15 things you must visit when you are in Neaples

Naples, the capital of Southern Italy, is a city of a thousand faces and a thousand contradictions. From the grandiose past that has filled it with works of art, cultural centers and much more. If you are in Naples for the first time, you will find the 15 things to see in Naples absolutely, but we are sure that after this first trip you will return to the Neapolitan city with even more desire to know it!

Il museo archeologico

museo archeologico nazionale di napoli

The Archaeological Museum of Naples is included in the top ten of the most important museums in the world .Inside it houses two important collections, the first is the famous Farnese collection, a collection composed mostly of statues from the Greco-Roman era, which occupies an entire wing of the museum's ground floor. The collection, already started in the Renaissance by Pope Paolo III Farnese, was enlarged over the centuries and finally inherited by Charles III of Bourbon, from his mother Elisabetta Farnese. The largest archaeological collection of the time is exhibited on the second floor, made up of countless finds from the ancient Vesuvian cities buried by the famous eruption of 79 AD. The collection, begun by Charles shortly after the first archaeological discoveries, was enriched from time to time by the discoveries of the sites of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae. Among the various works preserved, it is worth mentioning the famous mosaic of Alexander the Great, the statue of the Faun and other wonderful masterpieces from the rich domus of Pompeii and Herculaneum. A separate room is intended to house the statues and objects found in the famous Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum, discovered in 1754 and today still almost entirely buried. Among the various rooms of the museum, the so-called "secret cabinet" is famous, a special section born in the Bourbon era and dedicated to all those erotic finds that gradually came to light in the excavations. Other wings of the museum are dedicated to epigraphs, numismatics, the Magna Graecia heritage of the first Campanian colonizations and even a beautiful and interesting Egyptian section.

Maschio angioino

Maschio Angioino-Apollo Guide

The Male Angevin (common name of Cstel Nuovo) is perhaps the best known castle in the city of Naples. It represents its symbol, with its large cylindrical towers and the triumphal arch at its entrance. Also known as the "New Castle", it replaced the previous fortifications during the reign of Charles I of Anjou, in the second half of the thirteenth century. The castle soon became a very important artistic and cultural centre, a destination for great artists and men of letters such as Petrarch, Boccaccio and Giotto, who had painted some frescoes inside the palatine chapel. Following the Spanish conquest by the Aragonese, the complex was renovated and transformed, assuming the appearance of a residential palace as well as a fortress. The colossal triumphal arch marks the entrance to the castle and its sculptural reliefs constitute one of the finest examples of Renaissance art in southern Italy. It was built to celebrate the victory of Alfonso I of Aragon and his entry into Naples in 1442. Inside the building stands the majestic Sala dei Baroni, seat of the famous conspiracy perpetrated by Ferrante D'Aragona against some barons of the realm, who were plotting against him. Currently the castle houses the civic museum of the city. Do not miss a visit to the dungeons, recently the subject of a surprising discovery. In fact, a priceless treasure was found inside them, consisting of about 400 paintings and sculptures, as well as numerous furnishings.

Capodimonte Museum

museo e real bosco di capodimonte

The museum was born inside the prestigious Bourbon palace, erected at the behest of Charles III of Bourbon on the green hill of Capodimonte, a real green lung close to the city. The project of the palace, originally conceived as a royal hunting lodge, was subsequently modified. The sovereign, in fact, wanted to transform it into a museum where the precious collections of paintings, sculptures and applied art artefacts inherited from his mother Elisabetta Farnese should have been housed. Without any doubt, the collections exhibited in Capodimonte are to be considered among the most important art galleries in Italy, as they house masterpieces by famous artists of the caliber of Simone Martini, Masaccio, Tiziano, Mantegna, Guido Reni and many others. . The works of the Neapolitan masters were also added to the initial Farnese nucleus, with a time span ranging from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century. Simone Martini, Colantonio, Caravaggio, Ribera, Giordano are just some of the main artists who have contributed to making Naples wonderful from a cultural and artistic point of view.
When you think of the Capodimonte Palace, one can not fail to mention the wonderful porcelain that has made this place famous . The royal porcelain factory, in fact, was born here at the behest of Charles with the intention of wanting to create a more refined artistic product than that of the German factory of Meissen, which he had gotten to know through his wedding with Queen Maria Amalia , originally from Saxony. The most expert craftsmen, decorators and chemists were summoned to create valuable artefacts, mainly using a very soft and feldspar-free clay, coming from the Calabrian quarries, which gave the artefacts a milky color and unparalleled plasticity, ideal for creation of figurines, miniatures and products decorated with a brush tip. Famous is, precisely, the splendid and unique porcelain sitting room, originally conceived for the residence in Portici and later transferred to Capodimonte. It is a real room decorated entirely with porcelain, on a Japanese and oriental theme, very fashionable at that time among the various European courts.
The museum is now frequented by many visitors, thanks also to the countless exhibitions that allow the collection to be enriched each time, through loans, donations and deposits, which always make the visit and use lively and interesting, giving insights and food for thought. on the history of Neapolitan, Italian and European art of the past and present.

