This planned business district was an abandoned industrial estate when the designs for a new office…read morepark was laid out. Today, it is a group of skyscrapers that are under the shadow of Mount Vesuvius (yes, THAT Mount Vesuvius). The layout is confusing and there aren't many signs pointing the way around. Office buildings of glass and steel with retail shopping at the ground level. A Holiday Inn hotel. Restaurants and pizzerias that cater to the office workers. A branch of the University of Naples. And below it, train station (construction of the Centro Direzionale station of the underground line is due to complete later in 2023) and parking decks for commuters. The Telecom Italia Tower is here, which was the tallest skyscraper in Italy from 1995 to 2010. It is not open to the public. Lots of cracked concrete. Lots of weed-infested landscaping. A number of residentially challenged people asking for money. On the plus side, there is a security patrol in a golf cart. I was mildly concerned for safety when walking in the daytime. I don't believe that I would want to be here at night. [Review 19248 overall - 396 in Italy - 218 of 2023.]

I'm not quite sure what this place is like now, but my experience when I was here was dead. You…read moreknow, sort of spinifex tumbling through the main plaza type of dead. In fact, I swear I even saw some spinifex tumbling through here when I was standing outside the hotel wondering what I was going to do, before returning to the bar and having another drink. Okay, this does happen to be the central business district of Naples, but it just felt like that the one thing that wasn't happening here was the business.