Naples Travel Guide, Italy

Naples

Being a port and a lot of liners docking on its port, a lot of visitors embark and disembark every day so when a ship arrives you are expected to see a lot of people filling the port quite quickly. They mostly visit the center of the city and many of them can have a very unpleasant first contact with the city as there are a lot of pickpockets in the port area waiting like vultures to mug the naïve tourists who disembark from the cruise to visit the “charming“ city. But if you are aware of this danger and pay attention, not wearing anything precious over your clothes (necklaces, rings, expensive watches any precious jewelry must be really concealed) you are safe and can go about visiting the city without threat. Americans beware as you are the potential target for these muggers!

Germans usually go to Ischia till June to the spa while rich Americans go to Capri. English prefer Sorento.

People

The Neapolitans are a bit different from the rest of Italians or so they say, they are more patient, tolerant you won’t see many cars bumping into each other like in Rome, and drivers swearing and always rushing somewhere.

Transport

You can not buy the ticket on the bus you can buy it from an automatic machine, from the newsagents, grocers (if it happens to be near the bus station). There are no weekly tickets you can buy a ticket for the whole day or for the whole month. If you buy a ticket it is valid on all means of transport. Besides the bus other means of transport include the funicular, trams and the underground. The buses do not have fixed timetables so it is pretty unsure when the bus is going to come and go on any route! The funicular though is the only one to have a timetable and it runs every 10 min till midnight. They are 4 funiculars and they run on 4 sides of the city up and down the hill. The only way you can travel with the funiculars is either up or down the hill no left or right.

The bay is very beautiful and offers a marvelous view with ocean liners and boats. You can see the waterfront by taking the “metro del mare” a kind of boat is small and fast like the vaporetto in Venice, but this does not run in winter. The ferryboat goes throughout the year and link Capri and Ischia. Procida is favored by the Neapolitans as it is the poorer sister of Capri and it is not so developed from a touristic point of view.

Attractions

There are a lot of parallel and perpendicular streets and it is easy to find your way around. Among the attractions you can count Santa Chiara with a famous cloister made of ceramic. If you look up from the church you can see Castel Sant'Elmo, then there are the San Carlo Theatre, the Opera House, Palazo Reale, Maschio Angioino (a beautiful castle), Castel del Ovo, Borgo Marinaro which is like a little bay full of boats and yachts. Neapolitans like to take their boats for the weekend and spend some time on water. Castle San Telmo is up the hill and from there you have a nice overview of the city, you must not miss the opportunity to get up there.

Nightlife

There are a lot of places to go to have fun during the night, Happy Rock Café and Joys are some of them. Bausan Street is a famous one and you can have Spanish, Portuguese, Latin American dishes and live music.

Food

If you want to taste some typical Neapolitan food choose the Spaghetty con le Vongole (mussels), Calamari, Pasta e zuchinni, Parmigiana, Zuchine alla Scarpece, and any type of sea food and of course pizza is delicious too. Among the sweets there is the Baba(a soft cake with rum inside), and Pastiera.

Among the restaurants worth mentioning are the Ciro, LA Bersaliera, I Re di Napoli, some non expensive ones are Donna Teresa in Vomero near Castel San Telmo, few people know about it is quite small and hidden but serves delicious, inexpensive food.

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• A weekend in Naples
  review by Wazling posted more then 30 days ago
  Naples itself isn't a very beautiful city, in my oppinion. In its outskirts often look spoiled and dirty. The city center looks better, but cant compete with the centers of other big cities. Besides that, Naples has got an exceptional archelogical museum, you really should visit, if you're...

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Read our members' travel tips about Naples

• Visiting Capri
  travel tip by MadSuh posted more then 30 days ago
  One of the most beautiful islands I have ever seen is Capri. It's romantic, and picturesque. There are wonderful trails and the sea is nothing but amazing. Both Capri and Anacapri are wonderful little towns that offer high end Italian...
• Visit Pompeii
  travel tip by Anonymous posted more then 30 days ago
  While in Naples, you have to make sure that you visit Pompeii. It might be the most important Roman/Greek archeological site out there. Pompeii was buried during the eruption of Mt. Vesuvio in 79AD. Today it is excavated and visitors can...
• Napoli Sotterranea
  travel tip by MadSuh posted more then 30 days ago
  To experience views of Naples from underneath, it is worth to do a one hour tour of the catacombs of Naples. Especially interesting an bizarre: The descent into the catacombs takes you through a typical Neapolitan student apartment. ...

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