Discover Naples by theme
Everything we publish on Naples and its bay, grouped the way the menu groups it. Each section shows what we would look at first and lists the rest underneath.
THE CITY
The city, and the rules around it
What each sight is for, what it costs, and the planning that decides your days.
Sights
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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.
Walks
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.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.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.
Plan
The Circumvesuviana and Campania ExpressEAV's tourist train is suspended from October 1, 2026, so everyone rides the ordinary Circumvesuviana. Which line stops at Herculaneum, fares, times, last trains, contactless and pickpockets, checked September 30, 2026.Is Naples safe?A calm, sourced answer: what the UK and US governments say, how Naples compares in Italy's crime index, the petty theft that does happen, where to take care at night, and the volcanic and quake risk put in proportion.Best time to visit NaplesWeather by month from 1991-2020 climate normals, when the islands and boats wind down, August closures and Ferragosto, the festivals worth timing a trip around, and two dates that change the answer: November 2026 and summer 2027.How many days in NaplesWhat 1, 2, 3 and 5 days in Naples actually buy you, which day trips need a full day, and the weekly closing days (Tuesday, Wednesday) that should shape your order.Where to stay in NaplesWhich neighborhood suits which trip: the old town for a first visit, Via Toledo for island days, the seafront for the view, Chiaia for a longer stay, and when the station, Vomero or Sorrento make sense. Priced for autumn 2026.Naples on a budgetReal 2026 prices for eating, sightseeing, getting around and sleeping cheaply in Naples, the free sights and free days, and the small mistakes that cost the most.
Worth it?
Napoli Sotterranea or Galleria Borbonica?Two different undergrounds. Napoli Sotterranea shows Greek cisterns and a Roman theater, every day, walk-up. The Galleria Borbonica is a Bourbon tunnel full of wartime relics, weekends only, booked.Is the Blue Grotto worth it?The light inside is real, and so are the sums: €27.60 to €43 on top of your Capri day, a wait of half an hour to two hours, and five minutes in the cave. Go early, on a flat sea, or skip it.Is climbing Vesuvius worth it?The ticket is cheap; the time is not. You walk 4 km of gravel to look into a crater and, on a clear day, over the whole bay. Book a clear morning and pair it with Pompeii or Herculaneum, or skip it.Naples or Sorrento as a base?For a trip built on the city, Pompeii and one island, Naples is cheaper and closer to everything. Choose Sorrento only if the Amalfi Coast and Capri are the heart of the trip.Are the famous pizzerias worth the queue?At the original rooms of Da Michele, Sorbillo and 50 Kalò the pizza costs about the same and nobody takes bookings. Go at opening or mid-afternoon; at peak dinner time, book one of the equally good rooms that take reservations.
THE BAY
Pompeii, Vesuvius and the islands
The ruins, the volcano, the islands and the coast, the boats and classes worth booking, and the festivals.
Day trips
CapriThe island everyone wants to see, 57 minutes from Naples on the fast ferry. Which boat to take, what the funicular and buses cost, and how to spend a day that is not just queues.The Amalfi Coast (Positano, Amalfi, Ravello)Positano, Amalfi and Ravello from Naples: the train and bus route, the seasonal ferries, what really fits in one day, and Ravello's Villa Rufolo at €8.The Blue GrottoA sea cave on Capri's north-west coast lit an electric blue by sunlight through an underwater opening. You enter lying back in a rowboat, stay a few minutes, and pay €18 at the cave plus the trip there.SorrentoThe clifftop town at the end of the Circumvesuviana line, facing Naples across the bay. Pleasant for an evening, useful as a base for Capri, Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast, thin as a day trip on its own.ProcidaThe smallest of the three islands, 4.1 square kilometers of pastel harbors, a walled citadel and quiet beaches. The closest to Naples, the cheapest to reach, and the one you can see properly in a day.IschiaThe biggest island in the bay: hot springs, thermal gardens, a castle on a rock and beaches. Cheaper and less polished than Capri, and big enough that a single day