Acts 28:12

And touching at Syracuse, we tarried there three days. And from thence we made a circuit, and arrived at Rhegium: and after one day a south wind sprang up, and on the second day we came to Puteoli.

Made a circuit ... indicates that the voyage from Syracuse to Rhegium required sailing in a circle, due to the direction of the wind. Rhegium is "the modern Reggio dis Calabria on the "toe" of Italy,"[14] and thus at the eastern extremity of the Strait of Massena, site of the famed rock of Scylla and the whirlpool of Charybdis.[15] Passing through the strait would avoid a voyage around Sicily; but the wind had to be just right.

A south wind sprang up ... This was exactly the break they needed, for Puteoli is due north of Rhegium, and the final leg of the voyage was quickly made in a little over a day.

Puteoli ... was a regular port of entry for the fleet of grain ships operating between Rome and Egypt, and was in those days a seaport of great importance. "Just eight miles Northwest of Naples, it was the greatest port in Italy. The large pier had twenty-five arches, of which thirteen ruined ones remain."[16]

At Puteoli, "now Puzzuoli," where frequently "the whole population" went out to welcome the arrival of the wheat ships,[17] Paul and his companions left the ship, accompanied, of course, by the centurion Julius and his command, with the purpose of continuing the final part of the trip by land.

[14] G. H. C. MacGreggor, op. cit., p. 345.

[15] J. R. Dummelow, op. cit., p. 853.

[16] Don DeWelt, Acts Made Actual (Joplin, Missouri: College Press, 1953), p. 339.

[17] A. C. Hervey, op. cit., p. 321.