Napoli - Naples, Italy - Fav 5 {Travel Guide}

Fav 5 Travel Guides are a short list of the best things I've found to do, see, eat, or drink in a particular location. This guide is for Napoli, or Naples, the city in Italy.

Look no further for more on International Travel or Fav 5 Travel Guides within the US.

---

Napoli or Naples, is a Italian city on the coast of "the boot." The city was the second stop during my first visit to Italy in 2014 and it is the birthplace of pizza. 

Our first stop on that Italian trip was to Roma, or Rome. There my husband and I became friends with Vincenzo, a Napoli native who worked at our hotel. He is so kind and so funny, and we're still Facebook friends today. He hand wrote a guide for us to have the best experience in his hometown. That, my friends, is a perfect example of the connections that travel will bring you. Vincenzo showed us the Neapolitan way and I'm here to share that wealth with you.

Neapolitan pizza is also the inspiration for the very first Figs and Flights {Event}. With this event happening in a week, I decided it's finally time to write about my visit to Napoli.

If you're in Seattle and haven't bought your tickets for next Friday, April 12, now is your time!

I need a ticket

The waterfront castle, Castel Nuovo, in Naples, Italy

My Fav 5, and the things I recommend you try, in Naples, Italy are:

1. Roaming the city on foot
2. Touring nearby Pompeii
3. Exploring the Naples Underground
4. Eating so much pizza
5. Tasting sfogliatella 

A typical busy street in Naples, Italy

1. Roam the city on foot.

​While I love to plan and over-plan for a trip, I always save time for a few hours of wondering around on foot. There's no experience like getting just a little bit lost in a new place, then finding your way "home" again successfully!

​Napoli is a crowded, historic, and fascinating city. The city cannot physically expand so it's been built higher and higher over the years. This creates the most interesting landscape and a very, very dense area.

​Wind through the narrow streets in the heart of Napoli. See how apartment balconies lined with clean, drying laundry are perched just above street-side store fronts. Be careful, though, despite the narrow and pedestrian filled streets, mopeds and cars will still barrel through! Once you get used to the chaos it becomes a comedy of humanity watching the humans walking, scooting, and driving in the crowded city. It's nothing like our wide streets and ginormous vehicles here in the USA. 

Make your own adventure on foot in Napoli. If you need a few stops, here they are:

• Walk through the Piazza del Plebiscito, the main city square
• See the waterfront castle, Castel Nuovo
• Admire the many little doors within the huge doors
• Visit the edge of the water at the Bay of Naples
• Marvel at Mount Vesuvius from afar

The streets of Napoli are waiting for you to explore them, watch out for cars and mopeds

Napoli's Piazza del Plebiscito, the main city square

We just loved the HUGE doors that have a smaller door cut-out for regular use

The edge of the water at the Bay of Naples with Mount Vesuvius in the distance

2. Tour nearby Pompeii.

​Quite the opposite of exploring in town on your own and admiring Mount Vesuvius from afar, next you should book a tour and get as close as you can to the mountain, visiting Pompeii. I recommend taking a guided tour of Pompeii, the nearby town that was destroyed when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. Pompeii was a Roman city before Mount Vesuvius engulfed it in volcanic ash, killing everyone who didn't start running the moment the volcano blew. 

I recommend a guided tour for two reasons:

1. Pompeii is 45 minutes to an hour away from Napoli and you do NOT want to drive there, or anywhere in Italy, believe me. Of the ten countries I've been to, Italy is the very last place I'd ever consider renting a car.
2. Pompeii is a huge and mostly destroyed city. You'll want someone to bring the ruins to life right in front of your eyes, explaining the way of life in the city and telling you its stories. If you think history is not your thing, just know what lies within in Pompeii: the original red light district, the first ever pizza oven, and timeless luxuries like bath houses and private gardens for only the most elite residents. Our tour guide was HILARIOUS and possibly hungover from the night before. While other guides had decorated wands for their tourists to follow our guy rolled up the Pompeii paper map on the spot, held it high, and told us repeatedly to follow the magic stick-a in the most adorable Italian accent. We will NEVER, ever forget him and we mention the magic stick-a at least once a week. 

Our tour included pick up and drop off at our hotel in Napoli, the guided tour of Pompeii, and a much needed lunch after many hours of exploring. Then, we took a quick jaunt to nearby Sorrento. Here's the link to the exact tour we took, I'd highly recommend it!

A visit to Pompeii is a must, but a long journey and a big day. Make sure you're rested, fed, comfortable, and hydrated. There's not much shade in the ruins so bring a hat, sunscreen, and plenty of water. 

