Oddly enough, they didn’t know Vesuvius was a volcano, apparently, of course, the writings to that effect may have been destroyed by the hands of time or, y’know, the volcano. The soil around there was and is especially fertile, there’s at least one wall painting pertaining to this, hmm [rummages around in the internet]
https://www.ancient.eu/image/9694/bacchus—mount-vesuvius-fresco/
Near the village of Nola a prehistoric village that had been destroyed by an earlier eruption (over 1000 years before the Pompeii disaster) was excavated in recent decades. After Pompeii, the Romans knew what it was. Modern Naples knows. Everyone in between was at least intermittently aware. Must be a nice place to live otherwise. Orrrr, property prices are artificially low. ;^)
J. Paul Getty used to have a kinda ugly but large house on that island in the mouth of the Bay of Naples. It would make a nice place for a 360 degree view posh restaurant, with three, four, or five storeys of condos above it. Access would be via one of those walk-with-the-fishes submerged glass or plastic tubes.
I’d spend the cash I don’t have to renovate the island I don’t own in that way, and call the restaurant Gaius, after the Emperor normally called Caligula, because that island was part of one of his nuttier displays.
Cool. The fresco too.
5.56mm