only scratches it.Reggia di CasertaThe Bourbon kings' palace, bigger than anything in Naples, with royal apartments to visit and a park running 3 km uphill to a waterfall. Easy by train, a full day on foot.PaestumThree Doric temples standing in a field south of Salerno, among the best-preserved Greek temples anywhere, plus a museum with the painted Tomb of the Diver. A calm, easy day by train, open every day.Campi Flegrei (Pozzuoli, Baia, Cuma)The volcanic area west of Naples: Pozzuoli's great Roman amphitheatre, the baths and castle museum at Baia, the Cave of the Sibyl at Cuma. Cheap and uncrowded, with the bradyseism explained without drama.Anacapri, Villa San Michele and Monte SolaroThe upper town on Capri, reached by a winding bus road. Axel Munthe's villa and garden, a 13-minute chairlift to the island's highest point, and lanes that stay calm when Capri town is packed.Villa JovisThe ruins of the largest of Tiberius's villas on Capri, 334 m above the sea on the island's eastern headland. No bus goes there, the path climbs all the way, and it is the quietest paid site on the island.Gardens of AugustusTerraced municipal gardens beside the Certosa in Capri town, with the postcard view over the Faraglioni rocks and the hairpins of Via Krupp. Twenty minutes, cheap, and open late into autumn.Castello Aragonese, IschiaA whole fortified town on a volcanic islet off Ischia Ponte: churches, a ruined cathedral, the Poor Clares' cemetery, prisons, gardens and terraces over the bay. The best single reason to cross to Ischia for a day.Oplontis (Villa Poppaea)One enormous seaside villa, possibly owned by Nero's wife, with some of the finest Roman wall paintings in the region. Twenty-three minutes from Naples, free by shuttle from Pompeii, and usually quiet.Giardini Poseidon TermeA terraced thermal park above Citara bay on Ischia's west coast: mineral-water pools at different temperatures, a beach and gardens. Expensive, seasonal and, on a good day, a proper rest.Bagni della Regina GiovannaA natural sea pool enclosed by rocks and a stone arch at the tip of Capo di Sorrento, beside the ruins of a Roman villa. Free, a short walk from a bus stop, lovely early or late, crowded at midday in summer.
Experiences
Amalfi Coast boat dayA day boat from the Sorrento peninsula to Positano and Amalfi costs €60–€119; the package from Naples €97. Doing it yourself by ferry out and SITA bus back costs about €27.50 from Sorrento. Here is how each day runs.Pompeii and Vesuvius day tourA coach picks you up in Naples, gives you about 1.5–2 hours on Vesuvius and 2–3 hours in Pompeii, and usually lunch, for €49–€101. By Circumvesuviana, bus 808 and your own tickets it costs about €43 and takes longer to plan.Lacryma Christi wine tasting on VesuviusWineries on the slopes of Vesuvius pour Lacryma Christi with a lunch of local food. Booked direct at Cantina del Vesuvio it is €50 with a free shuttle from Pompeii; from Naples with transport, €54–€90. Here is the arithmetic.An opera night at the Teatro di San CarloA night in the 1737 opera house costs from €20 for a listening-only seat to €130–€150 in the front stalls, far more on opening night. Under-30s pay €10–€50 at the box office. No shorts or tank tops. Here is how to choose a seat.Napoli at the Stadio Diego Armando MaradonaEvery ticket carries your name and you show ID at the turnstile. Serie A seats run €20–€110 in open sale, Champions League €35–€145. Fan-card holders buy first, so big games can sell out. Here is how a visitor gets in.Kayaking along PosillipoTwo hours paddling past Roman villa ruins, sea caves and the Gaiola islet, from a base on Via Posillipo, for €35 with a snorkel mask and a shower after. You must swim and be 15 or older. Here are the details.Limoncello and lemon grove visit in SorrentoA walk under the chestnut-pole pergolas of a Sorrento lemon grove, then limoncello and jams: €40 with hotel pickup. A limoncello class is €59; a grower's 50 cl bottle, €15. Which is worth your morning.Naples guided walking tourA paid 2.5-hour old-town walk costs €42 and includes €19 of tickets to the Cappella Sansevero and the Santa Chiara cloister. Tip-based 'free' tours run twice a day. Or walk it yourself with our route. The arithmetic.Sunset cruise on the Bay of NaplesThree hours from Mergellina along the Posillipo coast at golden hour, with a spritz, fried snacks and a swim stop, for €64. Cheaper panorama boats run for €25; a private boat for six is €480. Here is what each includes.
