Collect information about districts of Napoli to find out where you would like to stay or where you would like to just take a walk!
Napoli, Station district
Piazza Garibaldi, in the station district in Napoli. It is the seat of the Railway station, among the largest stations in Italy, is lively and crowded every day with tourists and locals.
Piazza Garibaldi is one of the many tourist attractions in the entire city of Naples. In recent years the area has shown significant growth regarding hotels and commercial activities. The station district is well-connected thanks to 2 underground lines, trams and buses.
The area is full of confectionery shops, where to taste delicious babà and sfogliatelle pastries, and also of pizzerias and restaurants.
Napoli Historic Center
It is the largest historical center of Europe and was declared a world heritage site by Unesco for its historical richness in 1995. Walking along its streets makes you travel through the history of this city.
It’s a unique place for its size, shape, and number of monuments. Also, it is the first in Europe for its high concentration of works of art. Only the historical center can boast over 200 historic churches. That, out of 500 Neapolitan churches that in the eighteenth century earned it the nickname of the city from 500 domes. It’s a densely populated area that makes it possible to feel the life pulsing and the heart of the city beating.
The main street is Spaccanapoli, so-called because it splits the old town into two parts and it is one of the three streets called “decumani” built by the Greeks. Naples was an ancient Greek colony, named Neapolis. Spaccanapoli starts from Piazza del Gesù and continues till the central via Duomo. This, collecting historical, religious and cultural buildings. Some examples are the Basilica of Santa Chiara, the Church of San Domenico Maggiore. Or, the Church of Gesù Nuovo, any egregious example of the Neapolitan Baroque.
In this area, the streets are lively, characteristic and very narrow, sometimes hardly letting the sunshine in. But you could walk around for days and still find it interesting and charming. If you want to have a rest during your walk, don’t worry! There are cheap and good restaurants! Or, you can eat a pizza in one of the best and most famous pizzerias in Naples!
Chiaia district
From Piazza Plebiscito toward Villa Comunale runs via Chiaia, an elegant pedestrian street of Napoli. It also gives also the name to chic, a smart and trendy neighborhood in Naples.
With its shops, bars, restaurants and art galleries it’s the city’s prime night life-zone. You can find here elegant caffè, nightclubs and excellent wine bars where people gather to enjoy a glass of a good Campania wine after working or during the weekend. Today the Chiaia district is one of the most interesting districts of Naples.
That is because of its picturesque views and buildings of historical and architectural interest. But it is also one of the most luxurious and exclusive of the city: Via Dei Mille, Piazza Dei Martiri, Via Calabritto, Via Chiaia, Piazza San Pasquale are all home to expensive shops and major estates.
Strolling along via Chiaia your sight will be caught by an artistic bridge, by the Church of Sant’Orsola a Chiaia with XV century paintings. Also, you can also see Palazzo Cellammare, an XVI century noble palace for which artists like Sanfelice and Fuga worked and which hosted illustrious personalities like Caravaggio, Casanova, Goethe, and Tasso.
At the end of Via Chiaia, you can choose whether to go to Via Dei Mille. It is an elegant and fashionable street with 19th and 20th buildings and shops like Bulgari or Hermes or to Piazza Dei Martiri. If you choose to go to Via Dei Mille and you are a contemporary art fan you may visit the Pan Museum.
If you go straight ahead from via Chiaia you get to Piazza Dei Martiri with its high obelisk dedicated to the Neapolitan martyrs to liberty. Also, there are historical beautiful buildings with important fashionable shops! You can shop at Ferragamo, Armani, and Valentino. But important brands, like Cartier, Prada, Gucci, Tod’s, Bottega Veneta are also along via Calabritto which connects Piazza Dei Martiri to the Riviera.
The Riviera di Chiaia, the old waterfront of the city, boasts the presence of beautiful noble buildings, among which there is the Neoclassical museum Villa Pignatelli with its green park. It is a princely dwelling where noble families like the Actons, Rothschilds, and Pignatellis lived. Along the Riviera there is also the Villa Comunale, built by the will of King Ferdinand IV of Bourbon, one of the main historical gardens of Naples, always crowded with children cycling or playing and passers-by chatting and relaxing.
