Suits with a side of pizza and espresso: How to spend a weekend in Naples, Italy

Experiences

Suits with a side of pizza and espresso: How to spend a weekend in Naples, Italy

A metropolis of glorious but tattered beauty, known for its vibrancy and, yes, a frisson of menace, Naples is now humming with visitors.

In this Mediterranean majuscule watched over by the yet-kick Vesuvius volcano, tourist numbers have more doubled since 2010, offense has dropped (notably, the murder rate is down 44 per cent in 2022 over the previous twelvemonth, according to the Ministry building of the Interior), and the intransigent piles of trash are far fewer.

Elena Ferrante's beloved Neapolitan Novels (and the ongoing HBO adaptation of them) – forth with the gritty Gomorrah books, flick and TV serial – has roused curiosity about a destination long considered little more than than a steppingstone to Capri, Ischia and Amalfi. And while the Museo Archeologico, with its boggling collection of antiquities, remains a bit neglected, most of the urban center'southward art, culture and social scene are on an optimistic bender, and the charms of Naples – the Bizarre excess, the indulgent cuisine, the mesmerising fugue state of it all – beckon equally they did in the metropolis's Grand Bout glory days.

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Fri

3pm Dream dwelling

Naples is a metropolis of masquerades, of staged operas and tromp l'oeil pomp. Acquaint yourself with the pageantry at the Villa Pignatelli, a firm museum built equally a private mansion in 1826, which harks back to the end of Naples' heyday during the Bourbon reign here, when the urban center was 1 of Europe'south nearly dazzling capitals. It's not quite the Reggia di Caserta (the one,000-plus room palace is 29 km outside Naples, built on the model of Versailles), but this neo-Classical jewel is a sumptuous introduction to the florid tastes of the city's gold age, with its gilded chandeliers, frescoed Pompeii-style bath, intricate boiserie panels and spectacular English garden, all putting on the airs of earlier illustrious eras. Admission: Five euros (Southward$7.60).

5pm Chic boutiques

The Chiaia neighbourhood offers a slew of Italian luxury brands, but also some distinctively local shops, like Livio De Simone, a material printer since the 1950s. The house's nearby atelier silk-screens a line of dresses, bags and textiles whose bright, geometric patterns carry over to the store'south ceramics fabricated in nearby Vietri. In this city renowned for sartorial menswear, custom-fitted suits and shirts may require time, but Naples' artisan necktie makers offering quicker gratification, as at Ulturale, where handmade, tailored neckwear is available in a rainbow of classic versions with good luck charms sewn within. For an fifty-fifty more than colourful adventure, stop into Dr Vintage, where the owner, Rosario Recano, regales visitors with tips for his metropolis while showing off his pristine secondhand designer collection. And jewellery lovers can tuck over to Leonardo Gaito on Via Toledo, a family-run shop that'southward been around since 1864, where new works from local artisans complement antique creations.

7pm Aperitivo upward loftier

Riot Laundry Bar is a magnet for the reawakened music scene in Naples. (Photo: NYT/Susan Wright)

On Via dei Tribunali, the main street known as Spaccanapoli ("Naples splitter"), take the funicular to the upscale neighbourhood of Vomero, a long sleepy enclave that's home to a handful of spirited destinations. Start with Riot Laundry Bar, a concept store run by a young squad, and a magnet for the reawakened music scene in Naples. Across the street clothing and ecological jeans on offering, there's an energetic ground-floor bar (beer, five euros) and Futuribile, a basement record store with Italo disco, boogie and 1980s-era albums recorded in Naples. Opening at 8pm up the block, Archivio Storico is improving the art of drinking in Naples with cocktails (around x euros) based on antique Neapolitan recipes equally well as classic American styles, served in an undercover network of intimate grotto rooms.

9pm Family dinner

Just behind the waterfront promenade, Casa di Ninetta serves what the owner, Carmelo Sastri, calls "my mother's and my grandmother'south abode-cooking" in this decade-old performance run with his sister, the well-known Italian singer and player Lina Sastri. Under an ornate, late-19th-century ceiling, with classical music in the background, the eating house prepares magnificent renditions of Neapolitan traditions, like bocconcini di baccala (fried codfish balls; 10 euros), and the dumbo onion ragu of pasta Genovese (11 euros). Cleanse your palate with a basil amaro from nearby Capri (six euros), and stroll along the seaside to appreciate the aboriginal block of Castel dell'Ovo illuminated on the water.

