Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
that no one shoots pictures in here. The museum also has masterpieces from the
Farnese collections, including sculptures of the Farnese Bull and Hercules. It's
hard to do justice to this museum in under 2 hours unless you go directly to the
mosaics and Pompeii artifacts. A useful museum map, sold in the bookshop
across from the ticket booth, will help you weed through the exhibits that don't
interest you.
A note on directions:
Don't be confused by the subway entrance right below
the National Archaeological Museum, which is unfortunately also marked
MUSEO
. The only entrance to the museum is upstairs on the raised terrace.
The nearby
State Archives
(Piazzetta Grande Archivo, 5;
%
081-204491;
www.archivi.beniculturali.it/sitoenglish.html; free admission; Mon-Fri 9am-6pm,
Sat 9am-1pm)
has more to offer than rooms of documents. The setting is what
you're really here for because the archives are kept in a former 9th-century
monastery comprising four unique cloisters, each with entrancing artwork.
A definite must-do is a tour given by
Napoli Sotterranea
555
(entrance at
Piazza San Gaetano, 68;
%
081-296 944;
€
9; tours Mon-Fri at noon, 2, and 4pm
with a special 9pm tour on Thurs and a 6pm tour on weekends).
These private,
guided tours in English, Italian, or German take you some 40m (131 ft.) under
the city center to explore the labyrinth of tunnels that have served as aqueducts,
catacombs, clandestine worship space, and, most recently, a garbage dump. Pro-
Mussolini graffiti line the walls of the ancient cisterns. One especially poignant
exhibit is a cordoned-off area with a rusty child's tricycle and several tiny beds,
from the days when these caves were used as bomb shelters.
The second part of the tour will take you down just below street level, above
the aqueducts, where you can see the initial excavation of a massive ancient the-
ater. The entrance is worth the visit alone, as the tour guide takes you into a tiny
apartment and literally pushes a bed out of the way to reveal a hidden stairway.
It's simply fascinating to note that the modern-looking “box” almost directly in
the middle of the underground excavation is the floor and sewer piping of some-
one's modern kitchen in the apartment block above. This is one of the most fas-
cinating tours in Naples today, but don't take it if you're claustrophobic or stocky;
some of the tunnels are shoulder-width.
Schedules Mean Nothing
Italian museums are notorious for changing hours and closing dates for no appar-
ent reason and with no notice. In theory the hoteliers in the city should know of
any changes, but it's possible you will arrive at the door of a major venue only to
find it closed for some obscure reason. Impromptu strikes by both museum work-
ers and transport drivers are common, too, and there is general lack of regard for
printed timetables. At the time of this writing, the National Archaeological
Museum is closed on Tuesdays and the Castel Nuovo, Certosa di San Martino, and
Castel Sant'Elmo are closed on Wednesdays. There is no “free entrance day” in
Naples such as you have in Rome and other Italian cities, so use your Artecard
(p. 493) to get the best deals.
