Synonymous with the birthplace of pizza and devotion to football legend Maradona, Naples has an (outdated) bad rap. This hangover from a history of grime and crime means people dismiss Italy’s third-largest city, favouring more picturesque towns along the southern Amalfi Coast.
But Naples is hugely underrated – you’ll kick yourself for not visiting sooner. Because what those coast-dashing visitors skip over is a city whose historical inventory is a mix of grit and grandeur, easily retraced on its Unesco listed Greco-Roman streets, with the architecture and art of its Imperial city era, and a labyrinthine underground. This is real-life Italy, not putting on a show for tourists: the city’s districts brim with street life, street food and street art.
Find yourself in a maze of heady lanes and alleys, leading to the calm of hilltops and harbour bays of the wider area and immerse yourself in the unparalleled passion, pride and vibrant pace of the Neapolitan lifestyle. It won’t take long for you to see the city differently.
Graffiti and Vespas in the old streets of Naples
(Getty Images)
What to do
Street art, shrines and spritzes in Quartieri Spagnoli
Step off the old street of Via Toledo and into one of Naples’ most vibrant districts. The “Spanish Quarter” (named for its role in housing the Spanish military in the 16th century) is a densely packed, tight-knit neighbourhood that became a no-go area under former mob control. Naples’s clean-up over the past decade has put it on a path of creative revival. Step off the old street of Via Toledo and into one of Naples’ most vibrant districts – start at Via Emanuele de Deo and work your way up the long, sloped lane. You’ll accidentally peer into fabulous open houses as you follow a self-guided street art trail to the city’s Maradona Shrine. Then work your way through the dozen or so blocks on the grid streets on either side, dodge the mopeds and follow the booming Latin American beats to dive bars serving the strongest Aperol Spritz in the city.
Walk the historical laneways of the Centro Storico
Work your way through the historic centre’s labyrinth of narrow stone streets, tiny lanes, and converted alleys – you’ll see a conveyor belt of Roman ruins set against graffitied walls and the grand facades of buildings containing world-renowned art, including the marbled Veiled Christ at Museo Cappella Sansevero. Start at the western end at the fresco-filled Chiesa del Gesù Nuovo basilica before…
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