The ruins of Pompeii aren't far from Napoli, you have to go see this Roman town preserved in time

Only Pompeii's most elite residents would have such a private and lush garden

The world's first pizza oven, in Pompeii

3. Explore the Naples Underground, aka Napoli Sotterranea.

​Under the crowded city of Napoli is an entire underground world. You absolutely cannot visit Naples without exploring the Napoli Sotteranea. 

You descend down below the city, where it's cool and quiet, to find a huge network of tunnels and giant, open spaces. There you learn the history and many uses of the underground. First, there were Greek-Roman aqueducts that were used to provide water for the city, dating back before Christ. Then Naples became the most bombed city in WWII. You'll see where entire families and neighborhoods LIVED, below ground, during the war. Then, in the most bizarre part of the tour, you'll enter an apartment. A hatch was found there, under the bed, that leads to an underground Roman Theatre complete with stands, a stage, an entire backstage area and even chutes for actors to enter the stage! 

Underneath Naples is everything we've ever needed: water, safety, and entertainment. Book your visit via the Napoli Sotterranea website.

​I am claustrophobic but did just fine on the tour. I did, however, skip the part where you take a candle and squeeze through the skinniest pathways. 

It's significantly cooler underground, bring a sweater or jacket for this tour!

Your portal to the Naples Underground or Napoli Sotterranea

The Greek-Roman aqueducts that live underground Naples

WWII was a busy time for the Naples Underground, entire communities lived underground during the war

The Naples Underground isn't all function, though, there's a theatre! This is the entry for guests to the show

4. Eat so much pizza, as Naples is the birthplace of pizza. 

​Previous to our visit in Napoli, we spent time in Roma where we didn't eat a single slice of pizza. Once we got to Napoli,  I wrote the following email to my Mom which perfectly captured my goal to eat so much pizza:

We're in Naples (Napoli) now and getting ready to go eat pizza, go on an underground tour, and eat pizza again!

We tried Margherita pizza in as many pizzerias as we could. Margherita pizza is the classic variety named for, as we learned in Napoli, Margherita of Savoy - the Queen of Italy! It's made of tomato sauce (red), mozzarella cheese (white), and fresh basil leaves (green), matching the flag of Italy.

Neapolitan pizza is so simple and delicious. It's made in a wood fire oven, the flour is specifically and strategically perfect, the crust and dough are thin, flexible, and delicious. It's nothing like our delivery pizza boasting 16 toppings and stuffed crusts. Neapolitan pizza is truly the original and it is PERFECTION. Some say that it cannot be properly replicated elsewhere because of the remnants of volcanic ash in the water in Napoli, from Mount Vesuvius.

There are Neapolitan certified pizzerias all around the world, named so by the association based in Napoli. Once you'd tried Neapolitan pizza you will never forget it.

​Please join us at one in Seattle next week, kthanksbye.

A true Neapolitan Margherita pizza: red tomato sauce, white mozzarella, and green basil making the Italian flag

A wood fire pizza oven in Napoli, the birth place of pizza

Another day, another pizzeria, another Margherita pizza

5. Taste sfogliatella.

​Sfogliatella is not easy to say but it is, my friends, easy to enjoy. It's a pastry that's carefully made with a bazillion flaky layers on the exterior. When you bite into the surprisingly heavy little pastry you find that the interior is a sweet and citrus-y pocket of heavenly filling. The flaky layers and powdered sugar jump all over your face and fall into your lap. It's one of those foods that you say you'll just eat half of, then you promptly eat the entire thing. 

Think of a crisp croissant wrapped around a (very soft) cheesecake filling. There's usually some orange zest or candied orange inside to add some brightness to the rich dessert. It's perfection and you will find sfogliatella everywhere you go in Napoli. Even our hotel had them for the taking at the front desk.

There are giant and comical figures of the dessert. Don't worry about how to say it's name, you can just point to what you want!

While I didn't post about Napoli overall, I did blog about sfogliatella in my first and older blog, Aloha: Yinz Mangia.  

Sfogliatella, Napoli's gem of a dessert

Don't worry about how to pronounce sfogliatella, you can just point to the figure of it

I hope you enjoyed this mini and virtual tour of Napoli.

If you're heading there in real life this guide will put you on the right track for an amazing visit! Please email me for more questions or ideas for what to do in Italy!

If you want to find Neapolitan pizza in your area search here. For a great bit of TV on pizza, both Neapolitan and American, watch the pizza episode of Ugly Delicious on Netflix. 

---

Similar Posts