Events
New Year's Eve in NaplesA free all-night concert in Piazza del Plebiscito, official fireworks by Castel dell'Ovo and a city that sets off its own. What happened last year, the rules in the square, and how to enjoy it safely.Easter in NaplesEaster in Naples is a food holiday; the great Holy Week processions happen on Procida and in Sorrento. The 2027 dates, what happens where, and why seeing Procida's Misteri means sleeping on the island.Napoli Pizza VillageThe big sponsored pizza festival left the Naples seafront: in 2026 it ran on the Lungomare Pertini in Pozzuoli. Free concerts, a pizza-and-drink menu, long lines. Worth it only if you are nearby in July.Campania Teatro FestivalNaples' summer theater festival fills Palazzo Reale's courtyards and gardens for a month, with low ticket prices and free exhibitions. Most drama is in Italian; dance, music and the late-night garden are not.
EAT, DRINK, SLEEP
Eat, drink and sleep
The bases, the hotels, the tables and the plates, with the verdict on each.
Areas
ChiaiaThe elegant district between the seafront and the Vomero hill: designer shops, bar lanes, the Villa Comunale gardens. A grown-up base with good evenings; the old town is a 25-minute walk.Quartieri SpagnoliThe 16th-century grid of lanes above Via Toledo, now full of B&Bs, murals and visitors as well as 14,000 residents. The most central cheap sleep in Naples, if you can take the scooters and the noise.Piazza Garibaldi and the stationThe cheapest four-star rooms in Naples and every train out of town, on a big, loud transport square. Right for early starts and short stays; wrong for a romantic city break.VomeroThe hilltop district of shops, squares and apartment blocks under Castel Sant'Elmo. Quieter and cheaper than the center, with funiculars down to the sights; farther than it looks on a map.Rione SanitaThe valley below Capodimonte where Naples buried its dead: catacombs, noble palazzi, pastry queues and a cooperative that has changed how visitors see it. Visit by day; sleep here if you are curious.PosillipoThe villa-lined ridge west of Mergellina, with Marechiaro, the Gaiola and Parco Virgiliano. Stunning and residential; slow to reach and slow to leave, so visit for a day rather than sleep here.
Hotels
Eurostars Hotel ExcelsiorThe 1908 grande dame at Via Partenope 48 now trades as Eurostars Hotel Excelsior, a four-star. Same view of Castel dell'Ovo as its five-star neighbour, for about €150 less a night.Decumani Hotel de CharmeA cardinal's 18th-century palazzo in the old town, with breakfast under gilded stucco and Spaccanapoli six minutes away. The Economy rooms are small; pay up for Comfort.Costantinopoli 104An 18th-century villa with a garden pool, eight minutes from the MANN and seven from Spaccanapoli, with €35 indoor parking. Mid-October sells out; November is half the price.Hotel Il ConventoA small three-star in a 17th-century palazzo off Via Toledo, eight minutes from Piazza del Plebiscito. Balcony rooms over the lanes, breakfast included, and the scooters that come with them.Hotel Piazza BelliniA design hotel in a 16th-century palazzo on Via Costantinopoli, with rooms over five floors and apartments. The price triples in busy weeks, and Piazza Bellini's bars are next door.Hotel San Francesco al MonteA former monastery on the hillside road above the Quartieri, with sea views from every room we priced and a rooftop pool cut into the tuff. The pool is seasonal, and the walk home is uphill.Grand Hotel Santa LuciaA 1906 four-star between the Vesuvio and the Excelsior, facing Castel dell'Ovo. In November it is the cheapest of the three with breakfast; in mid-October it is not.Hotel Palazzo AlabardieriA 44-room four-star off Piazza dei Martiri, in the smart shopping streets of Chiaia. Breakfast is included, the seafront is ten minutes away, and the old town is a long walk.NH Napoli PanoramaA business tower on Via Medina where the rooms start on the 16th floor, so every one looks over the city or the bay. Central, practical and cheap for the view, if you skip the breakfast rate.Palazzo CaraccioloA 143-room hotel in a restored palace near Porta Capuana, 15 minutes from the station and 40 from Plebiscito. Handsome rooms, a small spa, and prices that do not reflect the location.Starhotels TerminusA 169-room four-star across Piazza Garibaldi from the main station and the Circumvesuviana. Ideal for early trains to Pompeii; less so for evenings in the old town, 28 minutes away.
