Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
NAPLES IN…
Two Days
Start with a burst of colour in the cloister of the
Basilica di Santa Chiara
(
Click here
)
, meditate on a
Caravaggio masterpiece at
Pio Monte della Misericordia
(
Click here
), and get dizzy under Lan-
franco's dome fresco at the
duomo
(
Click here
)
. After lunch, head underground on a
Napoli Sotter-
ranea
(
Click here
) tour, lose your breath over the astounding
Cristo velato
(Veiled Christ) in the
Cap-
pella Sansevero
(
Click here
), and kick back in bohemian Piazza Bellini. Next morning, explore an-
cient treasures at the
Museo Archeologico Nazionale
(
Click here
), then head up to the
Certosa e
Museo di San Martino
(
Click here
) for extraordinary baroque interiors, Neapolitan art, and a sweep-
ing panorama. Cap the night on the fashionable, bar-packed streets of
Chiaia
(
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).
Four Days
Spend the morning of day three cheek-to-crater with
Mt Vesuvius
(
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), then ponder its bone-
chilling fury at
Herculaneum
(
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)
or
Pompeii
(
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). Alternatively, spend the day at
Caserta's mammoth, art-crammed
Palazzo Reale
(
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). On day four, grab some picnic provi-
sions at the
Mercato di Porta Nolana
(
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) and devour them in the ground of
Palazzo Reale
di Capodimonte
(
Click here
). Nourished, eye up the bounty of artistic masterpieces inside, then
spend a romantic evening shouting 'encore' at the luscious
Teatro San Carlo
(
Click here
).
Modern Struggles & Hopes
Naples was heavily bombed in WWII, and the effects can still be seen on many monu-
ments around the city. Since the war, Campania's capital has continued to suffer. Endemic
corruption and the reemergence of the Camorra have plagued much of the city's postwar
resurrection, reaching a nadir in the 1980s after a severe earthquake in 1980.
In 2011, the city's sporadic garbage-disposal crisis flared up again, leading frustrated
residents to set fire to uncollected rubbish in the streets. In March 2013 it was the city's
much-loved science museum, Città della Scienza, that went up in flames - an act of arson
widely blamed on the Camorra.
Yet it's not all doom and gloom in a city often known for its trials and tribulations. The
2013 inauguration of Naples' Toledo metro station - partly designed by internationally
renowned artists William Kentridge and Bob Wilson - made worldwide headlines for its
stunning design. In the same year, the city welcomed the world as host of the Universal
Forum of Cultures.
