Naples; Thursday, 20 February, 2020

I had a decent nights sleep and after a filling breakfast headed out of the hotel to go for a wander. The hotel being located in a palazzo built on the edge of the old city walls, it was only a couple of steps to be away from the manic driving of the modern city and into the relative peace, and narrow roads, of the old city.

First stop of the morning was the cathedral, located a couple of streets away from the hotel. The cathedral is pretty well hidden in amongst the city centre, with no great square or wide open space around it – unlike many other Italian cities. Instead it’s crammed into it’s space, with other buildings coming right up onto it. However inside it’s spacious and light with the sun streaming through the stained glass windows. I spent quite a bit of time wandering around the cathedral, including visiting the original basilica which was built here over 1000 years ago, but later relegated to a side chapel as the rest of the cathedral developed.

From the cathedral I continue to wander through the old town, with my intention being to visit the underground Napoli site – this is one of the few entrance points to the ruins of the ancient city that was built here – accessible only by guided tour. Unfortunately, when I got there they had a notice up that there were no tours available before 14:00, so I decided to leave that for another day.

I continued wandering through the streets of the old town, before finally emerging out the other side of the city by Piazza Dante. From here I caught the metro a couple of stops south to the town hall square, which is where the open-top sightseeing buses leave from.

In Naples they have two routes – the red route which takes in the edge of the old city (the streets inside the old city being way too small for a bus to fit down – even the tiny buses that Italy specialises in are too big!), and the blue route that heads up into the hills overlooking the city. I started by doing a circuit of the red route, which dropped me back at the start point just in time to change onto the blue route. From this route there were stunning views over the bay of Naples, dominated from most angles by the brooding shape of Vesuvius.

Back at the starting point for the tour and I headed over to the stunning Gallaria Umberto I – a massive 19th Century glass shopping gallery – to grab a bite to eat for a late lunch. I then headed back to the bus stop to pick up one final tour for the day, taking the red route again to take in the views from the opposite side.

At the end of the tour I walked back past the Gallaria and into the massive Piazza del Plebiscito, one of the main squares of the city and an enormous open space. At the back end of the square is the round church of the Basilica Reale Pontificia San Francesco da Paola, with an amazing dome – which I had a look around before heading back out into the square and then back into the old town.

Naples is built on the steep slopes of hills, so dotted all along the lower part of town are funicular railways that take you up to the higher parts of the city. I headed over to the Central Funicular to take that up to it’s top station, and once there had a wander round until I came across a stairway leading back down into town from where there were stunning views over the city and the bay.

From there it was then just a short walk to Castel Sant’Elmo – the largest of the cities castle and the one occupying the most visible point – being the highest point of the city. By the time I got there the sun was already setting, and whilst I could have gone into the castle grounds I instead went to the view point just outside the walls that looks over the lower city and across the bay to Vesuvius where I was able to watch the amazing changes of colours across the city as the sun set behind me.

It also helped that just by the view point was a very nice looking restaurant with some outside tables where I was able to grab a quick dinner with an Aperol Spritz to enjoy the last of the days light, before it was time to start heading back down into town and to the hotel via yet another funicular and the suburban train.