Berlitz Pocket Guide Naples, Capri & the Amalfi Coast (Travel Guide eBook)

• Publisher: Berlitz Travel
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781785730405
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

Disorderly, rowdy, exhilarating - Naples, the capital of the Italian South, is like nowhere else. The Bay of Naples has its own charms, from the dazzling island of Capri to slumbering volcanoes, world-class archaeological sites and the stunning Amalfi Coast. Berlitz Pocket Guide Naples, Capri and the Amalfi Coast is a thoroughly updated, full-colour travel guide that combines lively text with vivid photography to highlight the best that the region has to offer.

Inside Pocket Guide Naples, Capri & the Amalfi Coast:
Where To Go details all the key sights in the region, while handy maps on the cover flaps help you find your way around, and are cross-referenced to the text.

Top 10 Attractions gives a run-down of the best sights to take in on your trip.

Perfect Day provides an itinerary of the city of Naples.

What To Do is a snapshot of ways to spend your spare time, from strolling Naples' maze of cobbled alleys in search of Baroque masterpieces or a slice of authentic pizza to living the high life in Capri or visiting the evocative ruins at Pompeii.

Essential information on Naples' culture, including a brief history of the region.

Eating Out covers the region's best cuisine.

Curated listings of the best hotels and restaurants.

A-Z of all the practical information you'll need.

About Berlitz: Berlitz draws on years of travel and language expertise to bring you a wide range of travel and language products, including travel guides, maps, phrase books, language-learning courses, dictionaries and kids' language products.

Where To Go

One of the great advantages of Campania is the concentration of its attractions: art, history, scenery and leisure are all in close proximity. You don’t have to choose between seeing Sorrento or Pompeii, or dining alfresco above Naples’ harbour. You can do them all in a single day if you want – although travellers soon find themselves succumbing to a more relaxed southern-Italian approach to sightseeing, particularly in summer, when the heat can be as steamy as the city’s trademark volcano. If you want to rush around the sights it is advisable to visit in winter or early spring.

Spanish Quarter, Naples

Greg Gladman/Apa Publications

Naples and the Neapolitans make up a fascinating, chaotic urban organism; the city itself is a brilliant living museum. Discovering its treasures is an adventure that leads from the famous bay to the heights, through hectic traffic and narrow byways where noisy family life spills out onto the streets. Even tourists looking forward to relaxing at one of the seaside resorts or islands should not miss the Naples experience.

Come prepared to walk, for whether you are in Old Naples, older Pompeii, or even older Paestum, the best way to engage with this vibrant place and its unique spirit is on foot. The following itineraries are designed to help you discover this spirit for yourself.

Naples

A four-lane, one-way boulevard ceaselessly hums with traffic as it skirts an arc of the photogenic seafront from west to east. It runs from the bustling ferry docks of Mergellina to the headland of Pizzofalcone where the Greeks laid the foundations of a new town, Neapolis, nearly 3,000 years ago. At the foot of the hill, just off a little peninsula at the centre of the horseshoe-shaped bay, stands the islet fortress of Castel dell’Ovo 1 [map] (Mon–Sat 9am–7.30pm, winter until 6.30pm, Sun 9am–2pm; free), Naples’ oldest castle and a good place to begin exploring.

The Greeks originally used the tiny islet on which the castle now stands as a harbour. Later, the Roman general Lucullus had a villa on Pizzofalcone and built an annexe on the rocks offshore where he stored food and wine for his legendary banquets. In the 5th century a monastery was built here, then in the 12th century the Normans transformed it into a fort. The present structure dates from the early 16th century, following its near destruction by the Spanish. Today, the rooms of the castle are used for functions, cultural events and exhibitions, but you can peer into those not in private use, wander around the battlements and enjoy views across the bay. There is a lift partway to the top.

Naples’ oldest castle, the island fortress Castel dell’Ovo

Greg Gladman/Apa Publications

In the shadow of the castle is a small harbour filled with pleasure craft and little fishing boats. The docks and castle walls are lined with seafood restaurants and cafés. This compact area, known as Borgo Marinaro, is the hub of the Santa Lucia district. The former fishing community, hailed in the quintessential Neapolitan song, is now an obligatory port of call for the hungry tourist and a good place to sample authentic fish dishes.