Saturday

9am Breakfast bliss

Perhaps the least salubrious but happiest way to start a day in Naples is with a sfogliatella, a pastry pocket of fresh ricotta with candied fruit and frolla (smooth) or riccia (ridged) beat, all made crumbly with lard. (Notation to vegetarians and vegans in Naples: Expect lard where you would least wait it.) Scaturchio, making the same flawless recipes since 1905 in this Piazza San Domenico Maggiore location, serves an extraordinary sfogliatella riccia (1.seventy euros) with a gossamer crust and a delicate orange-flecked cream.

10am Contemporary city

Naples was a magnet for new art in the 1970s; later a long lull, the urban center's art scene is buzzing again, epitomised by terminal year's opening of an exhibition space by the London-based Thomas Dane gallery within the 19th-century Villa Ruffo. As well in the Chiaia commune, the Galleria Lia Rumma has presented the works of Anselm Kiefer, Mario Merz, Marina Abramovic, Alfredo Jaar and other groundbreaking artists here since 1971. Another pioneering gallerist of the 1970s, Giuseppe Morra, opened the Casa Morra in 2022 to exhibit his extensive personal collection inside a aging 18th-century palazzo.

1pm Dejeuner special

The family-run Trattoria San Ferdinando offers a cozy respite from Naples' hectic streets. At this institution, whose butter-yellow walls are hung with copper pots and antique musical scores, the menu changes daily "according to nature," as the owners similar to say. The excellent fish-focused offerings may include dishes (effectually 12 euros each) similar bass carpaccio marinated with oranges and lemons, or zigoli pasta with zucchini flowers, mussels and a lite basil pesto. Desserts, like the velvety ricotta cake with orange marmalade, are as enchanting.

2:30pm Hushed havens

The 14th-century Santa Chiara cloister surrounds a garden ornamented with majolica-tiled columns and benches. (Photo: NYT/Susan Wright)

Naples' religious sites are marvels of artistry. Steps from the Duomo, the often-overlooked Donnaregina convent circuitous encompasses the soaring naves of ii churches — a 14th-century, intricately frescoed Gothic church, and an extravagantly gilt Bizarre church building in multicoloured marble – besides as the Museo Diocesano, housing ecclesiastical artworks, mostly from the Naples school of painters, which includes the 17th-century painters Luca Giordano and Andrea Vaccaro. A few steps away, the 14th-century Santa Chiara curtilage encircles a citrus garden ornamented with majolica-tiled columns and benches. Manus-painted past the ceramists Donato and Giuseppe Massa in the mid-1700s, the tiles, festooned with flowers, vegetables and storytelling scenes, were the exclusive please of the nuns who lived at that place in seclusion for nearly 200 years, until monks took their place and opened the grounds to the public in 1925.

5:30pm Cafe civilization

Information technology'southward a tenacious fight for the top coffee spot in Naples – the city is often said to serve the best espresso in Italy – where the local method produces a dense syrup of an espresso shot, often with a hefty dose of sugar already mixed in unless otherwise specified, and served alongside sparkling water to cleanse your palate beforehand. For an espresso in what is surely the most exquisite cafe in boondocks, grab a red velvet cane chair in the golden-edged rococo surroundings of Gambrinus (four euros for a table-service espresso; i.20 at the counter).

7pm Street life

For all its foretime splendour, Naples is a coincidental urban center, dominated by street food and cheap bars. For an authentic taste of it all, head to Via Tribunali, the principal thoroughfare for pizza, peppery Neapolitan taralli, and deep-fried everything. At the friggitoria (fried food stand) of Di Matteo, the cuoppo, or newspaper cone, of deep-fried items similar potato fritters, polenta and eggplant is an unmissable Naples delicacy. Down the road, bask a pre-dinner drink at Perditempo, a scruffy, dear local bar and an unpretentious literary buffet hosting occasional book readings, simply more often diggings reggae music into the crowd gathered streetside.

