Located on the south-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, with the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west, it includes the small Phlegraean Islands and Capri. It is the most densely populated region in the country. Campania is the most productive region in southern Italy by GDP, and Naples' urban area is the 9th-most populous in the European Union. The region is home to 10 of the 55 UNESCO sites in Italy, like Pompeii and Herculaneum, the Royal Palace of Caserta, the Amalfi Coast and the Historic Centre of Naples. In the shadow the Vesuvius tourism’s roots run deep: on the imprints of great Greek columns refined aristocrats and roman emperors built their sumptuous villas and oasis all along the shoreline of the Gulf. It is not a coincidence that at the beginning of this third millennium the peculiar magic of this civilization continues to generate new sources of amazement: the recovery of age old monuments and traditions – folklore, gastronomy, genuine cultivation – that were thought irreparably lost, events and shows worthy of the great international circuit, new fodder for artistic and scientific research.