On the waterfront, you can walk peacefully or sit at one of the numerous pizzerias or restaurants or bars and enjoy the sight of the bay, with Castel dell’ Ovo on the left and Posillipo hill on the right…maybe under a warm sun!
Borgo Marinari in Napoli
Strolling along the scenic via Caracciolo the eyes are enraptured by the beauty and grandeur of the Castel dell’ Ovo which seems to protect the city of Naples. At its feet, there is one of the most beautiful and particular places of this splendid city, the Borgo Marinari.
Once a fishermen marine it attracts the eyes of the visitors for its beauty and a surreal atmosphere away from the city stress. The village is located on the islet of Megaride, where according to legend the siren Parthenope landed, the Greeks founded a colony, the Romans built a luxurious villa and the Basilian monks a monastery, until the arrival of the Normans who built the Castle.
Today this small village comes alive with bars, restaurants, pizzerias, exclusive nautical and sailing clubs and few homes, all surrounded by the sea with boats moored.
Very popular and appreciated for its quietness, especially during the summer months, it is a great place where you can take a break sipping a coffee at a bar or a drink with friends or photographing the city from this perspective. If you go there you will be certainly impressed by the many restaurants you will find in such a small space, frequented by celebrities as Totò and Sophia Loren.
Among these the restaurant “La Scialuppa”, which has always served excellent seafood since 1860, or “Ciro” which from 1936 is one of the oldest and most suggestive restaurants-pizzerias in the city, the historic eatery “Locanda Castel dell’ Ovo”, once called “O’ tabaccaro”, because a former tobacco store, where you can enjoy excellent fried fish or typical Neapolitan dishes. Among them the typically peppered mussels or the famous octopus Alla Luciana, whose origins are very ancient and go back to the fishermen of the village, skilled in fishing for the voraciousveracious octopus thanks to terracotta amphorae positioned on the seabed the night before.
Anyway, this place is not only attractive for restaurants or bars or pizzerias: what makes it so unique is the magic you can feel, a Neapolitan heart beating, the surrounding sea and the sounds and voices wrapping you.
Vomero district
If you wish to run away for a few hours from the overcrowded metropolitan life and relax you may head to Vomero district, one of Naples’ most exclusive residential neighborhoods.
Here you’ll enjoy an amazing panorama of the whole bay of Naples, Capri island, Sorrento peninsula, and Mount Vesuvio. In the past, the Vomero was an agricultural area and for centuries was nicknamed “Hill of Broccoli”, while nowadays it is a residential zone inhabited by the middle class. Here are two outstanding historical buildings Castel Sant’Elmo and the Certosa di San Martino, the gorgeous green public park Villa Floridiana, elegant villas, monuments but also hundreds of shops.
Castel Sant’Elmo, built-in the 14th century is an impressive structure with bastions used to defend the city and as a prison. Today exhibitions and cultural events are held there especially during summertime. It rises over Naples and from its terrace offers a scenic 360-degree view of Naples. The Certosa di San Martino has been for centuries a Carthusian monastery and since 1866 a national museum with one of the largest exhibitions of nativity scenes, placed in the former cells of the monks, but also a museum with paintings and old carriages. It is one of the most well-known attractions in the city also thanks to its gardens and the beautiful view of Naples. The green park Villa Floridiana, king Ferdinand IV’s gift to the Duchess of Floridia, houses the National Museum of Ceramics and boasts of a gorgeous collection of majolica and porcelain. Here you can see people strolling, jogging or children running and playing.
If you decide to go to Vomero just take one of the three cable cars, “funicolare”, the Central Line, the Montesanto Line or the Chiaia Line. You may reach the area also by bus or by metro Line 1 and get off at Vanvitelli stop. If you need to have a rest or if you are hungry you may grab a delicious, quick and cheap snack in one of the most famous Neapolitan places of fried food, the “Friggitoria Vomero”.
So if you are planning to come to Naples don’t forget to go to the Vomero hill with your camera and immortalize the beautiful panorama or the spectacular sunrise, to create your postcard!
Posillipo district Napoli
Posillipo is one of the most exclusive and charming neighborhoods in Naples.
This residential area once inhabited by the ancient Greeks and Romans takes its name from the amenity of these sites.
