Travel: A weekend in Naples to start with...

Untitled Naples has a reputation amongst many English speaking people as being dirty, seedy and sleazy. While it is dirty in parts - the city is changing thanks to a progressive new mayor who has made the city more pedestrian friendly and given this ancient city a new lease of life. With the airport less than twenty minutes from the city centre, it is an excellent weekend break, although one weekend will make you realise you have barely scratched the surface on what there is to offer...

Staying at Decumani Hotel de Charme, it was an excellent location off the Spaccanapoli to explore both the old and new parts of the town. The hotel staff were very helpful in suggesting places to eat. We headed to one of the best pizza places and had a traditional Napoli Pizza and Peroni. What sets a good pizza apart from the others is the base and the ingredients. This one the base was light and the ingredients were fresh. For €7 including beer it seemed awfully good value. After leaving your name at  the restaurant you wait outside to be called (dodging the traffic and the other crowds of people lining up for takeaways). Depending on the time you arrive it could be a while to wait so try for an early or late lunch to minimise the time...

IMG_0020_2Apart from food, there is an incredible collection of antiquities and masterpieces, so after pizza and beer, we headed off to the National Archaeological Museum to discover the ancient exhibits, including some incredible marble statues from a Roman bath, and statues from Herculaneum. Some of these will be on loan to the British Museum for its upcoming exhibition but nothing gives you a better sense of the scale and wealth of the finds than this place.

1000000360When I visited I was fortunate that the rooms containing the Secret Museum were open, which mostly contain various erotic artworks uncovered from Pompeii. Various symbols of fertility or folklore made up this collection (i.e. large penises) and it is hard (so to speak) to view these artifacts without wondering how different Ancient Roman society viewed sexuality and sexual freedoms compared to our own. Also included within this part of the collection are various illustrations found on the walls of brothels in Pompeii of various sexual positions. Was it education, was it like ordering a happy meal or was it just a way to indicate where you left your belongings. It is thought provoking stuff.

After being invigorated by the museum, we then grabbed a bus to the National Museum at the Royal Palace of Capodimonte which was built around the Farnese collection with masterpieces by Titian, Parmigianino and Carracci. Along with the royal apartments, there is also a collection of porcelain and 18th century furniture. It is very well put together and you could easily spend a lot of time exploring both the Palace and its gardens that overlook the city and is a welcome oasis. The gardens are one of the main areas where young people seem to be able to kick a football, run around or just hang out and so it is a great opportunity to see the locals...


Saturday was an opportunity to take the train to Herculaneum. Less popular than Pompeii but much more manageable to wander around, it is closer to Naples so there is less travel time getting there. Due to the nature of its burial in volcanic mud, managed to preserve more of the features of the city. This includes wooden beam and structures up to three storeys. The town is assumed to be wealthier than Pompeii and the open excavation shows both wealthy and poorer homes giving a sense of the way of living in the ancient Roman period. While we had seen the major discoveries from Herculaneum at the museum the day before,  a visit to this smaller site put it all in perspective.

Unfortunately the Villa of the Papyri is not open on weekends (unless by prior arrangement) so we missed seeing the origins of the above statues of the athletes. If you're not hungry (or tired) it would be feasibly possible to get back on the train and head to Oplontis to see the Villa of Poppea, but we ran out of time for that and instead headed for a pizza. In this part of Italy the pizza's are worth stopping out for...


UntitledIn addition to the shopping in the surrounding streets, the newly pedestrianised area along the Lungomare is an opportunity to enjoy some incredible views of the bay looking out over at Vesuvius, Capri or towards Sorrento. During the summer months in 2012 there were various concerts and events staged along the waterfront which showcased a city that perhaps has been punching well below its weight in years past.


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On my first trip to Naples, the waste management was far from over and no doubt the sight of piles of industrial garbage outside major tourist shops would put tourists off spending more than just a cursory visit in the area before heading off to the Amalfi Coast, Capri or Pompeii. The rubbish piled up on the streets seemed to be more of the industrial kind than the household kind, but now the matter seems to have been resolved as rather than being dumped locally or incinerated, it is shipped off to Rotterdam...

On our final morning, it did not deter us from seeing some significant monuments and artworks, including the Sansevero Chapel Museum famous for the veiled Christ, carved from a single block of marble.

So with a bit of planning and making the most of the excellent public transport the city has to offer, it is possible to spend a weekend and make the most of what the city has to offer...

Location: Naples, Italy

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