3 Reasons to Visit Naples

It was not my favorite destination but I’m still glad I went

During my recent honeymoon, I was lucky to visit a number of incredible places (maybe too many places in fact). Between Dubrovnik, Rome, Venice, and others, I would struggle to choose which one was my favorite.

But I have no hesitation as to which place was my least favorite.

Naples.

I didn’t have many expectations going there as I knew very little about it. But I definitely was not expecting this.

Naples is dirty, messy, and stressful. The narrow streets surrounded by tall buildings make it feel claustrophobic. When you walk around, you have to be aware of your surroundings at all times to make sure you don’t get run over by a scooter.

While the city eventually grew on me, during the first couple of days of our stay, I wondered why anyone might want to visit it.

Looking back on our stay in Naples, I have fond memories and I do believe there are some very good reasons to visit this city.

The food

If nothing else, I would go back to Naples for the food, which was truly incredible.

Naples is the birthplace of pizza and I had never tasted pizza this incredible. We lined up for hours to try some of the city’s best pizza, notably at Gino e Toto Sorbillo and Concettina Ai Tre Santi, and we never regretted it.

Pizza fritti, or fried pizza, is my new favorite food.

I also loved the pastries, which could be found everywhere in small pastry shops where we stopped every day for breakfast.

The art

It seems that Naples makes up for its unappealing streets with incredible art behind almost every door.

Naples is home to some incredible churches and chapels adorned with extremely elaborate ceilings and home to mindblowing statues and paintings, including the Cappella Sansevero, where the Cristo velato (Veiled Christ) is displayed, and the Naples Duomo.

We also visited the Museo Archeologico Nazionale Napoli, where we saw the Farnese Bull, which is the largest sculpture recovered from antiquity.

My husband and I are definitely not art fiends, nor do we know a lot about it. But it was still incredible to witness these works of art.

The location

While we loved exploring Naples itself, it is also a great location from which to explore other incredible things.

From Naples, it is fairly easy to get to both Pompei and the Almafi Coast, which are definitely worth seeing.

We took a train from Naples to Pompei, which took us about half an hour and spent the day exploring the ruins of the city swallowed by the Mount Vesuvius eruption.

We also were able to take a train and a bus from Naples to Almafi. The trip was a little more complicated than we had anticipated, but that was mostly our fault.

Despite the difficult trip there, I could not recommend the Almafi Coast enough. It is truly mindblowing.

We only had four days in Naples so we didn’t have time to do much more but it is also possible to explore Mount Vesuvius and Capri from Naples.

Naples is a city of contradictions.

Worn-down streets live in parallel to some of the most richly adorned churches I have ever seen.

Incredible food can be found in busy, disorganized markets.

It takes some getting used to.

But, ultimately, we ended up falling in love with the city and that was in no small part due to some of the best food we’ve ever had, the privilege of seeing historical artifacts and incredible works of art, and a great location to explore a beautiful region.