Things to do in Naples: archaeological wonders, cloisters and castles

Sightseeing in Naples spans more than twenty-five centuries of Mediterranean art and engineering. Because the medieval and Baroque city was built directly atop the Greek walls and Roman forums of Neapolis, a single morning walk takes you from subterranean Roman market stalls to Gothic royal tombs, Caravaggio altarpieces, and eighteenth-century royal palaces.

1. Trace the Greek-Roman street grid along Spaccanapoli and Via dei Tribunali

The best introduction to Naples is walking the two primary ancient east-to-west streets of the Spaccanapoli and Centro Storico quarter. Beginning at Piazza del Gesù Nuovo, step inside the Church of Gesù Nuovo, whose diamond-point rusticated stone facade originally belonged to the 1470 Palazzo Sanseverino before Jesuits transformed the interior into a richly marbled Baroque hall. Directly across the square stands the Gothic Basilica of Santa Chiara, begun in 1310 by King Robert of Anjou. Behind the church, the Cloister of the Clarisse was remodelled between 1739 and 1742 by Domenico Antonio Vaccaro with sixty-four octagonal pillars and benches clad in hand-painted Vietri majolica tiles depicting Neapolitan landscapes, rural harvests, and mythological scenes.

2. Examine Pompeii's treasures at the National Archaeological Museum (MANN)

Housed in a red-stuccoed palace begun as cavalry barracks in 1585 and converted into the seat of the University of Naples from 1616 to 1777, the Naples National Archaeological Museum (MANN) holds one of the world's foremost collections of Graeco-Roman antiquity. King Charles VII of Naples (later Charles III of Spain) founded the museum in the 1750s to display both the Farnese marbles inherited from his mother Elisabetta Farnese and the newly excavated finds from Herculaneum and Pompeii. Highlights include the colossal marble Farnese Hercules and Farnese Bull recovered from the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, the Alexander Mosaic from Pompeii's House of the Faun, and intact frescoes from the Villa of the Papyri.

3. See the Veiled Christ and the Treasure of San Gennaro

Five minutes east of Piazza San Domenico Maggiore, the Cappella Sansevero and Duomo di Napoli showcase the technical pinnacle of eighteenth-century Neapolitan sculpture and silversmithing. Inside the Cappella Sansevero, reorganised by polymath nobleman Raimondo di Sangro, seventh Prince of Sansevero, Giuseppe Sanmartino's 1753 Veiled Christ (Cristo Velato) renders a translucent shroud carved from the same single block of marble as the recumbent body beneath it. A short walk northeast along Via Duomo brings you to Naples Cathedral, where the Baroque Royal Chapel of the Treasure of San Gennaro houses frescoes by Domenichino and Giovanni Lanfranco alongside the gilt-silver reliquary bust of the city's patron saint.

4. Climb to Castel Sant'Elmo and the Certosa di San Martino

Ride the Funicolare Centrale or Funicolare di Montesanto up to the hilltop district of Vomero, where two medieval monuments share the tufa spur of San Martino. Built on the site of a tenth-century church dedicated to Saint Erasmus, the star-shaped six-pointed fortress of Castel Sant'Elmo was reconstructed between 1537 and 1547 by military engineer Pedro Luis Escrivá for Spanish Viceroy Pedro de Toledo. Its wide rampart walk commands a 360-degree panorama straight down the canyon of Spaccanapoli to Mount Vesuvius and across the Bay of Naples to Capri. Immediately below the castle gates, the Certosa di San Martino (founded in 1325 and inaugurated in 1368) features a white marble Carthusian cloister designed by Cosimo Fanzago and a museum of historic Neapolitan nativity scenes (presepi), including the famous eighteenth-century Cuciniello Crib.

5. Walk the Royal Waterfront and visit the Vesuvian cities

In the lower city, combine the colonnaded hemicycle of Piazza del Plebiscito and the Royal Palace with an afternoon stroll out to the seaside ramparts of Castel dell'Ovo on the islet of Megaride. Dedicate at least one full day to riding the Circumvesuviana or Campania Express train southeast to explore the Roman streets buried by the AD 79 eruption in the Pompeii, Herculaneum and Vesuvius day trip guide.