Naples used to get a bad rap: garbage, the Camorra, political corruption, congestion.  But those are a thing of the past.  While Napoli is still a convenient base to get to places like Pompeii, Capri, and the Amalfi Coast, there are many treasures to be explored within its city limits and within its historic center—the biggest one in Europe.

Almost 3,000 years old, Naples gets its name from the Greek word Neápolis, meaning “new city,” which it was while it was a Greek colony.  Because it has been through so many regimes, you will find countless traces of ancient architecture—Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, not to mention Greek and Roman.

Napoli at sunset (photo via wikimedia)

Many of Napoli’s monumental highlights can be found around Piazza del Plebiscito. The domed church San Francesco di Paola and the Royal Palace lay on its perimeter while Teatro di San Carlo, the oldest and largest opera house in Italy, and the Galleria Umberto shopping center are right around the corner.  Across town, Spaccanapoli, also known as Via San Biagio, is home to shops, some of the city’s 448 historical churches, including Santa Chiara and Gesù Nuovo, and is the heart of Napoli’s historic center.  The imposing Castel Nuovo, sometimes called Maschio Angioino, houses the Civic Museum while in the Bay of Naples, Castel dell’Ovo, or Egg Castle, sits on an island for all to see.  Though it is said to be the place where Napoli was first established, the island is now home to great nightlife with bars, restaurants, and exhibitions and concert venues.  Then there’s the University of Naples, considered to be the oldest state university in the world, which boasts one of the best botanical gardens in the country.  And it’s easy to see these sights around the city because of Napoli’s great public transportation system, which moves the nearly one million residents around on metros, buses, trams, trolleys, and funiculare, inclined railways that offer spectacular views of the sights mentioned above.

Let’s get serious, though.  The main reason people come to Naples is because of the food.  Sure, people want to taste the area’s sweet zeppole, sfogliatelle, and gelato; the local wine and limoncello throughout the Campania region; pasta dishes like eggplant parmesan; and the fried street food like arancini and crochette.  But the main Neapolitan culinary event has to be…pizza.

That’s right—the food we’ve all come to know and love throughout the world originated in this Italian coastal town as a dish of the poor.  That is, until royalty got a slice.  In fact, the Italian pizza margherita (tomato sauce with slices of fresh mozzarella cheese and a few basil leaves) was named after Queen Margherita upon her visit to Napoli.  There are rules when it comes to pizza in Naples—ingredients can only include specific types of flour, natural water, peeled tomatoes or fresh cherry tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, and marine salt.  Traditionally, pies are cooked in a wood-burning oven, and you’ll be able to find many places still serving up dishes the same way.  While your eyes may be bigger than your stomach, don’t get too greedy when portioning out your slice—pizza around Italy is usually priced by the pound!

So go ahead, lounge in a piazza, eat a slice of pizza, enjoy the Mediterranean climate year round, and make sure to listen out for Napoletano-Calabrese, the dialect spoken in the region.

What’s your favorite thing to do in Napoli?

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 20th, 2010 at 1:53 pm and is filed under Campania, Italian History, Italy Travel Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.