Restaurants
Starita a MaterdeiThe Materdei pizzeria where the montanara was born: pizza dough fried, topped with ragù and smoked provola, then finished in the wood oven. Closed Mondays, no bookings, prices well below the famous-name average.La MasardonaThe fried-pizza family since 1945. At the original shop near the station a full pizza fritta is €6 and the small battilocchio €3.50; the seafront branch at Piazza Vittoria charges €9 for the same thing.Da AttilioA small, old pizzeria in the Pignasecca market, run by Attilio Bachetti. Order the eight-pointed star pizza with ricotta in the points. Prices stay near the old-town floor; it closes on Sundays.Concettina ai Tre SantiThe Oliva family's pizzeria in Rione Sanità, run by Ciro Oliva, the fourth generation. Polished service, a garden, bookings accepted, and the priciest margherita among the city's famous names.Pizzeria Di MatteoA 1936 pizzeria and friggitoria at Via dei Tribunali 94, closed Sundays. The street-side fry window is the reason people stop. The sit-down meal upstairs got a poor review in 2024, and we would eat elsewhere.VeritasMarco Caputi's one-star restaurant on Corso Vittorio Emanuele, at the foot of the Vomero. The cheapest way into Michelin-starred cooking in Naples, with a €55 Saturday lunch and a €60 menu for diners under 35.George RestaurantDomenico Candela's two-star restaurant on the top floor of the Grand Hotel Parker's, looking over the Gulf to Vesuvius. Seven or nine courses at €240 or €270, dinner only, Tuesday to Saturday.Palazzo PetrucciLino Scarallo's restaurant on the water at Via Posillipo 16/c. The star went in the 2025 guide and has not come back in 2026. Its old-town pizzeria, meanwhile, ranks No. 3 in Italy.La Locanda Gesù VecchioThe old-town trattoria Michelin picks for value in 2026: pasta e patate with smoked provola, ziti alla genovese, fried salt cod. Two rooms on Via Paladino, two seatings at dinner, and you must book.Osteria della MattonellaA small family osteria on Via Nicotera, a few steps from Piazza del Plebiscito, with walls of 18th-century majolica. Genovese, ragù meatballs, friarielli and a Campanian wine list, at old-fashioned prices.Tandem RagùThe first Naples restaurant devoted to ragù, opened in 2013 and now a small chain. Good-value pasta with ragù or genovese and bread for the scarpetta, in rooms that feel more canteen than trattoria.Trattoria da NennellaThe singing, plate-banging trattoria that fed the Quartieri Spagnoli for 74 years, now at Piazza Carità 22. A fixed menu around €15, no reservations, and a show as much as a meal.Mimì alla FerroviaA family restaurant a short walk from Napoli Centrale, open since 1943, run by the Giugliano family, with Salvatore Giugliano in the kitchen. The station-day choice for a proper sit-down lunch; prices are not published.
