Naples Introduction

Naples (Italian Napoli, Neapolitan Nàpule, from Greek - Néa Pólis - meaning "New City"; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is the largest city in southern Italy and capital of Campania Region and the Province of Naples. The city has a population of about 1 million. By one count the metropolitan area of Naples is the second largest in Italy after that of Milan, with over 4,200,000 inhabitants. As with most major cities, various other urban and metropolitan area population figures are also available. The inhabitants are known as Neapolitans, napulitane in Neapolitan, napoletani or poetically partenopei in Italian. It is located halfway between the Vesuvius volcano and a separate volcanic area, the Campi Flegrei, all part of the Campanian volcanic arc.

It is rich in historical, artistic and cultural traditions and gastronomy. Neapolitan ('o napulitano) is the colourful, rich Romance language that became a trademark of southern Italy ever since the reign of the Kingdom of Naples and the Two Sicilies.

The city is served by Naples International Airport.

Naples Weather

Situated on the shin of Italy, Naples has a fair expanse of Mediterranean in front of it, bringing those hot dry summers and cool sea breezes straight to Naples' door. It's much wetter than Italy's east coast; most rain occurs around autumn and winter months. Unlike Mediterranean islands where the sea keeps winter temperatures warm, Naples has inland winds that make for quite chilly winters.

Naples Attractions

Basilica Di Santa Chiara

Simple, severe and vast, the Basilica di Santa Chiara is a spectacular monument to the ability of Italy's restoration experts. The bare Gothic interior that you see today is not the genuine 14th-century article, but a brilliant recreation of Gagliardo Primario's original design.

Commissioned by Robert of Anjou for his wife Sancia di Maiorca, the hulking complex was built to house 200 monks and the tombs of the Angevin royal family. Adhering to the Gothic principles of the day that equated height with vicinity to God, the original design met with a lukewarm reaction in some quarters - Robert's son Charles of Anjou brusquely dismissed it as nothing more than a 'stable'. Four centuries later, however, it was given a complete baroque makeover. Tragedy struck though on 4 August 1943. During an Allied air raid, the church took a direct hit from an incendiary bomb and burned out of control for more than 48 hours. Virtually the entire baroque interior was gutted, along with the main roof, and various Angevin tombs. However, thanks to the skill and dedication of a small army of experts it has been largely restored to its original form. Features that survived the fire include part of a 15th century fresco to the left of the main door and a chapel containing the tombs of the Bourbon kings from Ferdinand I to Francesco II. To the left of the church, the famous tiled cloisters provide one of the few quiet spots in central Naples. Although dating to the 14th-century, the cloisters took on their current look in the 18th century thanks to the landscaping work of Domenico Antonio Vaccaro. The walkways that divide the central garden are lined with 72 ceramic-tiled octagonal columns connected by benches. Painted by Donato e Giuseppe Massa, the red, blue and yellow majolica tiles depict various scenes from rural life, including numerous images of animals being shot, speared and fished. The four internal walls are covered with colourful frescoes. Adjacent to the cloisters there is a small museum which has various ecclesiastical bits and bobs, including some impressive 14th-century busts and 16th-century liturgical volumes.

Palazzo Reale

This magnificent palace was built around 1600, completely renovated in 1841 and suffered extensive damage during WWII. The statues of the eight most important kings of Naples were inserted into niches in the facade in 1888. The highlight is the Museo del Palazzo Reale, a rich collection of furnishings, porcelain, tapestries, statues and paintings.

The palace has also, since 1925, been home to the Biblioteca Nazionale, which includes the vast Farnese collection brought to Naples by Charles of Bourbon, with at least 2000 papyruses discovered at Herculaneum and fragments of a 5th-century Coptic Bible.

Certosa di San Martino

This stunning Carthusian monastery, originally built by Charles of Anjou in 1325, was given a new look in the 17th century by baroque master Cosimo Fanzago. Today it houses the Museo Nazionale di San Martino and the valuable collection that the canny Carthusian brothers had built up over the centuries.

The monastery's church and the rooms that flank it contain a feast of frescoes and paintings by some of Naples' most important 17th-century artists. In the pronaos, for example, Micco Spidaro's frescoes of Carthusian persecution seem to defy perspective as figures sit with their legs hanging over non-existent edges. Elsewhere in the chapel you'll find works by Francesco Solimena, Massimo Stanzione, Giuseppe Ribera and Battista Caracciolo. Adjacent to the church the Chiostro dei Procuratori is the smaller of the monastery's two cloisters. A grand corridor on the left leads to the larger Chiostro Grande. Originally designed by Giovanni Antonio Dosio in the late 16th century and later added to by Fanzago, the Great Cloister is a beautiful space of manicured gardens, marble statues and white porticoes. A series of skulls mounted on the balustrade add a sinister touch. One of the highlights of the museum is the Sezione Presepiale, several rooms devoted to a collection of Neapolitan presepi carved in the 18th and 19th centuries. These range from the miniscule - a nativity scene in an ornately decorated eggshell - to the massive. The most famous piece, the Cuciniello presepe, covers one wall of what used to be the monastery's kitchen. Angels fly down to a landscape of rock houses and shepherds, all made out of wood, cork, papier-mâchè and terracotta. The Quarto del Priore(Prior's Quarter) in the southern wing houses the bulk of the picture collection as well as one of the museum's most famous pieces, Pietro Bernini's La Vergine col Bambino e San Giovannino (Madonna and Child with the Infant John the Baptist). A pictorial history of Naples is told in the section Immagini e memoria dell cittá (Images and Memories of the city). Here you'll find portraits of historic characters (Don Pedro de Toledo in Room 33, Maria Carolina di Borbone in Room 43); antique maps, including a 35-panel copper map in Room 45; and rooms dedicated to major historical events such as the Revolt of the Masaniello (Room 36) and the plague (Room 37).

Solfatara crater

The desolate Solfatara crater is southwest of Naples in the suburb of Pozzuoli. Known to the Romans as the Forum Vulcani (home of the god of fire), the entire crater is a layer of rock supported by the steam pressure beneath. Its acrid steam, sulphurous waters and mineral-rich mud were famed as a health cure from classical times until the 20th century. With the whiff of brimstone in your nostrils, you can walk beside the pool of glooping mud as steam jets squirt and burp from the ground

Naples

Few cities harbour such effervescent religious passions in their hearts as Naples does. The Madonna del Carmine is one of the most cherished figures in the Neapolitan pantheon and her…

Naples History

Naples was founded between the 7th and 6th centuries BC by the Greeks and was given the name Neapolis. During the period of Roman domination, the town preserved the Greek language and original habits. After the Roman period the city was dominated by many different groups of people (Byzantines, Longobards, Normans, Swabians, Angevins, Aragoneses, Spaniards, Bourbons and Gauls). Nowadays one can see the traces of all those dominations in the monuments, in the culture and in the habits of the town. Naples was also the capital of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and after the Congress of Vienna became the capital of the (newly named, but geographically unchanged) Kingdom of Naples. Thus, Naples was the only city (besides Jerusalem) taking the same name as the Kingdom of which it was the capital. After a long period of decline following the forging of the Italian State over 100 years ago, the city is making great strides in recovering its eminence as a center for culture.