Forio | |
Coordinates: | 40.7377°N 13.8575°W |
Region: | Campania |
Metropolitan City: | Naples (NA) |
Frazioni: | Panza |
Mayor: | Francesco Del Deo |
Area Total Km2: | 12.85 |
Population Footnotes: | [1] |
Population Total: | 17749 |
Population As Of: | 1 January 2017 |
Population Demonym: | Foriani, Panzesi |
Elevation M: | 16 |
Saint: | Saints Vitus and Leonard |
Day: | June 15, November 6 |
Postal Code: | 80075 |
Area Code: | 081 |
Forio (known also as Forio of Ischia) is a town and comune of c. 17,000 inhabitants in the Metropolitan City of Naples, southern Italy, situated on the island of Ischia.
Its territory includes the town of Panza, the only frazione of Forio and of the island of Ischia. Panza has always been an independent village since the 16th century when a first governmental organization was introduced on the island. In the 1975 the inhabitants of Panza tried to become an independent comune but the referendum, claimed by the inhabitants of Forio, was denied by the Campania's Regional Government.
There are numerous coastal watchtowers, built from the Middle Ages against Saracen and African pirates raids.
In the 20th century, Ischia inspired at least two well-known English language poets. Ischia was the site where W.H. Auden composed one of his most famous poems, In Praise of Limestone. And the American Poet, Theodore Roethke, dedicated his poem The Storm, to "Forio d'Ischia" as printed in Selected Poems of Theodore Rothke (Library of America, Edwin Hirsch, Ed., 2005, p.113).