Maria returns to Naples after having lived for 15 years in Haiti. Her experience with an animist culture makes her see Vesuvius differently now. Driven by curiosity, she approaches the people who live in a symbiotic relationship with the volcano: Ciccio through land and tradition, Francesca through science, Luciano through art. What they all share is a desire to see the volcano in action. Rather than intimidate, Vesuvius enchants the thousands of people living on its slopes, exorcising by various means the subconscious awareness risk everyone has of a catastrophic explosion. Battiti offers the viewer a sort of rite of initiation journey that begins and ends in the company of a mysterious guide: Carlo, the guard of the grotta della Sibilla at the lago d'Averno, which it said to have once communicated with Vesuvius through underground passages.
