The Parco Nazionale del Vesuvio ( Vesuvian National Park ) with its 10.000 sq. mts. is the smallest in Italy as regards the extension but one of the richest in history and culture.
The park offers a series of walking paths, which will meet the most different needs, according to the duration, difficulty, age and interests. The park is equipped with a system of signs that allow to cross such itineraries without difficulty, so as to appreciate without problems the beauty, the amenity and all the other characteristics of the place.
Some of them have a high degree of difficulty and, therefore, they can be suggested to the most resourceful people, they request at least an Half Day excursion:
The Valle dell'Inferno ( The Valley of the Hell ) ,departure from Ottaviano, allows to live the volcan grandeur, by observing from the low, both the Monte Somma, and the Vesuvio.
Along the Cognoli ( Departure from Ottaviano ), tourists will be given the chance to discover very evocative places, like the lava formation also called "a corda" (ropy lava), carved by a deep crack where there are many kinds of ferns.
Another itinerary is the one leading up on the Monte Somma top (Departure from Ercolano), la Strada del Matrone (Departure from Trecase), wich takes this name from the brothers who built the path. This is the most panoramic path of the park, with the upturn to the Gran Cono of the Vesuvio.
Less binding paths are the following:
the Riserva del Tirone (Departure from Ercolano), where along its level paths, where closed and shady points in the wood alternate, open points and in wood both dominated by the view of the Vesuvio, really lead to Riserva Forestale Tirone Alto Vesuvio, founded on 1972 to safeguard the crater belt of the Vesuvio.
 Another path with low difficulty is the Trenino a Cremagliera (Departure from San Sebastiano al Vesuvio). During the way it will be possible to observe, the impressive lava casting of 1872 and of the lava river of 1944 which is here in its terminal line and it has the characteristical aspect of grey grassland for the colonization of the Stereocaulon vesuvianum.
The last path easily practicable is the Fiumi di Lava (Departure from Ercolano), a way to be made in single file, but that allows to walk through a mixed wood with essences like the chestnut tree, the core, the black carpino and the roverella, whose brushwood preserves some specimen of hawthorn, of ivy and of aquiline fern.