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Charterhouse of San Martino

certosa e museo di san martino
On the Vomero hill , where you can enjoy one of the most exciting views of the Gulf of Naples, stands the Certosa di San Martino. The construction of the monastery was started in 1325 by Charles I Duke of Calabria, son of King Roberto D'Angió. Some of the best architects and artists of that time, such as Tino da Camaino and Francesco Di Vito, contributed to the construction of the complex. Drastic changes were made in the sixteenth century and, above all, in the seventeenth century, with the contribution of the famous Cosimo Fanzago, mainly responsible for all the Baroque transformations of the site. The Carthusian fathers, very close to the Angevin sovereigns, were monks who lived purely in seclusion, dedicating their time to prayer, meditation and manual work. In the garden of the Certosa there was a large vegetable garden for the cultivation of simple fruit trees and a vineyard for wine production. 
From 1866, following the unification of Italy, the Certosa was transformed into a national museum, in order to prevent the complex from being abandoned and left to decay, following the suppression of the Carthusian order. From that moment,  the ancient rooms of the monastery were destined to collect all the testimonies of the life of the Kingdom of Naples, ranging the various collections that are distributed in the cloisters, in the ancient kitchens and in some rooms adapted to the new museum exhibition . Do not miss a stop at the Belvedere del Priore, where you can enjoy a surprising view of Vesuvius and the Gulf of Naples.

Sansevero Chapel

cappella di san severo
Not far from Piazza San Domenico, in the heart of Spaccanapoli, stands a mysterious and strange noble chapel: it is the Sansevero chapel, which belonged to the Di Sangro family, of which we mainly remember the figure of Raimondo, fourth prince of Sansevero. A rather complex and mysterious personality, Raimondo was an alchemist, Freemason, inventor and connoisseur of archaic languages, such as Sanskrit, ancient Greek and Aramaic. We owe him the creation of this surprising chapel, which houses the singular statues that personify some members of the noble family. At the center of the nave, as the undisputed protagonist of the scene, what is considered the real jewel of the complex imposes itself overwhelmingly: the Veiled Christ, the work of the sculptor Giuseppe Sammartino created in 1753. A real masterpiece that describes in a single block of marble the pathos expressed in the naked and tortured body of Christ. His figure is wrapped in a draped shroud, which adheres perfectly to the shape of his body, allowing the signs of martyrdom to be glimpsed. If today Christ represents one of the symbolic images of Naples in the world, even in the eighteenth century the vision of him could not leave one indifferent; the great sculptor Antonio Canova even confessed that he wanted to give away ten years of his life to be able to create such a perfect work!
The rendering of the veil-shroud is so probable that there have been many legends and hypotheses born around this sculpture, as well as the mysterious figure of Raimondo. There are those who have hypothesized that he himself had created a calcification of a fabric in marble crystals, a sort of "marbling" of a cloth drape which took place through an alchemical process. It is also said that the prince even blinded the sculptor immediately after completing the work, so that he could not duplicate it, thus obtaining the exclusivity and uniqueness of such a beautiful and precious artefact. Whether they are legends or truths we are not given to know. We are aware that the Veiled Christ occupies an irreplaceable space in the marvels that the city of Naples offers to its people and its visitors.

