First day in Naples: from the Cathedral to the Church of Santa Chiara
You can start from the ancient city of Naples, precisely from the Cathedral, grand and imposing, built at the end of the 1200s by Charles of Anjou. In the chapel of San Gennaro, the most visited, the saint is depicted by a silver bust-reliquary. In a tabernacle is kept the ampoule with the blood which, twice a year, on the first Sunday of May and September 19th (patronal feast), is shown to the crowd of faithful waiting for the miracle of liquefaction.
A ritual that has been repeated for over six hundred years. In this area, between the Anticaglia and Via dei Tribunali, underground stretches also the Naples Underground (1st century BC), which, among different accesses, has the cloister of the church of San Lorenzo Maggiore and the left side of San Paolo Maggiore. At dozens of meters deep you discover aqueducts, workshops, ovens, markets, treasuries, catacombs entirely dug into the tuff. Rooms used as air raid shelters even during the Second World War.
Back on the surface, it is worth taking a look at the myriad of religious buildings dotting the area: the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, whose origins date back to the 6th century, with the Romanesque bell tower; the Renaissance Cappella Pontano; San Paolo Maggiore built on the ruins of a pagan temple; medieval layout San Lorenzo Maggiore and the church of the Girolamini with the beautiful convent complex.
Spaccanapoli
We are now at Spaccanapoli, a very popular district, corresponding to the ancient lower decumanus of the Greco-Roman city. Besides the famous San Gregorio Armeno, the street of nativity scene artisans, treasures not to be missed are the eighteenth-century Cappella Sansevero, with the marble statue of The Veiled Christ, masterpiece of the sculptor Giuseppe Sanmartino; the church of San Domenico Maggiore, built between the 13th and 14th centuries, with the beautiful square and the devotional spire erected after the plague of 1656. And the delightful piazzetta Nilo with the fifteenth-century church of Sant’Angelo.
Heading south, you reach another place very dear to the Neapolitans: the church of Santa Chiara built in 1310 by the Angevin rulers to house their remains. For a long time its austere Gothic lines were covered by a Baroque veneer, but when, in 1943, a fire almost completely destroyed it, the original construction was brought back to light. Splendid is the eighteenth-century Cloister of the Clarisse, with pillars and benches covered with painted majolica.
Second day in Naples: from Piazza Plebiscito to Capodimonte
Heading south, towards Piazza del Plebiscito, one plunges into the new Naples, made of large spaces and imposing but sunny architectures. An example are the semicircular colonnade of San Francesco di Paola that decorates the square and the Royal Palace, symbol of Naples that, in 1734, became the capital of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
San Carlo Theater and Umberto I Gallery
To see, the staircase and the court theater. A stone’s throw away is the San Carlo Theater, inaugurated on November 4, 1737, the oldest opera house in the world. Opposite opens the Umberto I Gallery, the most elegant and glamorous city lounge, in whose underground theater, the Margherita hall, variety shows and stories of the Neapolitan Belle Epoque triumphed at the beginning of the 1900s.
The walk downtown ends in Municipality Square in front of the silhouette of the Maschio Angioino (New Castle), with the grandiose Aragonese Arch (1443). Not to be missed absolutely, a trip on the funicular to the Vomero hill, where Castel Sant’Elmo dozes, a wonderful panoramic point over the city and the gulf, the Baroque Certosa with the cloister and the San Martino Museum, with the precious collection of 18th-century nativity scenes.
And a stroll on the seafront from Santa Lucia to the Porto Sannazzaro, passing in front of Castel dell’Ovo and a visit to the Capodimonte Palace, with the paintings of the Farnese collection and the wonderful park, the largest green area of the city.
