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See Naples and Die! Introduction

Naples can be a tough nut to crack for many visitors. It's not as immediately likable or familiar or easy to explore as Rome or Florence or Siena or Venice for most people. It's very crowded and very noisy. The people can seem to be (but aren't really) unfriendly and you do have to get used to being stared at. On the surface it's often unattractive - piles of trash, unfinished or decaying buildings, beggars, street vendors selling counterfeit "designer" junk or "washing" windshields - and the casual tourist on a quick visit between Rome and Sorrento or Pompeii often doesn't get the chance to see past that.

Naples' reputation for crime is also a deterrent for some. The reality is that aside from camorra-related violence (internally-directed and confined to areas on the periphery where the tourist is unlikely to go), there is little violent crime. There are plenty of pickpockets and bag-snatchers (highly skilled, it must be admitted), but those are found in most other large cities as well. The area around Piazza Garibaldi and the train station are not the greatest neighborhoods, but again that's also true in a lot of other cities. You do have to exercise reasonable precautions - be aware of what's going on around you and make sure your valuables are protected - but if you do that, you're unlikely to have a problem.

Overview of Naples and Vesuvius from Castel Sant'Elmo

View of Naples and Vesuvius from Castel Sant'Elmo

Transport is challenging. It's definitely hard to get into the city and to explore it - until you get out on foot and walk. Traffic is terrible, public transport is slow and not always reliable (buses move at the speed of traffic, after all), taxis are always trying to rip you off using a number of tricks, and parking is a major problem. There is an open-top bus tour, but it's almost a joke since it can't get down most of the streets and since in most places you can walk faster than the bus can maneuver through the traffic.

Driving in Naples is not for the timid - the drivers seem to get more aggressive the farther south you go in Italy, stop signs and red lights are often purely suggestions, and the number of motorbikes is amazing.

All of these things can combine to make Naples feel very intimidating, and did for me for a long time. When you start to look beyond the surface, though, there's a lot more about Naples that is positive and makes it well worth exploring. The people, despite their sometimes brusque first impressions really are friendly and want you to like them and their city. There are some first-class sights to see: the world-class archaeology museum, the Capodimonte museum, the Duomo, the castles, more churches than I can count, and the setting with the Bay of Naples and Vesuvius and Capri (and please call it CA-pri, not ca-PRI - the song got it wrong!) and the Sorrentine peninsula and the rest.

The food is some of the best in Italy and also some of the most familiar to many of us (around 80% of the Italians who emigrated to the US and elsewhere came from Campania and points south). They invented pizza in Naples, and it's the best in the world. The wine, though not as well known as that of other regions, is good and getting better. The coffee is the best in Italy. The street life alone is worth the trip.

The coffee is the best in Italy

The coffee is the best in Italy.

The saying (often attributed to Goethe) goes "See Naples and Die". I'm not sure I would go that far, but the first part I highly recommend!

Overview of Naples

Map of Naples

Naples is the largest city in southern Italy and the most densely populated city in Europe, with a population, including suburbs, of around three million people.

The earliest urban settlement, possibly Phoenician, was founded on the Parthenope hill (supposedly where the body of the Siren washed ashore after her rejection by Odysseus); this settlement was conquered by Greek colonists from Rhodes around the 10th century BC. Other Greek colonists, perhaps from Cumae, founded the nearby settlement of Neapolis or "new city" in about 600 BC.

Naples remained an important city under the Romans, when the area around its bay was important for its ports and naval bases and was highly prized as a holiday retreat where everyone who was anyone had his luxurious holiday villa.

Naples has since been ruled - and influenced - by the Byzantines, the Normans, the Angevins, the Aragonese, the Bourbons, the Hapsburgs, and Napoleon before becoming part of the new Kingdom of Italy in 1860. Some believe that it's precisely this coming and going of so many rulers over the centuries that has left Naples with its present-day disregard for many forms of order such as paying taxes, obeying traffic laws, and forming orderly queues.

Naples was a mandatory stop on the 18th century Grand Tour, that essential element of a wealthy gentleman's classical education, and everyone who was anyone came to see and be seen. William Hamilton was English consul in the mid-18th century and entertained many of these visitors. He was also a renowned antiquarian whose collections now form a major part of the British Museum; his wife Emma achieved notoriety here as the mistress of Lord Nelson. Writers and artists visited Naples as well, including Dickens, Shelley, Goethe, Washington Irving, and many others. Mark Twain visited in 1867 and wrote of his visit in The Innocents Abroad:

"'See Naples and die.' Well, I do not know that one would necessarily die after merely seeing it, but to attempt to live there might turn out a little differently."

Even then, Naples had its reputation!

Much of the area of interest to tourists still centers on the site of the Greek and Roman city, on the hills of Capodimonte and Vomero overlooking it, and on the area along the waterfront from the "New" Castle to Capo Posillipo. It's hard to convey on a map just how vertical Naples is. The city center, roughly between Via Toledo to the west, Via Duomo to the east, the Museo Archeologico to the north, and the Bay to the south is relatively flat. As soon as you leave this area though, particularly to the north and west, you have to go up (and up and up, in some cases!). The Spanish Quarter, the Vomero, the Parco di Capodimonte, and the oldest area of settlement on the Parthenope hill are all fairly steep climbs.

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See Naples and Die! Introduction

Overview of Naples

Naples Travel Notes

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