## 1 Introduction
The area surrounding Vesuvius in the Campania region in southern Italy constitutes an exception in this sense due to the production high-quality cartographic records which date back to the end of the seventeenth century. This area is therefore useful in terms of providing a reference for in-depth studies on historical cartography and as a basis for macro-analysis about land use/cover dynamics. The analysis of historical LUCC with the support of GIS technologies allows for the highlighting of not only what has changed, that is, variations in the surfaces of various classes of land use, but also the structure/composition and configuration of these variations. The landscape ecology approach, which integrates ecology and physical geography principles and both uses landscape metrics as tools for analysis and quantifies landscape proprieties, is an important tool in such contexts. The study of landscape composition and configuration, targeted on the specific issue of urban/peri-urban dichotomy, can contribute to knowledge of the landscape (and its development) and can help to develop strategies for the mitigation of the negative conditions in many urban surroundings areas. Landscape metrics (LMs) are algorithms which, quantifying the spatial characteristics of patches, classes of patches or entire landscape mosaics, help to mathematically assess landscape structure and can give valuable information to improve the assessment of the ecological functioning, economic wealth and aesthetic value of a region [10; 11]. Numerous landscape metrics have been developed, depending on the objectives of the study or the survey scale. [PERSON] [12] divided them into two broad categories, those that quantify the composition (presence, relative abundance or diversity of landscape types) and those that quantify the spatial configuration of the landscape (spatial distribution and form). [PERSON] [13,14] organized them at different scale levels (patch level, class level and landscape level), which correspond to a logical hierarchical organization of spatial heterogeneity in patch mosaics and in terms of types (area and edge; shape; core areas; contrast; aggregation; diversity). Many studies have used landscape metrics to analyse the spatial characteristics of urban growth [15, 16, 17, 18], mainly focusing on large-size/metropolitan cities and on US contexts. Therefore, more insights are required with regard to Mediterranean cities. In this context, not only large urban areas, but also medium-sized cities are characterized by specific morphological and historical features, and, at the same time, more recently, by dramatic changes which not always in continuity and dialogue with the existing urban fabric. Taking a previous study on land use change in the Vesuvius area [19] as a starting point, in the present paper, the specific issue of the development of peri-urban areas was studied more deeply. A territorial scale analysis was performed, rather than an urban morphology one. This study of land use, specifically with respect to the relationship between urban and peri-urban areas, as well as its high level of analysis, allows for a better understanding of development guidelines and territorial balances by relating them to other physical elements present in the landscape: roads, productive or commercial districts, urban areas, etc. The work entails two sections. The first one focuses on historical cartography and the study of land use/cover changes. Historical maps of the \"Regno di Napoli\" (Naples Kingdom) were processed by means of GIS support techniques. The second section is devoted to landscape analysis, by means of defined landscape metrics, in order to deepen our understanding of the relationship between urban and infrastructural areas and their surrounding areas. The results show that the area was subject to dramatic changes in land use. Major changes were registered in vineyards and urban class types (about \(-99.6\%\) and \(+670\%\), respectively).