Opposite the Castel dell’Ovo, the sea-facing Via Partenope is a row of the city’s grandest and most historic hotels – the Vesuvio, Santa Lucia and Eurostars Excelsior all offer splendid views of the bay and Vesuvius. From the elegant seafront, walk down Via Santa Lucia, which edges the much scruffier back streets of the working class Palinotto district.

A good egg

Castel dell’Ovo gets its name from the egg (ovo) supposedly buried in its foundations. The poet Virgil, who was thought to possess powers of divination, warned that if the egg ever broke catastrophe would befall the city.

Royal Naples

At the end of Via Santa Lucia, turn left into Via C Console, which opens out into the Piazza del Plebiscito. The vast semi-circular square was used as a car park for decades, but it was cleared of traffic during the 1990s clean-up campaign and is now a popular meeting point – its arcades lined with smart bars and artisan shops. The piazza commemorates the incorporation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies into the Italian national state in 1860, an event that deprived Naples of its traditional function as a capital. The square is dominated on one side by the Palazzo Reale (Royal Palace) and on the other by the domed church of San Francesco di Paola.

The grimly imposing Palazzo Reale 2 [map] (www.palazzorealenapoli.it; palace: Thu–Tue 9am–8pm, courtyard: until 7pm in summer, 6pm in winter; charge for palace, courtyard is free, gardens closed for restoration) was first built by Spanish viceroys in the early 17th century. However, the palace takes its character from the sojourn of the Bourbon monarchs and of Joachim Murat, who lived here during his short reign as king of Naples with his wife, Napoleon’s sister, Caroline Bonaparte. The Savoy king Umberto I installed the statues on the facade. From left to right, they are the Norman Roger I, Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, Charles I of Anjou, Alfonso I of Aragon, the Habsburg–Spanish emperor Charles V, Charles III of Bourbon, Murat and Vittorio Emanuele II of Savoy.

The palace was badly damaged by Allied bombs in 1943 and by the occupying forces. When the Italian government recovered the building, its royal apartments had to be refurbished. They are now arranged as a museum, with paintings and period furniture from various sources. The palace is also home to two further attractions. The first is the Biblioteca Nazionale (www.bnnonline.it; Mon–Fri 8.30am–7pm, Sat 8.30am–1.30pm; free with ID card), the largest public library in southern Italy, holding among other treasures a 1485 copy of Dante’s Divine Comedy, illustrated with Botticelli engravings. The second is the Memus, an archive of memorabilia from the nearby opera house (http://memus.squarespace.com; Tue and–Thu–Sat 9am–5pm; Sun 9am–2pm).

Opposite the palace, the massive church of San Francesco di Paola (www.santuariopaola.it; daily Jul–Aug 6.30am–8pm, Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct until 7pm, Nov–Mar until 6pm; free) was built in 1817 and modelled on the Pantheon in Rome. Outside, are two equestrian statues of Ferdinand IV and his father, Charles III of Bourbon, both by Canova.

Backing onto the Palace on Piazza Trieste e Trento is the Teatro di San Carlo 3 [map] (box office: Via San Carlo, 98/F, tel: [phone]; www.teatrosancarlo.it; tours daily 10.30am–4.30pm; charge; opera season from Nov or Dec–May, but with concerts all year). Italy’s most prestigious opera house after La Scala in Milan is also the oldest continuously performing opera house in Europe. It was built for Charles III in 1737 in just eight months and rebuilt after a fire in 1816. Though sombre outside, the rich red-and-gold hall interior is dazzling. Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and Verdi all composed operas for San Carlo.

San Francesco di Paola was modelled on the Pantheon in Rome

Greg Gladman/Apa Publications

Opposite, the cavernous, glass-roofed Galleria Umberto I was a showcase when it was completed in 1890. Today it is lined with a number of shops and cafés, but remains strangely empty despite the crowded streets outside.

Diagonally opposite the theatre is the lavish Belle Epoque Gran Caffè Gambrinus (http://grancaffegambrinus.com), worth visiting for a coffee and c...