Naples is a city that moves at more than one pace. At the fastest speed, you have the chaos of the day-to-day: cars and motorbikes hurtling through the Italian city's streets like blood cells within a vein. Then there is a slower evolution, that of human history.

This is a metropolis still shaped by decisions made hundreds of years ago: networks of narrow alleyways that no city-planner would ever design today; modern offices and hotels pressed against Roman ruins and centuries-old villas. What's less obvious is that Naples also has a geological pace – and it's this one that holds the most power.