The name Pausilypon encompasses all these virtues and in Greek means a respite from toil or pain. The view embracing the entire Gulf of Naples, the islands of Capri, Ischia, and Procida as far as Mt. Vesuvius is unique, exciting and breathtaking. Beautiful villas overlooking the sea, historic buildings and gardens are the perfect settings for a peaceful and incredible oasis. Along Posillipo street, few meters from the sea, there is the elegant seventeenth-century Palazzo Donn’Anna and some villas that have also private access from the sea. Posillipo hill offers one of the most wonderful views of the city and if you want to taste the scent of the sea you can take a beautiful walk and reach Marechiaro bay where to swim or eat in one of the excellent restaurants on the sea.
A panoramic oasis on the top of Posillipo hill is the free entrance Virgilian Park, a famous green terraced park built in the twenties. From here the view is superb, breathtaking, unparalleled and from the terraces, you can admire the entire coast, the archeological remains and the cliffs over the sea. In addition to a children’s playground and a nice running track, there is also an amphitheater where sometimes there are theatrical performances, in a serene and tranquil atmosphere.
Not far from the park there is the Grotto of Sejanus, a 780-meter long tunnel running through the tuff that gets to an area where are the perfectly preserved remains of an ancient Roman villa and an amphitheater. The villa, known as villa Pausilypon, belonged to an outstanding Roman citizen, Publius Vedio Pollio. This shows once more how fond the Romans were of Posillipo hill: an enchanting place where you can recover the strength of your body and the peace of your soul!
Fuorigrotta district
Fuorigrotta district is located in the western area of the city of Naples and it is the most populated one.
It takes its name from its location outside the cave that links it to the neighborhood of Piedigrotta. Until the Fascist regime, it was an agricultural district and it developed fully in the following years. Today it is the seat of the main sporting structures, such as the San Paolo stadium, the third bigger soccer stadium in Italy, the Scandone swimming-pool, the CUS Napoli, a sport system for university students; but also leisure facilities, like the amusement park Edenlandia, the zoo, and the Space Maxicinema, the largest multiplex cinema in Italy. But the neighborhood is also full of facilities reserved for events, fairs, concerts, and conferences, such as the Mostra d’Oltremare, one of the main Italian trade fair locations in which there is the Arena Flegrea, a venue for concerts while the Palapartenope, another venue for concerts, is just nearby.
Fuorigrotta is also known as a University District of Napoli for the presence of some major universities.
Noteworthy is the fifteenth century San Vitale Martyr church, where the poet Giacomo Leopardi’s remains in Napoli were temporarily buried, to be later moved to the Vergiliano park in Mergellina area, close to Virgilio’s cenotaph. Inside the church, there are an eighteenth-century presepi and two paintings of the famous painter Luca Giordano, one representing the triumph of David and another one the triumph of Judith.
Fuorigrotta is very well served by several means of transport like three railway lines, the Cumana, Line 2 and Line 3 of the underground and various buses that connect different areas of the city. Furigrotta borders on Bagnoli district, the name of which name probably derives from Balneolis since it housed some spas in ancient times.
Since the beginning of the ‘900, it has been a famous Southern Italy industrial center for the presence of active steel mills that discontinued in the late nineties. In the ’90s the installation of the Città della Scienza, a first interactive science museum in Italy together with various other events, has contributed to the requalification and remediation of the area.
Noteworthy also the Race-course of Agnano, the largest in Italy and the ancient Baths of Agnano that during the Roman times were very famous for the therapeutic properties of the hot sulfurous water, typical of the volcanic area of the Neapolitan territory. From Bagnoli along the uphill road Via Coroglio, from which you can admire a beautiful view of the northern outskirts of Naples, Capo Miseno and Procida and Ischia islands, you get to the residential district of Posillipo. Along this road, you get to the Grotto of Sejanus, a 780-meter long Roman tunnel, carved into the tuff.
Capodimonte and Camaldoli districts of Napoli
Capodimonte and Camaldoli districts are two fascinating areas of Naples from where to enjoy beautiful views of Naples about 400 meters above the sea.
The fresh air, the presence of the beautiful Capodimonte Royal Palace with its park and its highly regarded museum are unique. Plus, you need to consider the observatory, the beautiful porcelains and the splendid hermitage of Camaldoli.
You can visit www.boscodicapodimonte.it