Art, history & walks
Francesca Russo
Published work
32 signed pages across 3 collections, biggest section first.
Sights 22
- National Archaeological Museum (MANN)Pompeii's frescoes, the Farnese marbles and the Villa dei Papiri bronzes are open. The mosaic rooms, with the Alexander Mosaic, and the Secret Cabinet are shut until November 30, 2026.Read
- Cappella SanseveroOne small chapel, three marble showpieces and two 18th-century skeletons. Entry is by timed ticket only, €12, closed Tuesdays, and the ticket office has moved for renovation.Read
- SpaccanapoliThe Greek-planned street that cuts old Naples in two. Free to walk, 730 m from Piazza del Gesù Nuovo to Via Duomo, lined with churches, pastry shops and the Nile statue.Read
- Napoli SotterraneaHourly guided tours down 136 steps to Greek cisterns and wartime shelters, plus a Roman theater hidden inside a ground-floor flat. €18, walk-up or skip-the-line.Read
- Naples Cathedral and the Treasure of San GennaroFree to enter, open all day, with a 4th-century basilica and a 5th-century mosaic baptistery inside. The Treasure of San Gennaro museum next door is separate and paid.Read
- Santa ChiaraA Gothic basilica rebuilt after the 1943 bombing, free to enter, and a cloister of painted majolica tiles for €7, with Roman baths and an 18th-century presepe in the same ticket.Read
- Catacombs of San GennaroTwo levels of early Christian tombs, mosaics and an underground basilica on the Capodimonte hill, by guided tour only. One €13 ticket also covers the San Gaudioso catacomb.Read
- Castel Sant'ElmoA six-pointed star fortress on the Vomero whose ramparts look over the whole bay, from Vesuvius to the islands. €5, open every day, a 7-minute walk from the funicular.Read
- Certosa di San MartinoA charterhouse on the Vomero turned museum: a baroque church, a great cloister, Italy's main public collection of Neapolitan nativity scenes and a belvedere over the bay. €6, closed Tuesdays.Read
- San Gregorio ArmenoThe short street of presepe workshops between Spaccanapoli and Via dei Tribunali, free and open all year, plus a gilded church and a cloister with irregular hours.Read
- Galleria BorbonicaA king's unfinished escape tunnel from 1855, a wartime shelter and a car pound full of rusting cars and scooters. Four routes, three entrances, open Friday to Sunday.Read
- Museo e Real Bosco di CapodimonteTitian, Bruegel, Parmigianino and Caravaggio's Flagellation in a Bourbon palace on a hill. €15, closed Wednesdays, and the second floor shuts at 5 p.m. on weekdays.Read
- Palazzo RealeThe viceroys' and Bourbon kings' palace on Piazza del Plebiscito: court theatre, throne room, a €2 rooftop garden. Two of the grandest halls close for restoration from October 1, 2026.Read
- Pio Monte della MisericordiaCaravaggio's Seven Works of Mercy, painted in 1606–1607 for this altar and still on it. €10, open every day, 100 m from the Duomo, and a picture gallery upstairs most people skip.Read
- Teatro di San CarloThe opera house founded in 1737 next to the Royal Palace. A €9, 30-minute tour most days, English twice daily, and seats for autumn operas from €20 if you want the real thing.Read
- Piazza del Plebiscito and Galleria Umberto IThe vast pedestrian square between the Royal Palace and San Francesco di Paola, plus the 1890 glass arcade around the corner. Free, central, and regularly taken over by concerts and sport.Read
- Castel Nuovo (Maschio Angioino)The 13th-century castle on Piazza Municipio: a Renaissance triumphal arch, the Hall of the Barons and Roman remains under a glass floor. €10, and never on a Sunday.Read
- Gesu NuovoA Renaissance palace front studded with stone pyramids, a gold-and-marble Jesuit church behind it, and the tomb of Naples' doctor saint, Giuseppe Moscati. Free.Read
- Fontanelle CemeteryA tuff quarry in Rione Sanita filled with the anonymous bones of plague and cholera dead, and the cult of the 'anime pezzentelle'. Reopened in April 2026: book a 15-minute slot, from €6.Read
- Toledo metro station and the Art StationsLine 1's 'art stations' put Kentridge, Pistoletto and Kosuth underground, and Toledo's blue mosaic shaft tops them all. The price of admission is a metro ticket.Read
- Largo Maradona and the Maradona muralThe 1990 mural of Diego Maradona on a Quartieri Spagnoli wall, now restored and set in a redesigned little square. Free, crowded, and in the middle of a neighbourhood where people live.Read
- Castel dell'OvoThe sea castle on the islet where Naples began. Closed for restoration for years, announced as reopening with booked guided visits in September 2026. The causeway and Borgo Marinari stay free.Read
Walks 6
- Spaccanapoli and the decumaniThe walk every first visit to Naples should start with: a 2.8 km loop along the two main Greek streets of the old town, with the Veiled Christ, Caravaggio and the majolica cloister on the way. Order, tickets, timing.Read
- Vomero and the Pedamentina stepsThe best view in Naples costs a funicular ticket and your knees. Ride up to the Vomero, see the castle and the charterhouse, then walk down the old stepped path to Montesanto. Distances, fares, tickets.Read
- The Lungomare walkThe seafront promenade from the castle on the rock to the Mergellina harbor: flat, free, stroller-friendly and best in the last hour of light. The route, what is closed, sunset times by month.Read
- Quartieri Spagnoli walkA short walk through the dense 16th-century grid above Via Toledo: the Maradona mural, street shrines, washing lines and the Pignasecca market. Free, steep in places, best on a weekday morning.Read
- Rione Sanita walkStart underground at the Catacombs of San Gennaro, then walk downhill through the Sanita: the basilica over San Gaudioso, two Baroque open staircases and a pizza stop. Route, tickets, the Wednesday problem.Read
- Posillipo, Marechiaro and the GaiolaThe green headland at the end of the Naples seafront: a partly reopened clifftop park, the steep lane down to the Gaiola islets and the fishing hamlet of Marechiaro. Buses, booking rules, what is closed.Read
Articles 4
- Caravaggio in NaplesA painter on the run, two stays in Naples and three paintings still in the city: the Seven Works of Mercy, the Flagellation and his last picture, Saint Ursula. Where each hangs, what it costs and the order to see them.Read
- The Veiled Christ: how Sanmartino carved itA dead Christ under a veil so fine people still think it was made by alchemy. What the 1752 bank record and the prince's letters say, what to look for in the marble, and why you must book.Read
- Maradona and NaplesSeven seasons, the first two league titles in the club's history, a World Cup semi-final that split the city and a stadium renamed within days of his death. Where to see his Naples today, and the 2026 changes.Read
- Naples from below: 2,400 years of tunnelsNaples was built from the stone under its own streets, and the holes it left became cisterns, catacombs, an escape tunnel and air-raid shelters. The story in order, with what each underground site costs today.Read