Castel Nuovo was one giant construction site when we were here…read more Of course, it's been under construction for nearly nine hundred years. From Charles I House of Anjou, to the Kingdom of the two Sicily's (1266), to the Kingdom of Naples. It was also used by Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, who lived there for a short time in 1535. But no Italian history would've complete, without the involvement of de' Medici family of Florence. Seemed Alfonso V of Aragon (1443), had established a royal court here after conquered the throne of Naples and as with most little boys, he needed his to be, er um...grander. He intended for the Castel Nuovo to compete with the one in Florence by Lorenzo de' Medici. Ultimately he ended up completely rebuilding the entire fortress. A famous architect friend once observed to me, that it's important to be able to distinguish between "good" and "better." LOL The castle is very imposing. It has five huge turret like towers, that can be seen throughout Naples. Our driver couldn't figure out how to drop us off because of all traffic on Via Nuova Marina, so we settled for the nearby Galleria Umberto mall (see review) instead. LOL. See photos.

The Nuovo castle looks better from the outside and going inside, other than the second floor open…read moreview facing the harbor. The museum exhibits are lack of maintenance and all presenting in almost darkness. It's still worth the €6 entrance fee to explore.

Big square used for events to hold a lot of people. The architecture is simply lovely and detailed…read more I only walked outside of it. It sits on a large square for events if needed

Naple's most iconic square is framed by Prefettura di Napoli a government office on the north, on…read morethe south by Palazzo Salerno (Sede del Comando Territoriale Sud - currently military offices), by the royal palace on the east, and Basilica of San Francesco di Paola to the west. The last two are open for visitors and pretty quiet on an April evening. The port area and waterfront public park Giardini del Molosiglio are nearby within walking distance to the southeast. As magnificent and grand as these surrounding buildings and others nearby are, this piazza also very much a piece of the local cloth. Where school groups and tourists frequent during the day, is open space in the evening for kids riding bikes and playing soccer, for families taking walks with strollers and dogs. While I was there it was fun to see a group of students singing along to a couple musicians on a guitar and mic, a few kids flying kites, the sun setting to the west casting a warm glow onto the structures in the square. Fun facts: - named after a plebiscite (aka referendum or survey) which united Naples with the rest of Italy. - Joachim Murat, bro-in-law of Napoleon had planned to dedicate the square to the emperor though when the Bourbon rulers were restored to the throne plans changed. Hence today the two statues in from of the church are Bourbon kings Charles III and his son Ferdinand I. They also instructed the completion of the neoclassical basilica along this square. - there's a local game/tradition of attempting to cross the square blindfolded starting from the center of the main entrance of the royal palace with the goal of walking directly in the middle of the two statues. Legend is that it's an impossible feat, due to the irregular shape of the square, uneven cobblestones and slight slope. - the square became a parking lot in 1963 to deal with the overflow of cars in the city, then reconfigured back to pedestrian only in 1994.

Quite different from San Gennaro, these catacombs have a claustrophobic space. We entered to the…read moreright side of the original catacomb entrance. It's inside the church. The church was built around and over the catacombs to protect it. Another history lesson you'll have to hear about on this tour. You'll find the church's interior really beautiful and grand with gates that guard the original entrance. Put away or secure all your loose belongings like cellphones, cameras, sunglasses or hats cuz you're gonna need to hold on to the sides making your narrow way downstairs to the underground. You can take pictures once you're safely flat on two feet. Oh and hopefully you ladies are wearing flats or tennies cuz it is not the kind of platform to walk pretty. The stone paths further in are just right for one person, cozy for two. Making your way through, there are more turns. There's an area we stopped to learn about how the rich back in those times, were the only ones who can afford the service where their loved ones whom have passed away were "treated" in the section that drains body fluids into a container placed beneath the corpse. When the flesh deteriorated the skeleton's skull would often fall. And so the skull would be placed on a stone shelf just above their bones; lined up across. (A scene you may find familiar in many Latin cultures especially during Dia de Muertos.) It wasn't a sanitary practice, but we're talking history, and change came with time. Giovanni Balducci was a Tuscan artist who was hired to be the only one that painted skeletons at San Gaudisio catacombs. These are the only catacombs known to have placed the skulls of the dead in the concrete (see photos)... again, for the rich who were able to afford the service. Along the shorter gallery (in comparison to San Gennaro's larger expanse), the painted skeleton of the men are on left; women are on the right painted with skirts. P.S. your entrance ticket to San Gennaro gets you into these catacombs for free - two for one.

Tour would have been great if they had staggered the English speaking and Italian speaking tours…read more They started at the same time so all you could hear was the loud Italian speaker screaming behind us. Would not recommend. Two stars is being generous.

Look to spend at least four hours walking through and reading up on some of the most eye catching…read moredisplays. If your smartphone has the space and your cell network has the reception, I suggest downloading their museum app guide. On the business side, it's a great idea that they offer this instead of providing headsets and hand carry narratives. So, good luck if you're a foreigner with an outside network ;) The exhibits during my visits were awesome. I enjoyed the sculptures and contemporary art most. There are thousands of paintings and they were beautiful as well. I found the stitch work the most impressive. They look like rugs... These are ginormous and span an entire wall with high ceilings. Each of them tell a story. But the details are what captured me most. Strong reccomendation anyway, to take time for any museum and learn something you never knew. Plus in this museum, you gotta check out the outside view from the second level!

This is worth the travel to get to it. Allow a full day and why not take a picnic for the gardens?…read moreNaples is quite unique in that it hasn't actually been part of Italy that long (historically speaking) and has been an independent principality a number of times and has been under the 'control' of both Christians and Muslims at different times. The Capodimonte family are one of the great families of Naples and the house and gardens are tributes to their vision. The décor inside the house is exquisite.

Thanks to social media, we found this shop. We put this on the itinerary to try the Sorbetto di…read moreLimone. When we arrived, we discovered that they sold all things inspired by lemon from lemon-flavored oils to lemon-infused pasta and many lemon-centered items in between. The overall ambiance was fresh, bright and surprisingly quite interesting. When we arrived, one of the staff members offered samples of Limoncello in two flavors. Since it was all about the experience, we tried both; however, we were eager to get to the main attraction. We also sampled the lemon-flavored chocolate covered almonds. To be such a small store, it was quite crowded. After finally reaching the counter, we observed a variety of lemon-flavored sorbet and gelato options. I selected the lemon basil and lemon cheesecake. The Amalfi lemon was filled with a scoop of each and served with the lemon top for presentation. The lemon basil was my favorite. It was so lemony and refreshing with basil for a little kick. The cheesecake flavor was underwhelming in my opinion. I would have preferred two scoops of the lemon basil. Once I got to the bottom of the lemon, I observed that they had not fully removed the interior of the lemon. By leaving the pulp in the inside, it took up space for the sorbet, which gave the illusion that you were getting more than was actually inside the lemon shell. Additionally, a lot of the sorbet was trapped at the bottom. At first we thought that there was only one location, but as we navigated throughout Rome, we discovered quite a few locations along with other shops selling the same item. On other visits during our trip, we purchased the lemon granita, Limoncello to take home, a variety of oils and pasta and some of the best lemon-flavored chocolate covered almonds. Overall, it was a great experience.

Woo hoo! Limoncello is made here. We got to meet the (distiller? brewer?) and taste this amazing…read morestuff. A fantastic stop on our food tour and I returned later to purchase a 100ml bottle to bring home, since that's the limit for carry-on. They have other lemon stuff, even pasta! [Review 19210 overall - 361 in Italy - 180 of 2023.]