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The 10 things to see in Naples

What to see during a visit to Naples: museums, monuments, squares and subsoil.

Naples is a city with an invaluable artistic, cultural and historical heritage, a place where they are dozens museums, palaces, monuments, parks and churches to visit absolutely, but also a real open-air museum in which to be amazed even just walking.

from Sansevero Chapel at the Museum of Capodimonte, from the suggestive subsoil with the Catacombs and the Underground Naples, passing through the squares and the magnificent Lungomare, the city offers endless attractions for citizens and tourists.

Here is a selection of places not to be missed during a visit to Naples.

Sansevero Chapel and Veiled Christ

The Sansevero Chapel is an important museum, famous for the sculpture of the Veiled Christ, by Giuseppe Sanmartino, who realized the body of Jesus and the transparent veil on his face from a single block of marble.
On the site there are dozens of other sculptures and works finely crafted and with very detailed details, among which stand out Statues of Pudiance and Deception and the Anatomical Machines.
The ceiling has a beautiful fresco of the 1749, whose colors still today are very vivid, characteristic attributed to the alleged alchemical abilities of Raimondo di Sangro, owner of the building.

National archeologic museum

It is the most important in the world as regards the finds and works of the Roman era as well the site with the richest Italian heritage of archaeological works. It stands on the Greek necropolis of ancient Neapolis and is divided into three main sections containing the Farnese collection, the Pompeian collections and the Egyptian section. To these are added the Topographical Section from Prehistory agl Etruschi, the Epigraphic and Numismatic Collections, the Neapolis Station and the Salone della Meridiana.
The most important pieces are the Hercules and the Toro Farnese, the Atlas and the entire collection of Egyptian artifacts, the second largest in Italy.

Where is it: Piazza Museo, 19 - 80135 Naples
Buy online skip-the-line tickets for the MANN

Capodimonte and Bosco Museum

It is the most important art gallery in Naples. The most relevant collections are the Farnese collection with important names in Italian and international painting (Raphael, Botticelli and Bruegel), the Neapolitan Gallery with works by Simone Martini, Ribera and Flagellation of Christ by Caravaggio, the section of Contemporary Art with the Vesuvius by Andy Warhol. There are also the Bourbon Armory, the Royal Apartment and the Porcelain Gallery.
It is surrounded by the Real Bosco that develops in five long avenues main and numerous secondary roads and esplanades, with hundreds of secular and fruit trees, plants and a good fauna.

Where is it: Via Miano, 2 - 80137 Naples
Buy tickets online at the Capodimonte Museum

Piazza del Plebiscito

Piazza del Plebiscito is the square symbol of Naples and is located at the end of via Toledo, just after Piazza Trieste and Trento.

It is wide 25000 square meters and it is often used for events, manifestations or concerts of classical music of national caliber.

It was only in 800 that the first real works of reconstruction took place, with the government of Giaccohino Murat, while it was Ferdinando I who had the monumental Church of San Francesco di Paola and the two equestrian statues of Charles III and Ferdinand himself on one side of the hemicycle.

Where is it: Piazza del Plebiscito - 80132 Naples

Royal Palace

Overlooking Piazza del Plebiscito, Piazza Trieste and Trento, Piazza Municipio and Acton street. It was built in the sixteenth century during the Spanish viceroyalty, but it was also residence of the Bourbons, of Gioacchino Murat and of the Savoy. King Vittorio Emanuele III gave it to the State in 1919 ed currently it is a museum, above all relative to the area of ​​the Royal Apartments, as well as being the seat of the National Library.
The buildings stand on the main façade statues of the main kings of Naples: Roger II of Sicily, Frederick II of Swabia, Charles of Anjou, Alfonso V of Aragon, Charles V of Hapsburg, Charles III of Spain, Joachim Murat and Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy.

