Tourism

Live Naples on two wheels and discover itineraries to travel on bike or on foot, for living an exciting cultural experience!

Here the paths chosen by us that we recommend.

The most famous castles of the city

In this path we list only some of the castles that once represented the defensive system of the city of Naples.

Castel dell’Ovo is situated on the isle of Megaride, its name comes from an old legend involving the Roman poet Virgil.

Castel Nuovo, better known as Maschio Angioino, built by Charles I of Anjou, moved the capital of the kingdom from Palermo to Naples.

Castel Capuano, erected by the Norman King William I, so named because it is located near Porta Capuana (this gate started the road to Capua), at the end of the decumanus.

Carmine Castle or Spur, located in the southern corner of the city walls as a defensive bulwark. Today little remains of the castle as it was demolished in 1906 to rectify the last stretch of the Corso Garibaldi.

The “ways of pleasure”

Commonly known as brothels, these are houses where prostitution was being practiced.

In Naples, the “pleasure” lived in via Chiaia and in the Spanish Quarter, where there were “La Suprema,” frequently used wealthy clients (politicians, intellectuals), in Matilde Serao square, in a house where the journalists were fixed stop, in Montesanto where customers more poor went into the “home of the three vecchiarelle”, a home in which very mature ladies were offering sexual services for little money.

Tasting “a volo a volo ” (speedtasting of food)

Whether it’s a Neapolitan or a tourist, along these roads anyone can enjoy the typical gastronomic specialties of Neapolitan cuisine.

From a cuppetiello to a babà, by a glass of Aglianico to one of limoncello, you will have the opportunity to fill your palate even without sitting at the table of a restaurant in this city with a thousand flavors.

Discovering the dish loved by the royals

This famous Italian dish known worldwide has a widespread of different beliefs.

Among the most prevalent is the one that involves the chef Raffaele Esposito of the Brandi pizzeria, which in 1889 is said to have created the pizza Margherita to honor the Queen of Italy, Margherita of Savoy. The name of the pizza would derive from the colors of its ingredients (tomato, mozzarella and basil ) which are equal to those of the Italian flag. But according to recent studies this story would be a ” false history “. It appears that the Margherita was served in Naples long before 1889 and that its name derives from the homonymous flower.

A path to admire the art stations

The purpose of the art’s stations is to create a beautiful and functional space blending the use of public transport with an exhibition of contemporary art.

Stations distributed along the line 1 accommodate many works of art by many numerous international authors and by some young local architects. February 4, 2014, the CNN has elected Station Toledo as the most beautiful in Europe.

FontaNapoli

The monumental fountains in Naples were made more or less over a period of time ranging from the medieval period to the first half of the twentieth century, except for the Fontana del Carciofo (1956).

The Fontana del Gigante (seventeenth century) was commissioned by the Duke of Alba, Don Antonio Alvarez of Toledo and created by Bernini and Michelangelo Naccherino. Today it is located on the Naples waterfront.

The Fontana del Carciofo, one of the most modern in the city, at the center of Piazza Trieste e Trento, was commissioned in the fifties of the twentieth century by the mayor Achille Lauro. It is called this because of the artichoke in the center, in fact it is a floral arrangement made of three layers of leaves on each other reminiscent of the common vegetable.

The Fontana della Spinacorona (called “delle zizze”) is set in the ancient center, adjoining the church of Santa Caterina della Spina Corona. Its origins are uncertain; his presence is attested for the first time in a document of 1498 on the distribution of water in the city. It was restored and modified by the viceroy Don Pedro Alvarez de Toledo y Zúñiga designed by Giovanni da Nola in the first half of the sixteenth century. The sculpture is a testimony of the transition from the medieval to the first forms tastes and baroque decorations. The main subject is the siren (mythical icon of Naples) who is about to put out the flames of the volcano Vesuvius (no longer intact) with the water that flows from the breasts (everything is explained in a marble slab with the incision Dum Vesevi Syrena Incendia Mulcet): the representation means that the beauty of Naples to Vesuvius of preventing submerge in his flames.

The Fontana del Formiello (XVI century) was built by Don Pedro Téllez-Girón, Duke of Osuna. Its appearance shows an elegant masonry structure, consisting of various materials: for example, the bath is in travertine, while the four columns which compose it are marble of Carrara; it draws inspiration from architecture is divided into two tiers. At the bottom where there is a bathtub, there are three masks with the faces of a lion from which water flows; while, above these, small sculptures in low relief and three large crests.

Relax in history

Naples is full of historic parks and gardens; these are just some of the green space accessible by Bike Sharing, where you can spend time during a break or simply to relax a bit to be in contact with nature.

The Cloister of Saints Marcellino and Festo, and those of Santa Chiara are the best known monumental cloisters located in the historic center of Naples.

In the old viceregal garden of the Royal Palace it was turned into a park with statues, avenues and “secret gardens”. The botanist Federico Corrado Denhart between 1842 and 1843 planted the Giardini Reali different types of plants including magnolias, oaks and rare plants. The garden took on a new aspect that could be called romantic, “English” and became an object of curiosity to many travelers found in Naples in the nineteenth century.

The gardens of Molosiglio were designed and built in the twenties, as a result of new urban plans for the coast of Naples in an area previously occupied by the great arsenal of Naples.