Local food
BabàA spongy yeast cake soaked in rum syrup until it drips. €2 at a counter, €5.50 with whipped cream in a restaurant, €24 for a gift box of ten. Here is where and how.Ragù napoletanoNot Bolognese: whole pieces of beef and pork, braciole and sausage cooked slowly in tomato, the sauce on the pasta and the meat after. €12 for ziti with ragù at Tandem, the restaurant built around it.GenoveseA white ragù of beef and onions cooked until the onions melt into a brown cream, tossed with broken ziti. Nothing to do with Genoa's pesto. €12 at Tandem, €16 at Umberto in Chiaia.Frittatina di pastaA disc of bucatini pasta bound with béchamel and cheese, breaded and deep-fried. Crisp outside, creamy inside, €2–€2.50 at a fry counter. Here is where, and how to eat it without burning your mouth.CuoppoA paper cone (cuoppo) filled with fried things: potato croquettes, rice balls, pasta frittatine, dough balls, or small fish and squid. €6 for the land version, €10–€13 for the sea one. Here is where.Caffè napoletanoA short, strong, often pre-sweetened espresso, drunk standing at the counter in two sips. Italy's average is €1.29 a cup; a table in Chiaia charges €2.50. Plus the caffè sospeso and the old flip pot.PastieraA shortcrust tart filled with ricotta, cooked whole wheat, eggs and candied citrus, baked under a lattice. Made for Easter, sold year-round. €24 for 800 g, €8 for two single portions.Spaghetti alle vongoleNaples' clam spaghetti comes in bianco (garlic, oil, parsley) or with a few cherry tomatoes. Ask for vongole veraci and whether they are fresh. We found no 2026 menu price to print, and say so.Mozzarella di bufala campanaOnly buffalo milk, only from a defined zone of Campania and neighbors, DOP since 1996. Eat it fresh, at room temperature, the day it is made. A Chiaia restaurant charges €35 per kg; dairies charge far less.LimoncelloLemon peel steeped in alcohol, then sweetened. A good 50 cl bottle costs about €15 in Sorrento and Naples. The IGP label covers the lemons, not the liqueur, so read the ingredients before you buy.Taralli sugna e pepeTwisted rings of bread dough made with lard (sugna), lots of black pepper and whole almonds, baked hard. €1.60 each at Taralleria Napoletana. Eat them with a cold beer by the sea.Fiocco di neveA small soft brioche filled with a cold, sweet cream of sheep's ricotta and milk, buried in icing sugar. Invented at Poppella in the Rione Sanità in 2015. Three shops sell the original; here are their hours.
Cafes & bars
Sfogliatella MaryA glass-fronted kiosk in the Galleria Umberto I that turns out sfogliatelle, babà and Santa Rosa all day. No seats, a quick line, and pastries served warm for a few euros.Pasticceria PoppellaThe Sanità bakery that invented the fiocco di neve, a small cream-filled brioche that sells by the thousand. Cheap, sweet and simple; the original shop is on Via Arena della Sanità, with a branch on Via Santa Brigida.L'AntiquarioThe cocktail bar that put Naples on the drinks map: a velvet-and-wallpaper room on Via Vannella Gaetani, white-jacketed bartenders, Italian classics and a quadruple-citrus signature. No. 28 in Europe in 2026.Il Vero Bar del ProfessoreThe small bar on Piazza Trieste e Trento where Raffaele Ferrieri, the 'coffee professor', turned his grandmother's hazelnut cake into a coffee. Dozens of flavored coffees, crowded, a little dearer than elsewhere.Enoteca BelledonneA wine shop in the heart of the Chiaia baretti that turned into a wine bar in 1997. Shelves of bottles, a tiny back room, bruschette and boards, and a crowd standing in the vicolo with a glass.
READING
Plans and longer reads
Day-by-day itineraries, shortlists and the articles.
Itineraries
Naples in 5 daysOne city day, one ruins-and-volcano day, Capri, a museum-and-catacombs day, then Procida. Islands on the calmest days, museums around their closing days, all by train, bus and boat.Pompeii, Herculaneum and Vesuvius in 2 daysDay one: Vesuvius by the 8:35 a.m. bus 808, then Pompeii all afternoon. Day two: Herculaneum at 8:30 a.m. on the right train, then the finds at the MANN. No tour, no car.Capri in a day from NaplesThe 7:55 a.m. Caremar ferry, a boat to the Blue Grotto at 9:30 a.m., Villa Jovis, lunch by the Piazzetta and the Gardens of Augustus, back on the 6:45 p.m. jet. Or skip the grotto for Anacapri.The Amalfi Coast from NaplesOne day: the 6:51 a.m. train to Sorrento, the 8:30 a.m. bus to Positano, lunch in Amalfi, home by 7 p.m. Two days: the direct bus to Amalfi, a night on the coast, Ravello and Positano.
Guides
Cheap eats in NaplesWhat things actually cost: €2 sfogliatelle and frittatine, a €3.50 fried battilocchio, a €6 cuoppo, a €6.50 margherita and coffee from €1.20 standing, plus a full food day for two for about €41.Capri, Ischia or Procida?Three islands, three different days. Fares, landing fees, last Caremar boats back and what a day really costs, from about €42 on Procida to €53 on Capri, plus who each island suits.Naples with kidsWhat works with children in Naples and what does not: free state museums for under-18s, tunnels by age, the science center, Herculaneum over Pompeii, the easiest island, and where a stroller gives up.