9pm Downtown dinner

In a convivial dining room embellished with its original 1941 frescoes of Naples and portraits of bygone Italian celebrity regulars, Mimi alla Ferrovia serves dishes that have themselves barely changed over time, with an every bit immutable and formally dressed staff. A dynasty of four family generations of owners and 3 in the kitchen put continuity at the eye of this eating place in the primal (and sketchy) train station neighbourhood. Serving generally locally defenseless Mediterranean fish, the chef, Salvatore Giugliano (grandson of the restaurant'due south first chef), has tweaked the traditional recipes, excelling with bass ravioli with butter, broth, shrimp and squid (12 euros), and a ricotta of the region's special buffalo milk topped with his housemade Vesuvian tomato jam (two euros).

SUNDAY

10am The Naples undercover

To truly appreciate Naples, former and new, head into its subterranean belly. Since 1995, metro stations have been embellished with more than 200 public artworks; next year will see a new Duomo station by the architect Massimiliano Fuksas that pays homage to the Roman temple discovered amid the excavations. And at 130 feet (40m) below, wonders of the ancient world are revealed, as the Napoli Sotterranea organisation'due south bout (10 euros) takes you into a maze of caves that stretches over 280 miles (450km), carved into the volcanic tuff boulder by the Greeks in the quaternary century BCE. The xc-minute bout guides visitors past a Greek-Roman theatre where Nero in one case performed, and through the primitive hollows where Neapolitans took shelter during World State of war II air raids.

12pm Elevated art

Exhibits at Museo Capodimonte. (Photo: NYT/Susan Wright)

A new shuttle service running from Piazza Trieste eastward Trento to the Museo Capodimonte (16 euros round trip, including museum archway) makes this under-visited treasure trove more accessible. The gargantuan castle, begun in 1738, was constructed as a hunting club for the Bourbon king Charles Iii. Perched on a hilltop with views beyond the city to Capri and Ischia, Capodimonte is surrounded by the 300 acres of woods and parkland that originally served as purple hunting grounds. Inside, the staggering collection of fine art includes masterpieces by Titian, El Greco, Caravaggio and Raphael.

2pm Pizza party

At Concettina ai Tre Santi, pizza with tomatoes, capers, olives and anchovies. (Photograph: NYT/Susan Wright)

No one comes to Naples to get skinny, and the pizza, invented here in the 19th century, is still probably better than anywhere else. At Concettina ai Tre Santi, the chef Ciro Oliva may be the most talented pizzaiolo in town, the quaternary generation of a family unit dynasty running this folksy dining spot in the working-form Sanita neighbourhood. For the very hungry, the chef proposes the hedonistic 12-form pizza-tasting carte du jour (45 euros, call ahead), alongside unmarried pies (eight euros) all made with local ingredients, and a well-researched vino listing that includes a decadent Pertois-Moriset Champagne. Menu highlights include the Parthenope, a fried pizza stuffed with buffalo ricotta, smoked ricciola, seaweed, orange zest and ground pepper. No reservations, but it's worth the expect.

LODGING

The new wave of tourism has produced an elegant ingather of small modernistic hotels, like the eight-room Artemisia Domus (from 119 euros a night), which opened inside a former fourth-flooring residence in 2018, rebuilt with woods beams, the remains of a fresco, and a few other original details intact. Some stairs are involved, only the hotel rewards you with spacious rooms, some with a sauna or Jacuzzi.

Located in Naples' pretty, seaside Posillipo neighbourhood, Primo Piano Posillipo (from 105 euros a night) – conceived by architect Giuliano Andrea dell'Uva, and opened in February – is a colorful vision of gimmicky style, showcased in its four airy rooms, including i with a stunning Mediterranean view.

For traditional grandeur, the 137-year-sometime, nine-story Grand Hotel Vesuvio (rooms with seaview balconies, from 290 euros), on Naples' pedestrian waterfront, overlooks the Castel dell'Ovo and the Bay of Naples. Its upholstered walls, Murano chandeliers and liveried staff propose the one-time-school sophistication of another age.

Suits with a side of pizza and espresso: How to spend a weekend in Naples, Italy

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