The main entrance of the Villa Comunale is located in Piazza Vittoria, but also has openings for side access. Its construction dates back to 1780, at the behest of King Ferdinand IV of Bourbon, who, inspired by the “Tuilieres” Parisian, wanted for himself and the Neapolitan nobility a promenade, to meet and relax. Inside the villa are various buildings, of which the main ones are the Press Club and the Zoological Station Anton Dohrn, which houses the oldest Aquarium in Europe.

Sweet&Coffee

Drink coffee when you wake up, after lunch, after a nap, after dinner … almost always, in Naples every time is right for a coffee.

In these ancient streets you can find cafès and pastry shops where you can taste a good coffee and a Neapolitan typical sweet (for example, a babà!) and make a break an excellent time.

What’s underneath?

The archaeological site of San Lorenzo Maggiore, where are the ruins of the ancient Forum of Neapolis, is the most important archaeological site present in the historic center of Naples, both topographical and monumental value, both for its inclusion in the complex Angevin of San Lorenzo Maggiore. The reservoir irregular Piazza San Gaetano is what remains of a larger open area corresponding to the civil and religious center of the ancient city: this was in fact always been recognized as the Forum of the Roman period, coinciding in turn with the agorà of the Greek city.

Inside the Church of the Purgatorio ad Arco, from a straight left leads Hypogeum. And immediate feeling mystical and religious that pervades the mood of the visitor, with images and funerary symbols, skulls and bones that accompany it along the entire route.

The heart of the process of exploitation of the underground passing through the paths rediscovered Naples Underground. The subsoil of Naples was born with the city and with it grew: the first artifacts of underground excavations date back to about 5,000 years ago, near the end of the prehistoric era; then the Greeks withdrew large amounts of tuff for the construction of walls and temples and dug many environments to create a series of underground burial.

The Bourbon Tunnel is an underground cavity of Naples that stretches below the hill of Pizzofalcone, near the Royal Palace, in the San Ferdinando. Ferdinand II commissioned the architect Errico Alvino a long underground tunnel linking the Largo della Reggia (today Piazza Plebiscito) in Piazza Vittoria, passing below the hill of Pizzofalcone.

Art doesn’t have religion

Whether you have faith or not it doesn’t matter.

In these churches you can find something beyond the religiosity of the monument for those who appreciate art.

The real papal basilica of St. Francis of Paola is a minor basilica in Naples, located in Piazza del Plebiscito, in the historic center is considered one of the finest examples of neoclassical architecture in Italy. Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, as a vote against St. Francis of Paola, who had interceded for him to return to the throne of the Kingdom, decided to build a church in the middle of the porch during an urban renewal of the city.

The church of Jesus or the Trinity New Maggiore is a monumental church of Naples, located in Piazza del Gesù Nuovo. It is one of the most important basilica churches of the city to which you have worked the most influential artists of the Neapolitan school; inside it is also guarded the body of St. Giuseppe Moscati.

The Basilica of Santa Chiara, or the Monastery of Santa Chiara, is a church in Naples, the most important city from a historical point of view and artistic. Built between 1310 and 1330 on a Roman bath complex of the first century AD, at the behest of Robert of Anjou and Queen Sancha of Aragon, near the walls of the then Western (now Piazza del Gesù Nuovo). It is the largest Gothic basilica; the monastery is the eponymous museum Opera.

The church of San Domenico Maggiore is a monumental church of Naples, located in the homonymous square. Commissioned by Charles II of Anjou and built originally in the Gothic style, between 1283 and 1324, it became the headquarters of the Dominican church in the kingdom of Naples and the Aragonese nobility; it was under a historical, artistic and cultural cooperation between the most important cities. In February 1921, Pope Benedict XV has elevated it to the status of minor basilica.

The church of Santa Maria of the Souls of Purgatory in Arco or simply Purgatorio ad Arco is a Baroque church located on Via dei Tribunali, in the center of Naples. The church was built in 1616 on a project by Giovanni Cola di Franco and Giovan Giacomo di Conforto commissioned by several noble families of Naples and with the aim of creating a place of burial.

The Basilica of San Lorenzo Maggiore is a monumental church of Naples, among the oldest in the city. The church is located in the historical center, near Piazza San Gaetano, the area where once stood in classical times the Greek agorà and the Roman forum, whose archaeological excavations are visible from the adjacent convent, which is the museum of the work of San Lorenzo.

The church of Girolamini (or Gerolomini) is a monumental church of Naples with an architectural layout of a basilica dedicated to the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints. Its decoration in gold, marble and mother-of-pearl earned it the title of Domus Aurea; the inside has a concentration of high quality works of artists is Neapolitan extraction Tuscan, Emilian and Roman. The convent of Girolamini looks like one of the most important monuments of the city, both in terms of artistic and historical-cultural.

The Metropolitan Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta is a monumental basilica and cathedral and the seat of the Archdiocese of Naples. It is one of the largest and most important churches in the city, both from an artistic point of view, it is in fact the overlapping of several styles ranging from pure Gothic fourteenth century to the nineteenth-century neo-Gothic, that from a cultural, hosting it three times a year the rite of the dissolution of the blood of San Gennaro.

The church of San Giovanni a Carbonara is a monumental church of Naples, located in the street of the old town. Although XIV century, it is one of the churches from the Renaissance decorative taste of the most interesting cities.

The Certosa di San Martino is one of the major monuments of Naples; It is by far one of the most successful examples of Baroque architecture and art with the Royal chapel of the treasure of San Gennaro. It is located on the hill of Vomero, next to Castel Sant ‘Elmo. In December 2010, the Ministry of Culture said the hill on which the monastery is a  “national monument”.