The Palazzo Reale di Napoli is a must stop on the tourist circuit in Naples. Located on the waterfront between Castel dell’Ovo and Castel Nuovo, the Royal Palace (Artecard free; otherwise €10) features a self-guided tour through 30 rooms in the royal apartments and, depending on season, hanging gardens on the roof.
After picking up tickets in the office, we were directed to walk through the courtyard to the grand entry stairs leading to the royal apartments. The walking tour is well marked, starting in a theater room and ending in a chapel. We skipped the audio guides, instead reading the signs in each room, which are in both Italian and English.
Our visit lasted a little under an hour. We went slower than usual as we came upon a group of four tourists about a third of the way through the tour. We did not feel like passing them, so we waited and followed them slowly through the rooms. Near halfway another couple passed us, but that was it for other visitors. The palace was nearly empty.
An employee was stationed in about every third room. The employees rarely, if ever, moved from their seat or looked up from their phone. The lack of tourists this time of year probably contributes to their indifference.
The hanging gardens were closed during our weekday visit. We could see the gardens through a few of the windows. Not much to look at this time of the year. The gardens are probably nice on a warm evening in the spring or summer. But not in February with a cold wind blowing off the sea.
The Royal Palace is definitely worth a visit if you are in Naples. On a nice day pay the extra €2 to go to the hanging gardens.
(Upcoming blog post spoiler alert: Reggia di Caserta, the Royal Palace in Caserta, a nearby town, is much nicer. If you only want to visit one palace, go to Caserta.)
Across Piazza del Plebiscito from the Royal Palace is Basilica Reale Pontificia San Francesco de Paola, a large church known for its columns, statues, and dome. The size of the dome is the main attraction. It is free and worth a short visit when open. It is not really a destination site, so don’t worry if you miss it.
Lungomare di Napoli, the seaside promenade, and Villa Comunale di Napoli, the city park, are a short walk west from Piazza del Plebiscito. We strolled along the promenade several times during nice weather. There is even a small beach protected by a breakwater. The promenade and park are popular with tourists and families, so expect to see a lot of strollers, bikes, and confetti.
For reasons we do not know, confetti is sold in bags throughout town. It is quite common to see little kids, walking along, carrying bags of confetti, and just throwing it everywhere. And I mean everywhere. I’m sure the kids love it, and the parents tolerate it, but Naples would look quite a bit cleaner without tiny bits of paper strewn about.
Quartier Spagnoli, the Spanish Quarter, is just north of Piazza del Plebiscito. At some point in Naples you will be in this neighborhood as it is bordered by Via Toledo, a main pedestrian shopping street in town. Quartier Spagnoli is full of narrow streets, markets, restaurants, mopeds, and tributes to Diego Maradona.
Maradona played for S.S.C. Napoli from 1984 to 1991 and remains a local hero. His jerseys and other branded items are sold across town.
Even Stephanie, who had no idea who Maradona is, quickly picked up on the fact that a famous number 10 existed in town. It was around our third day in Naples when she asked about the “dios” (god) guy whose face is seemingly on every corner.
[Editor’s note, for the American readers: Maradona is a very, very famous soccer player.]
After two weeks of walking through town, we finally decided to hop on a bus (route C63) to go to Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, a fine arts museum in the palace of Capodimonte, a rather large hunting lodge for the Bourbon family, former rulers of the Kingdom of Naples.
To get to the museum’s entrance a short walk through a portion of the surrounding park is required. It is nice to walk up to a museum without having to avoid cars on the street or in a parking lot. After picking up tickets (Artecard free; otherwise €15), we headed to the first floor of the museum.
A little bit of everything can be found. Of course there are paintings, lots of them, but also exhibits on armor, weapons, statues, porcelain, vases, fresco drawings, and tapestries. Signs are in Italian and English, and the lighting is good.
Most of the paintings are quite large. I got into the habit of walking straight to the center of many rooms, just turning in a circle to see everything. Occasionally I’d go look at something more closely, but not too often.
Two exhibitions were on display during our visit: Oltre Caravaggio (works by those influenced by Caravaggio) and Salvatore Emblema (contemporary paintings). The paintings in Oltre Caravaggio are exceptional. We only went to the contemporary art exhibition because we were unaware that it was in a dead end section of the building.
In addition to works of art, several of the royal rooms have been restored and are open. Signs indicated that additional rooms are in the process of being restored for visitors. I’m glad the museum is incorporating these rooms.
We left Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte after about two hours, taking a long walk back to the bus stop, detouring to a viewpoint over the city. On a clear day you would have a great view of Naples and the islands in the bay. Even on an overcast and hazy day it is a good view.
Gallerie d’Italia – Napoli is the other significant fine arts museum in Naples. It is free on the first Sunday of each month, which sounded good to us. We arrived at the museum about 3:30 PM, figuring the crowds would have cleared out by then. Wrong. There was easily over 100 people waiting in line to enter. No, thanks. We’d rather pay €4 each (Artecard discount from full price of €7) to visit during the week, so we left.
Several days later we walked right into the museum mid-morning. No lines, no crowds, no waiting. There were maybe another 10 to 15 visitors present. The first floor is quite dark, housing an exhibition of large paintings by Artemisia Gentileschi. Her paintings, from the 1600s, are dominated by religious themes. Really great paintings, but not our preference.
Next up is a collection titled From Caravaggio to Gemito. We particularly enjoyed this collection as there is a large selection of landscapes from the 1700s and 1800s. This is much more to our taste.
Finally, upstairs there are collections of contemporary art and Greek pottery (6th to 3rd centuries BC). I think we spent less than 10 minutes total walking through these two collections.
Though we did not know it at the time, Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte and Gallerie d’Italia – Napoli turned out to be our two favorite museums on this entire trip (that is Palermo, Reggio Calabria, Naples, and Rome).
We learned that the first Sunday of each month is the “free” day for many places across Italy. As much as we’d like to visit great places for free, fighting mobs of people to save a few bucks is not our thing. One of the perks of staying in one place for a month is to time visits to sites to avoid the crowds, not join them.
Garrett and Stephanie
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More great pics and info! thank you~