The Best Things to Do in Naples
The true gateway to southern Italy, Naples is home to some of the world’s most famous foods, but it’s also the base of a cultural collision that would make a surrealist happy. Nearly anyone who is anyone in the history of the Mediterranean has tromped through the city and left their mark including Spaniards, Ancient Romans, Arabs, Fascists, and American GIs after the war.
Piazza Museo, 19, 80135 Napoli NA, Italy
This museum is probably the best one that you've never heard of (unfortunately). It has more Greco-Roman antiquities than I've seen in more well-known sites and its various treasures will keep you occupied while escaping summer's heat. Even if you...
Riviera di Chiaia, 287, 80122 Napoli NA, Italy
Tiemaker Maurizio Marinella was 10 years old when his grandfather Eugenio and father, Luigi, began teaching him the essentials of tailoring. Now he oversees the waterfront salon, founded in 1914, that has created ties for style-conscious customers...
Via Pignasecca, 80134 Napoli NA, Italy
La Pignasecca is renowned for its abundance of cheese, pastry, and fresh fish stalls. As you shop, don’t miss snacking on the biscuits (tarrale) from Panificio Vincenzo Coppola. Open daily, Via Pignasecca. Read Tom Downey's "Tailor Made in Naples...
Via Capodimonte, 19a, 80131 Napoli NA, Italy
This summer Eddy Bourdages, 33, and his mother, Mireille Anderson, 57, made their first trip to Italy. “We wanted to open an authentic Neapolitan wood oven pizzeria, so we went to the source,” says Bourdages. Anderson has owned L’Odyssée Bistro &...
Via Cesare Sersale, 1, 80139 Napoli NA, Italy
A Naples legend well before Julia Roberts (in Eat, Pray, Love) gave it celebrity sheen, Da Michele was opened by the Condurro family in 1930. The only pizzas are marinara and margherita, and they are pure classics. 39/081-553-9204. Read Tom...
Via S. Giovanni Maggiore Pignatelli, 48, 80134 Napoli NA, Italy
Face it, you haven't really had 'real' pizza unless you jumped on a plane or train or any other type of transportation and got yourself to Napoli, in southern Italy and ordered a PIZZA! As Carly Simon sang for the James Bond movie, "Nobody Does It...
Naples, Metropolitan City of Naples, Italy
This painted angel was found by a church in downtown Naples. It was in a small alley and the facial expression resembles that of the Virgin Mary next to it. I have not seen very much street art at churches, but this piece seems to fit in with old...
Via Chiaia, 1/2, 80132 Napoli NA, Italy
The most famous café in town, this historic spot oozes period charm and maintains much of its original Belle Epoque decor. The main bar is for stand-up coffees and aperitivi, but there are several cozy salons for a sit-down treat. The terrace is a...
Riviera di Chiaia, 269, 80121 Napoli NA, Italy
Antonella Rossi and her husband, Corrado, offer seasonal locavore takes on traditional Neapolitan fare such as green zucchini with squid sauteed in olive oil with lavender. 39/081-552-2266. Read Tom Downey's "Tailor Made in Naples."
80045 Pompeii, Metropolitan City of Naples, Italy
We were offered the chance to visit Pompeii or Herculaneum when we docked at Sorrento. People rave about Pompeii because it's absolutely huge and gives you a great sense of just how sophisticated Roman civilisation was. Herculaneum, by contrast,...
80045 Pompeii, Metropolitan City of Naples, Italy
Witness the destruction wrought by Mt. Vesuvius nearly 2,000 year ago at the archaeological site of Pompeii. The ancient village was frozen in time beneath a blanket of hot ash during an eruption in 79 C.E. Among the ruins that have been uncovered...
Parco Archeologico di Paestum, Via Magna Graecia, 919, 84047 Paestum NA, Italy
This is a stunning place with few tourists. You find yourself transported back in time and can feel the lives of the ancient civilisations that came before. The museum is excellent and houses the findings but nothing is so wonderful as walking the...
112, Vico Lungo del Gelso, 110, 80134 Napoli NA, Italy
The quartieri spagnoli, though it really is the heart and soul of Naples, is a place where it’s hard to find a restaurant that stands out. Many are excellent and what distinguishes one from the other is usually a small price difference that pays...
Naples, Metropolitan City of Naples, Italy
While traveling through Naples, Italy, a local friend took me to one of his favorite hidden spots: an ancient cavern containing the bones of thousands of poor people and those who succumbed to major epidemics. Locals believe that the skulls have...
Via Michelangelo da Caravaggio, 53, 80126 Napoli NA, Italy
New York, Tokyo, and other major cities are home to startling numbers of authentic Neapolitan pizzerias, many with ovens handmade by Neapolitan craftsmen. In those places, pizza making is definitely considered an elevated craft. Perhaps...
Viale Cavalleggeri D'Aosta, 84, 80124 Napoli NA, Italy
Pescheria Mattiucci is a fish store by day that transforms itself into a small standing-room-only restaurant a few nights of the week. Mattiucci is an old family operation, but this place is the brainchild of a young son, Luigi Mattiucci. Luigi...
Via San Carlo, 15, 80132 Napoli NA, Italy
I just love the huge space and the glass ceiling of Galleria Umberto. It is located across from Teatro di San Carlo and despite its modern look, I was surprised to find out that it was built between 1887–1891. The Galleria was named for Umberto I,...
Via S. Gregorio Armeno, 8, 80138 Napoli NA, Italy
Giuseppe Marco Ferrigno is one of the most known for its Neapolitan terracotta traditional characters. Started also as a family business since 1838, Ferrigno family passes the mastering of traditional terracotta figures from one generation to...
80061 Marina di Puolo NA, Italy
My husband, our two daughters, and I rented a small boat with captain for the day to motor from Sorrento to Amalfi and back. We stopped in Amalfi for about an hour to do a bit of shopping including for ingredients for a picnic lunch. We got back...
84011 Amalfi SA, Italy
One of the most beautiful coastlines in Italy is found along the 80km stretch of the Costiera Amalfitana. One of the most beautiful views of the cities along this stretch...is from the water. The centrally located ports of Amalfi and Positano...
84011 Amalfi SA, Italy
In its ten miles from Positano to Amalfi, the celebrated corniche road known as the Amalfi Coast Drive clings to rugged cliffsides, weaving torturously in and out and up and down gorges, through lemon groves and olives, past whitewashed villages...
84011 Amalfi SA, Italy
Our Mediterranean cruise was unreal from start to finish, filled with beautiful places and countless memories. The Amalfi Coast is one place we will definitely make a return visit to - I could imagine spending a few weeks relaxing and exploring...
