Where to go, and how to get there

Half a day, in the morning · metro Line 2

Spaccanapoli: the Veiled Christ, the churches and the city underneath

You walk down one straight street, as wide as two outstretched arms, and every hundred metres you step into a different century.

Getting there: Line 2 leaves from the station by the flat and serves both ends of the route — Montesanto two stops away, Piazza Cavour three. No changes, in either direction.

1. Gesù Nuovo — Piazza del Gesù Nuovo 2a church with a diamond-point façade, because it is the reused wall of a palace. No ticket needed8am-12:45pm and 4-7pm, every day
2. Santa Chiara complex — Via Santa Chiara 49/cthe majolica cloister is the part you pay for; the church is free9:30am-5pm · Sunday 10am-2pm
3. Sansevero Chapel — Via Francesco de Sanctis 19/21the Veiled Christ. Go right when it opens: the room is small. Timed entry, and slots sell out9am-7pm · closed on Tuesday
4. Purgatorio ad Arco — Via dei Tribunali 39a church with a crypt underneath: bronze skulls on the railing outside, the cult of the souls of purgatory below. No photos in the crypt10am-5pm · Sunday 10am-2pm
5. Napoli Sotterranea — Piazza San Gaetano 68you go down into the Greek aqueduct, used as a shelter during the war. Stairs, narrow passages, and one section can be skipped10am-6pm · cash only, and read the warning at the top
6. Santa Luciella ai Librai — Vico Santa Luciella 5/6the little church with the skull with ears, reopened by young people from the neighbourhood10:15am-6:15pm, every day
7. San Lorenzo Maggiore — Piazza San Gaetano 316a basilica with excavations underneath, on the same square as Napoli Sotterranea: the Roman market is down there9:30am-5:30pm, every day
8. Via San Gregorio Armeno and its Cloister — no. 1the nativity-figure street, all year round. The cloister and the church have two separate entrances: you cannot get through from the cloistercloister 9:30am-1pm and 4-6pm
9. Doll Hospital — Via San Biagio dei Librai 39a workshop-museum where toys have been repaired for generations. It is on the street itself, not a detour10:30am-1:30pm and 2:30-5:30pm · closed on Wednesday
10. Duomo — Via Duomo 147no ticket to go in, and it is as big as you expect8:30am-7:30pm, every day
11. Chapel of the Treasure of San Gennaro — Via Duomo 147inside the Duomo, and it is the part you remember. It closes over lunch even when the Duomo stays open8:30am-1pm and 2:30-6:30pm
12. Pio Monte della Misericordia — Via dei Tribunali 253a church with the picture gallery of a 17th-century charity that is still running: this is where Caravaggio's Seven Works of Mercy hangs, in the place it was painted for10am-6pm · Sunday 9am-2:30pm

From here, if it is lunchtime: one of the places on the Restaurants page is in the old centre → Restaurants

Half a day, towards sunset · all on foot from the front door

From the flat to the Santa Lucia borgo, below Castel dell'Ovo

You step out of the door with no ticket and no opening time, and walk until the street runs into the sea.

You do not need to catch anything, and almost nothing closes: this is the route that works on Tuesdays too.

1. Santa Maria del Parto — Via Mergellinaa small church above Mergellina, with the panel of the Madonna and the devil, first on the right. The forecourt looks over the bay7:30am-12pm and 5-7:30pm, every day
2. Parco Vergiliano a Piedigrotta — Salita della Grotta 20a park up a slope with Virgil's tomb and Leopardi's. It is a viewpoint more than an archaeological site: the caves and tunnels have been closed for a long time9:30am-3pm · closed on Tuesday, and on Wednesday it only opens in the afternoon
3. Santa Maria di Piedigrotta — Piazza Piedigrotta 24the sanctuary of the festival the neighbourhood is named after8am-12pm and 5-8pm
4. The seafrontfrom here on it is one single street all the way to Santa Lucia: Via Caracciolo becomes Via Partenope without a single turnyou walk through
5. The Santa Lucia borgoyou can walk right round the islet. Castel dell'Ovo is reported closed for restoration: you look at it from outside, which is how everyone photographs it anyway
6. Santa Lucia a Mare — Via Santa Lucia 3the church of the borgo: it is called "a Mare", by the sea, because it really did stand on the water before the city grew outwards7:30am-1pm and 4:30-8pm
7. The little lighthousethe spot to watch the sunset from, with Vesuvius straight aheadalways
8. Monte Echia — Via Egiziaca a Pizzofalcone 44the hill with the viewpoint where Naples began. You can walk up; there is also a lift, but it is a separate service with its own, shorter hours. In the evening do not count on it to come down: take the side lane, which is the better view anywayviewpoint 7am-10:30pm

From here, if it is dinner time: Via Partenope is at the far end of the same walk, and there is an address for you on the Restaurants page → Restaurants

Half a day, when the light is high · funicular up, on foot down

Vomero: Castel Sant'Elmo, the Charterhouse, and the walk down

You step into a station at street level and come out at the top of the city: from up there you can read the old centre street by street, with the bay behind it.

