeneid, the story of the Trojan prince Aeneas's wanderings, partly to give Rome the historical legitimacy that Homer had given the Greeks. On his journey, Aeneas had to descend to the underworld to speak to his father, and to find his way in, he needed the guidance of the Cumaean Sibyl. Virgil did not dream up the Sibyl's Cave or the entrance to Hades -- he must have actually stood both in her chamber and along the rim of Lake Avernus, as you yourself will stand. When he described the Sibyl's Cave in Book VI of The Aeneid as having "centum ostia" -- a hundred mouths -- and depicted the entrance to the underworld on Lake Avernus so vividly, "spelunca alta…tuta lacu nigro nemorum tenebris" -- "a deep cave…protected by a lake of black water and the glooming forest" -- it was because he was familiar with this awesome landscape. In Book VI of The Aeneid, Virgil describes how Aeneas, arriving at Cumae, sought Apollo's throne (remains of the Temple of Apollo can still be seen) and "the deep hidden abode of the dread Sibyl/An enormous cave…"

Although Cumae never achieved the status of Delphi, it was the most important oracular center in Magna Graecia, and the Sibyl would have been consulted on a whole range of matters. Governments consulted the Sibyl before mounting campaigns. Wealthy aristocrats came to channel their deceased relatives. Businessmen came to get their dreams interpreted or to seek favorable omens before entering into financial agreements or setting off on journeys. Love potions were a profitable source of revenue; women from Baiae lined up for potions to slip into the wine of handsome charioteers who drove up and down the street in their gold-plated four-horsepower chariots. Still, it was the Sibyl's prophecies that ensured the crowds here, prophecies written on palm leaves and later collected into the corpus of the Sibyline books.

Allow at least two hours for this visit to soak up the ambience and study the ruins. Unlike in Greek and Roman times, when access to Cumae was through a network of underground passages, an overground bus service leaves the old Baia station at regular intervals. If driving, leave the Naples Tangenziale at the Cuma exit and then continue to follow signs for about 3 km (2 mi). There's a free parking lot.