Naples Cathedral

The first complex on which the current Cathedral of Naples stands todayit dates back to the 4th century AD, with the foundation of Santa Restituta. The church was later incorporated into a much larger building during the Angevin domination of Naples, which began at the end of the thirteenth century, under the reign of Charles I of Anjou. The Cathedral of Naples is dedicated to the Assumption and is a veritable treasure chest of artistic treasures, mainly collected within the grandiose Chapel of the treasure of San Gennaro. Along the right aisle of the church stands this magnificent structure, wanted by the Neapolitans themselves as a thank you to their patron, after the end of a violent plague epidemic that occurred in the sixteenth century. The interior is richly frescoed and decorated with scenes that recall some moments of the martyrdom of Gennaro, surrounded by various silver busts of the many co-patrons of the city. Crowning it is the superb double-capped Baroque dome by the painter Giovanni Lanfranco, which shows heaven. The foundation of the chapel, as well as its management, is linked to the so-called "deputation", a lay body which personifies the Neapolitan people who  are its guardian and guarantor and have kept it intact for centuries. It is precisely within this place that the mythical prodigy of the blood melting occurs three times a year. Behind the main altar are kept the famous cruets that preserve the blood of the saint. Its liquefaction is an auspicious sign for the city and the process that involves this phenomenon is always followed with great expectation and trepidation by all devotees. A ritual that oscillates between the sacred and the profane, between folklore, magic and faith, elements that are now rooted in the Neapolitan soul. 

The majolica cloister of Santa Chiara

Chiostro di Santa Chiara
In the heart of the historic center of Naples there is a small corner of paradise, the majolica cloister of the Poor Clares, part of the monastic complex of Santa Chiara. Founded in the fourteenth century, the monastery was part of a real religious citadel, conceived by Robert of Anjou and his wife Sancia, to which the church of the same name and the monastery of the minor friars were connected. The section reserved for the Poor Clares was, over the centuries, restored and enlarged, until the total renewal which took place in 1737, when the Abbess Ippolita Carmignano decided to implement a real stylistic and architectural upheaval. The greatest artists of the time were called, starting with the famous architect Domenico Antonio Vaccaro, who conceived a subdivision of the central space into four sectors. Two side arms were added with porticoes with octagonal pillars, entirely covered with majolica, as well as for the seats that are placed along the porch of the cloistered garden. It was Giuseppe and Donato Massa, master "riggioli", who enriched with hundreds of scenes with a secular background, all different from each other, mainly using colors with warm and Mediterranean tones such as yellow, green and blue. Hunting and fishing scenes, popular dances and religious processions enliven the scenes by opening a window into an inaccessible world, which was the one for the Poor Clares, who lived purely in seclusion.
Today the Cloister can be visited and on sunny days it is possible to relax and stroll in tranquillity, delighting in the colorful view of the sketches that tell us, like a snapshot, the rural life of the countryside of the past.

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Spaccanapoli

città di napoli
Spaccanapoli is one of the most famous streets in Naples. Ancient decumanus maximus of Roman Neapolis, it is approximately one kilometer long and divides the city in two, creating a deep fissure that is clearly visible from the hilly parts of the metropolis, especially from the Vomero district. Along this road, on which alleys, alleys and parallel streets unfold, there is a dense presence of churches, monasteries and noble palaces. In fact, since the medieval period, this large artery has represented the main hub of city life, on which a large number of buildings linked to the spirituality and private life of the great Neapolitan nobles were erected, who chose this place as the basis for their urban residences. . The beautiful Filomarino Palace is to be mentioned, as well as the Carafa Palace and the one that belonged to the Di Sangro Casacalendas. Among the most important churches, however, it is necessary to remember the Church of Sant'Angelo a Nilo, which preserves the Brancaccio sepulchral monument created by Donatello; the Churches of San Domenico Maggiore, Santa Chiara and del Gesù in the homonymous square.
Walking along spaccanapoli also means encountering the Neapolitan essence, between a babà, a pizza and a good coffee, which only surround the confusion, shouting and vitality expressed by its inhabitants, who integrate perfectly into the scene, just like some actors in a typical theatrical scene.

San Gregorio Armeno

napoli san gregorio armenio-apollo guide
The attribution of this name to this street originates from the presence of the Church of San Gregorio Armeno, founded in the 8th century by a small group of Basilian nuns who, fleeing Constantinople, settled in Naples after the death of Santa Patrizia , carrying the relics of the Patriarch of Armenia St. Gregory during the journey. 
Definitely one of a kind, via San Gregorio Armeno has   always been known as the street of cribs , famous for its craft shops. The road connects via dei Tribunali with spaccanapoli and is animated by shepherds, figures and artifacts that reflect a  tradition handed down from generation to generation. The artists who create them are perfectly capable of keeping up with the times, so it is no coincidence that you will find figures of shepherds in the guise of celebrities, politicians and footballers of our times and those recently passed, as also happens with the creation of the Neapolitan crib, where one often comes across characteristic figures, places and representations that depict Naples in the 1700s, the century in which this art reached its peak. 
The typical narrow street is always frequented by tourists who come from various parts of the world, all year round. A stop at one of the many shops is a must, at least to buy a lucky croissant and give it to the person to whom we wish good luck and prosperity. 

