Naples; Friday, 21 February, 2020

I had a quick breakfast and headed out to catch the open-top bus tour round to the town hall square. The original plan saw me just making the second Blue route bus of the day, but that plan very quickly fell apart once the bus turned onto the main road between the station and the town hall, which was close to gridlocked. A major demonstration was taking place outside the welfare office close to the town hall which was causing traffic chaos, and what should have been a 15 minute bus ride ended up taking the best part of an hour.

Thankfully I made it to the Blue route start point in time to catch the third bus of the day, fortunately boarding it just 20 minutes before my 24 hour ticket expired. I caught that bus most of the way round the route, getting off at the stop closest to the Castel dell’Ovo.

Today the castle is mostly a conference centre and exhibition space, but the battlements and roofs have been opened free of charge to the public so that you can explore them and take in the views of the city. Even more handily the only access up to the top of the castle is via the lifts that whisk you up to the main battlement level – taking all the hassle and hike out of getting to top of a tall castle.

Having taken in the views I headed back down to street level and wandered over to one of the many restaurants that line the seafront at this point where I stopped for a very nice lunch people watching and basking in the warm late February sun.

Lunch completed I continued walking along the coast, following the road round towards the city centre and port and eventually ended up at the Castel Nuovo. I headed inside to tick off my second castle of the day. Unlike Castel dell’Ovo, Castel Nuovo does charge for entry as it houses the municipal art gallery. There’s also an additional charge to go on a tour of the prison the basement of the castle and up onto the roof for views over the city. Naturally I chose to pay for both options which meant I had about 40 minutes to cram in the art gallery before I met the guided tour.

Having finished the tour I decided that what’s better than two castles in a day would be three, so I headed over to the Central Funicular station and took that up to it’s top station and then walked the short distance over to Castel Sant’Elmo. Like Castel Nuovo this also houses a museum, but I arrived about 15 minutes after last admission for the day had been sold, so instead I was able to purchase the reduced rate ticket just to take in the battlements of the castle.

With it’s position at the highest point of the city, it is the only location that has a true 360 degree view over the city, and by pure chance I’d timed it just right that as I made it up onto the roof of the castle I was in time to watch the stunning sunset. I continued to explore the roof area, but with the sun now set it was clear that it was still only February and it was starting to get quite chilly.

I headed back down to the funicular station and headed back down into town where I stopped for a quick slice of Neopolitan pizza – the large lunch I’d had earlier still keeping me relatively full.

Then I wandered over to the metro station and headed back to the hotel where I stopped for a quick nightcap and to rest my now aching knees, before turning in for the night.

Weather

Sunny Sunny
AM PM
Warm (10-20C, 50-68F)
16ºC/61ºF