Naples

Naples is the Capital of Campania and the main city of the southern Italy. It was once the capital of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

Naples curves around one of the most celebrated bays of the world, the entrance to which is flanked by the islands of Capri and Ischia. The city nestles on hills between Mt. Vesuvius and the Campi Flegrei.

The central and most ancient part of Naples is built on flat ground beside the bay and east of the ridge that runs down from the heights of Vomero. Naples is today a large and overbearing city and gives to its visitors an incomparable experience.

Places to Visit

• The Duomo, a Gothic building from the early thirteenth century ( with a late nineteenth century neo-Gothic facade), is dedicated to the patron saint of the city San Gennaro. The first chapel into the cathedral holds two phials of the saint's blood, which liquefy three times a year (first Saturday in May, September 19 and December 16) in the Bishop's hands, renewing the Miracle of San Gennaro.
• San Lorenzo Maggiore, a large gothic church built in the fourteenth century during the reign of the Angevin king Robert the Wise on the site of a Roman basilica - remains of which are in the cloisters.
• The church of San Gregorio Armeno, a sumptuous Baroque edifice with frescoes by the late seventeenth-century Neapolitan artist Luca Giordano.
• The Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte (Tue-Sun 9/14) holds a superb collection of Renaissance paintings with works of Brueghel, Perugino, Botticelli, Lippi, Titian, Raphael, Bellini, ecc.
• The Museo Archeologico Nazionale (9/19 Tue clo.) holds a collection of antiquities with large sculptures and the best of finds from Roman sites of Pompei and Herculaneum.
• Palazzo Reale, the former residence of the various dynasties that ruled Naples, is decorated with fine Baroque excesses of gilded furniture and great overbearing taprestys.

Little Pleasures

• To eat the best Pizza in the world.
• To shop in the crowded streets.
• To listen to an Opera in the splendid Teatro San Carlo.

Where to Enjoy

• In Naples there are lots of bars with live music, especially in the old part of the city. Among them: Murat and Gaugin (Via Bellini), Velvet Garage (Via Cisterna dell'Olio), Riot (Via San Biagio dei Librai) with alternative music. Among clubs: Virgilio (Posillipo) and Chez Moi (Parco Margherita 13)

Where to Enjoy

• The islands in the bay of Naples: Capri, Ischia and Procida (reach them by hydrofoil or ferry from Beverello or Mergellina quay).

North from Naples:

• Caserta (30 min. by train) home of the Palazzo Reale with sumptuous apartments and large classical gardens.

West from Naples:

• Pozzuoli (30 min. with Metropolitana from Piazza Garibaldi). In town there are a number of Roman relics: the Anfiteatro Flavio and the Temple of Serapide. North of town, the Solfatara is the exposed crater of a semi-extint volcano with steam rising from the rocks.

East from Naples:

• The active volcano Vesuvius has had many eruptions, among them the one in 79 AD, when it buried the towns and the inhabitants of the near towns of Pompei and Herculaneum (reach them with Circumvesuvuana railway from Piazza Garibaldi).
• The characteristic resorts of Surrentine Peninsula and Amalfi Coast: Sorrento, Positano and Amalfi

"Published by and reprinted with the kind permission of In Italy Online."

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