Vesuvius and the Royal Palace of Caserta

This photo was taken from the road leading to the center of Casertavecchia, which offers a magnificent view over the Plain of Caserta, with the facade of the Reggia and with Vesuvius in the background

The Royal Palace of Caserta (Italian: Reggia di Caserta) is a former royal residence in Caserta, southern Italy, constructed for the Bourbon kings of Naples. It was the largest palace and one of the largest buildings erected in Europe during the 18th century. In 1997, the Palace was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The construction of the palace was begun in 1752 for Charles VII of Naples, who worked closely with his architect Luigi Vanvitelli.
The garden, a typical example of the baroque extension of formal vistas, stretches for 120 ha, partly on hilly terrain. It is also inspired by the park of Versailles. The park starts from the back façade of the palace, flanking a long alley with artificial fountains and cascades.

The Mount Vesuvius is a stratovolcano in the Gulf of Naples. It is one of several volcanoes which form the Campanian volcanic arc. Vesuvius consists of a large cone partially encircled by the steep rim of a summit caldera caused by the collapse of an earlier and originally much higher structure. The area around Vesuvius was officially declared a national park on June 5, 1995.
Ongoing efforts are being made by the government at various levels to reduce the population living in the "red zone", by demolishing illegally constructed buildings, establishing a national park around the upper flanks of the volcano to prevent the erection of further buildings and by offering financial incentives to people for moving away. One of the underlying goals is to reduce the time needed to evacuate the area, over the next 20 or 30 years, to two or three days.
The volcano is closely monitored by the "Osservatorio Vesuvio" in Naples with extensive networks of seismic and gravimetric stations. All of this is intended to track magma rising underneath the volcano. Currently no magma has been detected within 10 km of the surface, and so the volcano is classified by the Observatory as Green Level.