Naples

The long, straight street nicknamed Spaccanapoli, "the one that splits Naples", follows a road laid out by the Greeks and cuts through the heart of the old city. Walk it from Piazza del Gesù Nuovo, with the diamond-pointed façade of the Gesù Nuovo church, past the cloister of Santa Chiara, faced with painted majolica tiles, and on through little squares full of shrines, pastry shops and students.

TipWalk it twice, once in the morning when the shops open, and once in the early evening when the whole street comes out.

A small private chapel holding one of the most astonishing sculptures in Europe: Giuseppe Sanmartino's Veiled Christ of 1753, a dead Christ under a shroud so fine the marble seems transparent. The chapel's other sculptures and its eerie "anatomical machines" in the crypt are just as memorable.

TipBook a timed ticket online, as queues are long and slots sell out. The museum is closed on Tuesdays, and photography inside is not allowed.

The street of the nativity-scene makers, lined with workshops selling hand-made shepherds, angels, market stalls and whole miniature villages, alongside figurines of footballers, politicians and celebrities. It's busy all year and packed in the weeks before Christmas.

Forty metres beneath Piazza San Gaetano lies a maze of tunnels and cisterns quarried by the Greeks, used as Roman aqueducts and as air-raid shelters in the Second World War. Guided tours lead through narrow, candlelit passages and into the remains of a Roman theatre hidden among the houses above. The excavations under the church of San Lorenzo Maggiore, across the square, reveal a Roman market street.

TipSome passages are very narrow; tell the guide if you're claustrophobic and they'll show you a way round.

The cathedral is the home of the cult of San Gennaro, the city's patron saint, whose dried blood is kept in a vial in his chapel. Three times a year, on the Saturday before the first Sunday in May, on 19 September and on 16 December, crowds gather to see whether it liquefies, a sign of good fortune for the city. The Museum of the Treasure of San Gennaro holds the jewels given to the saint over the centuries. Nearby, the Pio Monte della Misericordia displays Caravaggio's Seven Works of Mercy above its altar.

One of the world's great collections of ancient art, holding the finest finds from Pompeii and Herculaneum, the Farnese collection of classical sculpture, including the colossal Farnese Bull, bronzes from the Villa of the Papyri, frescoes, an Egyptian collection and a large scale model of Pompeii. Visiting before or after Pompeii brings the ruins to life.

TipThe museum is closed on Tuesdays. In 2026 the Mosaics section and the Secret Cabinet are closed for refurbishment until further notice, and the Alexander Mosaic is under restoration, though you can watch the restorers at work; check the museum's site before you go.

Early Christian catacombs carved into the hill of Capodimonte, with frescoes, burial niches and a basilica cut from the rock, run by a cooperative of young people from the Rione Sanità, a poor neighbourhood the project has helped to revive. Visits are by guided tour, and booking is required; the tour ticket usually also includes the Catacombs of San Gaudioso in the Sanità.

TipAfterwards, walk down into the Sanità for its markets, Baroque palaces and the Fontanelle Cemetery, an ossuary full of skulls, if it's open.

A Bourbon royal palace on a hilltop, now a superb art museum with works by Titian, Raphael, Botticelli, Bruegel and Caravaggio, whose Flagellation hangs here, plus porcelain from the royal factory once housed in the park. The Real Bosco, the large wooded park around the palace, is a peaceful escape from the city below.

On the Vomero hill, the star-shaped Castel Sant'Elmo has the best panorama in Naples, over the rooftops of the old centre to the bay and Vesuvius. Just below, the Certosa di San Martino, a former Carthusian monastery, has a richly decorated church, cloisters, terraced gardens and a large collection of Neapolitan nativity scenes.

TipTake one of the funiculars up to the Vomero and walk back down by the Pedamentina, a long stairway with views all the way.

A grid of narrow, steep streets built for Spanish soldiers in the sixteenth century, crowded with scooters, shrines, street food and life. At Largo Maradona, a giant mural of Diego Maradona, the Argentine footballer who led Napoli to its first league titles in the 1980s, has become a shrine for fans from all over the world.

A grand shopping arcade completed in the 1890s, with a soaring glass and iron dome above a marble floor decorated with the signs of the zodiac. It opens onto Via Toledo, the city's main shopping street, and faces the Teatro di San Carlo, one of the oldest opera houses in the world, founded in 1737.

Naples' largest square, closed off by the curving colonnade and dome of the basilica of San Francesco di Paola, inspired by the Pantheon in Rome. Opposite stands the Royal Palace, home to the Spanish viceroys and the Bourbon kings, with a monumental staircase, royal apartments, a court theatre and a hanging garden overlooking the port.

The oldest castle in Naples sits on a small island joined to the shore by a causeway. Legend says the poet Virgil hid a magic egg in its foundations, and that if it ever breaks, disaster will strike the city. Around it, the little harbour of Borgo Marinari is lined with restaurants, and the seafront promenade along Via Partenope and Via Caracciolo, largely closed to traffic, is where Neapolitans come to stroll, jog and watch the sunset.

A Roman seaside town buried under deep volcanic deposits by the eruption of AD 79, which preserved it better than Pompeii: houses still have upper floors, wooden beams, mosaics and painted walls. In the old boathouses on the former shoreline, the skeletons of hundreds of people who fled there were found. It's smaller than Pompeii and can be seen well in a half day.

The only active volcano on mainland Europe, quiet since 1944. A trail climbs the Gran Cono from the end of the road at around a thousand metres to the rim of the crater, about half an hour's walk on loose gravel, with views over the whole bay. Buses run up from Ercolano and Pompeii.

TipTickets for the crater trail are sold online only, through the national park's official ticketing site, for a set date and time. The trail closes in high wind and weather alerts, so check the park's website on the morning of your visit.

The Roman city buried by Vesuvius in AD 79, the most famous archaeological site in the world, with streets, bakeries, bars, temples, an amphitheatre, the plaster casts of victims and the frescoes of the Villa of the Mysteries. New areas keep opening as excavations continue. Allow most of a day, and wear sun protection: there is very little shade.

TipPompeii limits visitors to 20,000 a day. Tickets are nominative, carrying each visitor's name, and in the main season they're tied to a morning or afternoon entry slot; bring photo ID and book on the park's official site, pompeiisites.org. Only small bags are allowed in.