Napoli, The Fabulous Magical City, Sites to See

I love Napoli, it is an exciting and vibrant city, full of life, the real Italy.  Recently I took a group of 35 doctors to Napoli for a two day conference and tour of Naples and The Amalfi Coast.  Before we left a few of them asked, "Why are we going to Naples?", when we returned they said, "I can't wait to return!"

Naples is a beautiful and magical city filled with warm and charming people and fantastic food!  There are also numerous museum, historical sites, galleries and religious sites.  Let's start our tour.

Capodimonte Museum, It was not until my sixth or seventh visit to Napoli that I ventured up to this beautiful museum whose collection rivals the Louvre.  The museum is not in the center but a pleasant cab ride that is well worth the trip to this barely promoted art museum that maintains the Farnese Collection which belonged to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese and later became the property of Charles of Bourbon and then Ferdinand IV, King of Naples.  There you will find important works of Titan, Botticelli, Bellini, Rafael, Caravaggio, El Greco and many others.  It is a spectacular collection of art housed it what was one of Napoli's most prominent villas.  If this museum were in America it would be so heavily marketed and most certainly buses would be running up and down the hill from the port multiple times during the day hustling tourists in and about for three times the $7.00 cost of admission.  The Capodimonte Museum is quiet and peaceful with just a spattering of visitors.  There is also a significant collection of art from Vesuvius I believe, the museum is not to be missed.

Royal Palace of Caserta, Once again a rival of the French, this 18th century palace was one of the largest buildings built in it's time.  Larger than Versailles it was spectacular in it's day.  In this century it has fallen into disrepair and it's gardens once of splendor have overgrown and can be disappointing.  If you have a car and are busting around it might be worth a visit to see it's size and imagine it's former splendor.  Interestingly, Neapolitans will argue as to whether Mozzarella from Caserta is better that that from Battipaglia/Paestum.  To me they are both amazing!

Catacombe di San Gennaro, Another not to be missed attraction, different from the Roman ones and often listed as the top tourist attraction in Naples.

Teatro San Carlo is one of the prim ire opera houses of Europe often noted to be more stunning and acoustically perfect the Milan's La Scala.  Having just been there, I would say this is true.  The Opera House is Stunning and the seating is comfortable and gorgeous.  If you're not there during Opera Season be certain to tour this magnificent work of art!

Royal Palace of Naples Quick, easy and stunning.  Another home of rBourbon Kings, free audio tour with tickets.  Have fun.

Museo Archeologico, A beautiful museum that houses multitudes of statues and architecturally significant art and edifices.  This is a pretty cool place with some very cool art that you should see, I would not have it on the top of my list but for a rainy day it is a good place to be!  If you absolutely love archeology this place is a must!

Castle Uovo and Castel Aragonese,  These are castles and they are beautiful if you like castles.  The Castel Uovo has a bevi of restaurants at it's bases that can be very good and very expensive and can be really working tourists particularly in the season.  Be careful Dining here.  I once had a 85 euro fish at La Sciallupa, it was delicious but I couldn't get the 85 euros out of my head.  Later that week I was having better ones for less than 30 euro.  The waiter at La Sciallupa was quite theatrical flopping the fish around between his fingers as if it were alive!