It is not a there-and-back: it is a loop. You go up on the Montesanto funicular, stop Morghen, and walk back down a stairway.

1. Belvedere San Martinothe open terrace, no ticket and no opening hoursalways · free
2. Castel Sant'Elmothe star-shaped fortress, with the walkway that runs all the way roundclosed on Tuesday
3. Certosa e Museo di San Martinonext to the castle: the cloisters and the nativity collection, which is what guests rememberclosed on Tuesday
4. Pedamentina a San Martinonot a stop, it is the way down. A historic stairway down to the Quartieri Spagnoli. Do it downhill, in proper shoes: there is nowhere to stop and restalways
5. Maradona mural — Quartieri Spagnoliwhere the stairway ends. One review reports it covered: there may be scaffoldingalways
6. La Pignaseccathe market, as you come out of the Quartieri. It is the exact opposite of the terrace you started frommornings

If it appeals and you have time to arrange it: below the Charterhouse walls is the Vigna San Martino, Corso Vittorio Emanuele 340 — a 14th-century vineyard still farmed, with the bay in front of it. Visits are by booking only, with a guide: the day and time are agreed with them, and for that a phone call is easier — 320 901 3589, or info@vignasanmartino.it.

I have no address to recommend up here: the places on the Restaurants page are all somewhere else.

Half a day · metro Line 2, Piazza Cavour stop

Rione Sanità: the murals and the Catacombs of San Gennaro

You go down into a neighbourhood that sits below the rest of the city, and come back up in a lift painted from top to bottom.

If you have already seen the Veiled Christ in the old centre, here is its contemporary answer: Jago's Veiled Son, at San Severo fuori le Mura. And the Jago Museum ticket includes entry to San Severo, and the other way round: you see both works on one ticket.

Monday to Thursday this is a morning route, because the basilica closes at 1pm and San Severo at 2pm. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday the Jago Museum opens again in the afternoon, so the route can be split.

1. Jago Museum — Piazzetta Crociferi 4the sculptures, in the church the artist took over as his studio. Guided by young people from the neighbourhood10am-2pm · Fri, Sat and Sun also 3-7pm
2. Maradona mural — Via Miracoli 51not the one in the Quartieri Spagnoli: a different work, in a different neighbourhoodalways
3. Santa Maria dei Vergini — Via Vergini 45a parish church, worth a look in passing if you find it open8:30am-12pm and 5-8pm
4. Palazzo dello Spagnolo — Via Vergini 19the double-ramp staircase. Look at it from the entrance: people live here and the stairs are not open to visitors
5. Palazzo Sanfelice — Via Sanità 2/6the other great staircase of the neighbourhood, same architect. Look from the entrance and no further: people live inside, and visitors who have gone into the courtyard to take photos have been told to leavethe entrance is open 9am-12:30pm and 4-7:30pm · closed Saturday and Sunday
6. Totò and Peppino mural — Via Sanità 36always
7. "LUCE" by Tono Cruz — Via Sanità 11/12eighteen metres of façade, and the faces are children from the neighbourhoodalways
8. Basilica di Santa Maria della Sanità — Piazza Sanità 33a baroque basilica with a double staircase in front of the altar, and the Catacombs of San Gaudioso are entered from here. On the façade is "RESIS-TI-AMO" by Francisco Bosoletti, the first Italian mural painted on a church. It can be found closed even within its opening hours: the mural is visible from the square anyway, and the catacombs can still be visitedcloses at 1pm, when it is open
9. Catacombs of San Gaudioso — Via Sanità 123the entrance is beside the basilica9:30am-5pm · closed on Wednesday
10. Sanità lift — Via Sanitàfree, it takes you from the neighbourhood up to the bridge and saves you the climb. The outside is covered in street artits hours are not published: use it if it is running
11. Catacombs of San Gennaro — Via Capodimonte 13reached from the top of the lift. Guided by young people from the neighbourhood, and the spaces are wide, not cramped9:30am-5pm · closed on Wednesday · one ticket covers San Gaudioso too
12. San Severo fuori le Mura — Piazzetta San Severo a Capodimonte 81a basilica, and inside is the Veiled Son10am-2pm, every day

Instead of the climb: Cimitero delle Fontanelle, Via Fontanelle 80 — closed on Wednesday.

Two things before you set off. On Wednesday everything underground in this neighbourhood is closed — San Gennaro, San Gaudioso, the Fontanelle — but the murals and the lift are still there, and they are free. And the murals have no signs in the street at all: open the link for each one, do not go looking by guesswork.