The city of Torre del Greco, a pearl of the Gulf of Naples was, according to some, the ancient city of Herculaneum buried and consecrated to immortality by the eruption of Mt.Vesuvius on August 24, in 79 A.C., on which fertile banks perished the siren "Parthenope" of Homeric memory. Torre del Greco, an indeclinable jewel in the everlasting treasure chest of the Mediterranean. A beacon of civilization and the cradle of the arts: from the figurative to the architectural artefacts; from pictorial to jewelry craft; from shipbuilding to craftsmanship. An undying name of a "World and International Capital" which symbol is no longer just the "red gold" - coral and its compositions - but also the witness of an ancient culture, an unusual but authentic jewel of the sea: the cameo. And indeed, the engraving of cameos distinguishes itself through the trappings of an ancient knowledge that condenses in miniature sculptures the flavor and fragrance of a sea in eternal dialogue with the history of the nations, men and gods; nations and ethnic groups; civilizations and rituals that remain motionless as a millennial snapshot within the naturalistic and epic profiles, as well as in the allegorical and mythological glimpses depicted on the cameo. An ancient history that has its roots in that happy oasis of ancient knowledge: Egypt. A prime example of the art of cameos is, in fact, the Egyptian scarab engraved on stone and used as a talisman against the infernal deities; an unstoppable race over the centuries and millennia, following tastes and beliefs of a classic epos which has never overshadowed and faded.

Phoenicians, Etruscans, Greeks and Romans coined an authentic art with reference to engraved gems to the point that their cameos became collectible items. Starting, however, from the III and II sec. A.C., the production on sardonic shells from India and Arabia took place. Then the Dark Ages began, when Rome and the ancient civilizations fell under the invasions of the Barbarians, followed by the dominance of Christianity which condemned idolatry, paganism of the past, myths and cults of nature including art works, especially the sculptures. Then, in the fifteenth century, with Humanism – the spring of knowledge – and with the stories of a small village of sailors, Torre del Greco - an offspring of "Campania Felix" which overlooked from there to evermore the shores of the so called "Mare Nostrum" - started to write a story as a leading protagonist. Thus the coral; thus the cameo. But the real development of this jewel started in the nineteenth century, thanks to the mastery of our people mirroring the same classic models already known to the Mediterranean culture. The creativity of this people could, in fact, invent modern cameos, by exploiting the peculiarities of some shells and the chromatic contrasts of the hard layers which produced admirable perspective effects. Women features, mythological figures, flowers, animals and landscapes characterize the "cameos of the people of Torre del Greco"; individual compositions or decorative elements of bracelets, necklaces and earrings, skillfully conceived to enhance the sophistication and feminine beauty. Since then, in a few decades, Torre del Greco conquered the World’s highest peaks achieving again the primacy of capital. Coral and cameos: a genuine combination exquisitely of this town; belonging only to Torre del Greco which is the one and only in this land to regain and take on the charm, the magic and the preciousness of an everlasting "eternity bridge"