Where is it: Piazza del Plebiscito, 1 - 80132 Naples
Buy online tickets for the Royal Palace of Naples

Lungomare and Castel dell'Ovo

The Lungomare di Napoli is the beautiful walk of 3km which starts from Mergellina and includes via Caracciolo, via Partenope and via Nazario Sauro. For a while along the Villa Comunale and overlooking the Gulf allowing you to admire in the distance Vesuvius, the islands of Ischia and Capri and the Sorrento peninsula.
It is largely pedestrian and is ideal for long walks on foot or by bike and for jogging.
The Castel dell'Ovo rises on the islet of Megaride and is the oldest castle in Naples. Inside, the Sala delle Colonne of the Roman villa of Lucullus, the terraces with Spanish cannons, the Maestra and Norman Towers and the monks' rooms.

Where is it: Seafront: from via Caracciolo to via N.Zauro. Castel dell'Ovo: via Eldorado, 3 - 80132 Naples

Piazza and Church of the Gesù Nuovo

Piazza del Gesù Nuovo is one of the most important squares in Naples and takes its name from the church that stands on one of its sides. It is located on the Decumano Inferiore, is characterized by the presence of a tall marble spire, theObelisk of the Immaculate, and is surrounded by some noble palaces. The church is one of the most important examples of Baroque painting and sculpture in the city and inside there is the body of San Giuseppe Moscati. The façade is characterized by piperno bunkers (diamond-shaped) carved with Aramaic signs that some scholars, in the 2010, discovered to be one musical score. Inside there are ten chapels of the seventeenth century and beautiful frescoes on the ceiling.

Where is it: Piazza del Gesù Nuovo - 80134 Naples

Toledo station

Toledo is one of the Stations of the Art of the subway of Naples, considered the most beautiful in Europe by the Daily Telegraph and CNN and was designed by the Spanish architect Oscar Tusquets. It is very impressive because it is illuminated by large skylights and there are some remains of the ancient Aragonese walls found during excavations. It is enriched by two large mosaics made by emulating the Pompeian style and, descending the escalators, you are immersed in a marine-themed environment, the so-called sea gallery.

The corridors are decorated with aquatic-themed mosaics and in the long corridor there are panels that reproduce the movement of the waves.

Where is it: Via Toledo, 126 - 80134 Naples

Basilica of Santa Chiara

The monastery of Santa Chiaraè the largest Gothic basilica in Naples with four monumental cloisters: the cloister of San Francesco, the cloister of the Friars Minor, the service cloister and the majolica or Clarisse cloister. This, realized by the Vaccaro between the 1742 and the 1769 on a fourteenth-century structure, is decorated with colored ceramic tiles which revisit bucolic themes, allegories and scenes of Neapolitan daily life.

Along the portico there are 66 pillars surmounted by as many arches, while on the walls there are beautiful Baroque frescoes. On the avenues there are benches and columns, also majolica.

Where is it: Piazza del Gesù Nuovo, 18 - 80134 Naples

Pausilypon Archaeological Park

It is an archaeological area in the Posillipo district which can be accessed through the Cave of Seiano, excavated by the Romans and made passable in the 1841 by Ferdinand II of Bourbon.
Overlooking the protected marine area of ​​Gaiola and offers a splendid view of the Bay of Trentaremi and the Gulf. The visit is very suggestive because you can admire the remains of theancient Roman imperial villa of the knight Publio Vedio Pollione and then to the Emperor Augustus. There are also the remains of a 2000-seat theater, the Odeion, a sort of small theater.

Where is it: Descent Coroglio, 36 - 80123 Naples

Catacombs of San Gennaro and San Gaudioso

The Catacombs of San Gennaro are the only site in the world of this kind completely accessible, date back to the II century AD and in the IV were taken the remains of San Gennaro (currently in the Cathedral). They contain an underground basilica, the oldest portrait of San Gennaro, frescoes and portraits.
The Catacombs of San Gaudioso are named after the African bishop buried there and are characterized by the presence of the ancient drains (where the corpses lost their liquids) and by niches in which the skulls were embedded. There is also the famous fresco "Allegory of death" which inspired Totò poetry 'A level.

Where is it: Catacombs S.Gennaro: adjacent to the Basilica of the Good Council - via Capodimonte 13 - 80136 Naples.
Catacombs San Gaudioso: Basilica of Santa Maria della Sanità - Piazza Sanità 14 - 80136 Naples
Buy online skip-the-line tickets for the Catacombs of San Gennaro