Underground Neaples

napoli Sotterranea-Apollo guide
As everyone knows, Naples is a city divided in two. Has an "above" and a "below". Descending a few meters from ground level, one enters a dark and mysterious world, with tuff walls and impenetrable tunnels, which cross the noisy, chaotic and lively Naples we are used to in parallel. In this dark cave there are rumors and legends that tell of the mischievous sprite called "Monaciello", of the theatrical performances of the emperor Nero and of the endless moments that one spent in those bomb shelters specially created during the Second World War. Here the visit of Naples can only be completed through its millenary history, which is already born in its "womb", just as Matilde Serao defined it. The more adventurous will not be able to miss this fascinating underground world, through a
There are many access points to begin the visit, managed and organized by a historic association. One of the main entrances is from the famous Piazza San Gaetano, located in the heart of via dei Tribunali, in the historic city centre. 

Doll hospital

ospedale delle bambole napoli

The Doll Hospitalis a museum in Naples, located in the central Spaccanapoli, founded only in 2017, but with a much longer history. In fact, its origin dates back to 1895. At that time there was a small workshop for the repair and creation of sets but, above all, of theatrical puppets. Over time, many people began to bring their children's and grandchildren's dolls to ask for a repair and not be forced to throw away their children's much-needed toy. So it was that soon, inside the laboratory, hundreds of pieces of dolls, cuddly toys and accessories began to pile up, forming real mountains, to the point that a lady, passing by, exclaimed the phrase which later became famous : “This looks just like a hospital! ” From a small restoration workshop, the workshop began to become a real hospital, a point of reference for the repair of dolls. The ancient laboratory has recently been transformed into a real museum, where it is possible to narrate, through multimedia itineraries made up of images, sounds and voices, the origin of the experiences of "accumulation" of the past.

 

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Cemetery of the fountains

Cimitero delle Fontanelle

The cemetery of the fountains rises in a large tuffaceous gallery located in the area between Capodimonte and Materdei. Excavations have always been made along the walls of the valley of the Sanità district. Already in Greek times there were large quarries where to extract the tuff used for the construction of the city's buildings. These areas were also exploited to build cemeteries, catacombs, up to the nineteenth century ossuaries linked to the great cholera epidemics that spread to Naples in that period. One of these ancient   quarries came  therefore used as a cemetery for the poor and became an ossuary for all those souls called "pezzentelle", as they were unable to have a proper burial. It is precisely in this quarry crowded with human remains that a real cult for the dead was born and spread, with particular rituals that can only arise in a unique city like Naples. From the beginning, the Neapolitans began to choose and materially adopt a skull, beginning a close association connected to ritual moments, such as, for example, the polishing of the skull and other forms of interaction with the deceased. The votive offerings, gifts and candles were then accompanied by prayers, to give the so-called "refrisco", or the much-needed refreshment by the souls in purgatory. 

 

Bourbon tunnel

Tunnel Borbonico

The Bourbon tunnel The Bourbon gallery is a tunnel that extends below the Falcone lace hill, near the current Piazza del Plebiscito. The Royal Palace owes its name to the King of Naples Ferdinando Secondo di Borbone, who in 1853 had it built by the architect Enrico alvino an underground tunnel approximately 500 meters long, which directly connected the Royal Palace with Piazza Vittoria. The ultimate purpose of the underground cavity was to create a quick escape route to the sea for the royal family in case of danger or a real war threat. The tunnel was only open for three days, after which, due to logistical complications related to the morphology of the land, the excavation remained incomplete, even following the death of the sovereign, which occurred in 1859. Thus it was that for a long period of time the tunnel was abandoned ,

During the Second World War they served as a war shelter for citizens, hosting a number of refugees that ranged between 5,000 and 10,000 people. Up until 1970, the gallery was also used as a Judicial Deposit, mainly housing vehicles subjected to seizures. After several excavations and explorations, the gallery finally reopened its doors in 2010. To this day it represents one of the most exciting tourist attractions in the city.

It is possible to visit the tunnel by choosing various routes, of different duration and intensity. Among the many itineraries, the most exciting is certainly the "adventure" experience, sailing on board a raft that allows you to reach the original nineteenth-century excavation.

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