Naples and the Amalfi Coast

In brief: Campania is southern Italy in concentrated form. Greek and Roman foundations, Norman and Arab-Sicilian architecture, Bourbon palaces, fishing harbors, volcanic soil, lemon terraces and a living food culture all meet between Naples and the Bay of Salerno. The best days alternate movement with stillness: explore a street or ruin in the morning, then find a high terrace, a beach or a harbor and practise il dolce far niente.

Plan the region before you arrive

Campania has three different rhythms: Naples is an intense city best understood over at least two days; the islands and coastal resorts are for slowing down; and Pompeii and Vesuvius turn the ancient landscape into a full-day archaeological outing. With a week, you can combine all three. With fewer days, choose a city-and-ruins trip or a coast-and-islands trip instead of trying to touch every famous name.

Arriving by rail and road

Rome and Naples are linked by frequent Frecciarossa and Italo high-speed trains, which take a little more than an hour. Intercity services take about two hours. By car, the A1 Autostrada del Sole connects the two cities in a little over two hours in good traffic. The A3 continues south from Naples: use the Pompei exit for Pompeii, Portici-Ercolano for Vesuvius, and Castellammare di Stabia for the Sorrento Peninsula and the Amalfi Coast.

Boats from Naples

Hydrofoils and other fast passenger craft for Capri leave from Molo Beverello beside Piazza Municipio. Some high-season departures also use Mergellina, about 1.5 km west of the square. Slower car ferries leave from Calata Porta di Massa, a ten-minute walk or a three-minute shuttle ride east of Beverello. Caremar, Navigazione Libera del Golfo and SNAV publish their own timetables. Sailings increase from April through October, but check again before leaving because storms can change the service.

Buses, local trains and taxis

The Sita Sud network reaches towns across Campania, although its information can take patience to decode. The suburban Circumvesuviana leaves from Porta Nolana and Napoli Centrale for Herculaneum, Pompeii and Sorrento; Naples to Sorrento takes about 75 minutes. For journeys that combine a city bus, metro or tram with the regional train, ask for a biglietto integrato. The integrated fares listed here are €3.10 to Herculaneum, €4.10 to Pompeii and €5.80 to Sorrento, each €0.50 above the corresponding direct ticket, while the journey can include the connecting urban leg. UnicoCampania also supports bank-card Tap and Go travel.

Driving the coast

A car is optional in this region and often a burden. Naples traffic bottlenecks around its motorized arteries, Capri does not admit visitors' cars except in winter, and parking in the coastal towns is scarce and expensive. The Sorrento Peninsula and Amalfi road are narrow and winding, even when the views are superb. If you drive into Naples, choose a garage and leave the car there for the stay; street parking carries a theft risk. A direct provider is Garage Petraglia.

• ✦Use Naples as a city base for at least two nights if you want to feel its historic centre rather than only pass through the station.
• ✦Use Sorrento when you want a central base for Pompeii, Capri and the coast, accepting that it is less spectacular than Positano or Capri.
• ✦Stay on the coast or an island when the purpose of the trip is leisure; high-season rooms fill quickly, and some meal-serving hotels require half board in summer.
• ✦Keep boat plans flexible in rough weather and verify the last return sailing before setting out for an island.

Naples: the gateway with its own gravity

Naples is Campania's historic capital and the region's emotional centre: a city of canyon-like lanes, cafés, pizzerias, museums and an astonishing concentration of Norman and Baroque churches. Greek settlers reached the coast from about 800 BC, the Roman period absorbed the old colonies, and later Angevins, Aragonese rulers, Spanish viceroys, Bourbon kings and Napoleonic forces all left architectural traces. Garibaldi united Naples with the rest of Italy in 1860. The result is not a tidy historical sequence but a city where faded grandeur, crowded streets and intense hospitality occupy the same block.

The Centro Storico circuit

Start in the historic centre, where Spaccanapoli and the lanes around Via dei Tribunali reveal the city's everyday theatre. The Duomo di Napoli combines a cathedral founded in the 1200s with the older Santa Restituta, a baptistery said to contain the oldest mosaics in the Western world, and the Treasury Chapel of San Gennaro. The Treasury audio-guide visit costs €13 and a guided visit costs €25. Nearby Gesù Nuovo turns a former palace facade into a dramatic Baroque church, while Santa Chiara is the city's leading Angevin Gothic monument; the museum and cloister cost €7, and the cloister closes on Sunday afternoon.

Below the streets and inside the collections

Naples rewards visitors who look below the pavement. LAPIS Museum descends 40 metres beneath Via dei Tribunali into a section of the ancient aqueduct, with four tours each day and a €10 admission; weekend reservations are essential. Napoli Sotterranea offers a 90-minute route through cisterns and narrow passages for €15, with many steps and tight corridors. For a wider archaeological view, MANN holds Pompeii and Herculaneum mosaics and paintings alongside the Farnese sculpture collection; admission is €20 and the museum closes Tuesday. Museo Cappella Sansevero is a smaller, highly concentrated experience centred on Giuseppe Sanmartino's Veiled Christ; admission is €12 and Tuesday is the weekly closing day.

The remaining city museums give the old centre different registers. Madre fills a former palazzo with contemporary art, temporary exhibitions and 86,111 square feet of gallery space; admission is €8 and it closes Tuesday. The Monumento Nazionale dei Girolamini preserves a church and Oratorian complex built from 1592 to 1619; admission is €5 and Monday is the closing day. Pio Monte della Misericordia places Caravaggio's Seven Acts of Mercy above its altar for €10; it closes on Sunday afternoon. San Lorenzo Maggiore adds excavations and a museum for €9. The small Ospedale delle Bambole has displayed dolls and their repairs since 1895; it costs €3 and closes Tuesday through Thursday.

The harbour, royal power and opera

Naples's waterfront was the city's welcome mat for centuries. At Castel Nuovo, known locally as Maschio Angioino, an Angevin fortress is fronted by Alfonso of Aragon's four-tiered triumphal arch; admission is €6, guided tours are €10, and Sunday is the closing day. The nearby Galleria Umberto I was built between 1887 and 1890 with a glass-and-iron dome. Palazzo Reale preserves Bourbon apartments, a court theatre, a chapel, the National Library and the Galleria del Tempo: the combined palace, museum and gallery ticket is €15, gardens are €2, attic and belvedere tours are €7, and Wednesday is the closing day. Across the road, Piazza del Plebiscito becomes especially atmospheric when its floodlights come on around dusk.

Naples is also a performance city. Teatro di San Carlo was rebuilt in the Neoclassical style after the 1816 fire, with nearly 200 boxes on six levels and a stage of about 12,000 square feet. A guided theatre tour costs €9 and Memus museum admission €3; the museum closes Wednesday. Along the Lungomare, the traffic-free Via Caracciolo and Via Partenope look towards Capri, Vesuvius and the Castel dell'Ovo. The castle itself is closed for renovation work, so check its official city page before making it a destination.

Views from Capodimonte and Vomero

The hills explain Naples's geography. Museo di Capodimonte occupies the Bourbon hunting palace above the city, with 124 rooms of fine and decorative art, including the Farnese collection, Titian, Dutch masters, El Greco, Simone Martini and Caravaggio; admission is €15 and the museum closes Wednesday. The surrounding Parco di Capodimonte opens the city and bay below. In Vomero, Castel Sant'Elmo forms a six-pointed star above the port; admission is €5 and the parapets are particularly rewarding late in the day. Certosa e Museo di San Martino costs €6, closes Wednesday and pairs monastery rooms, Neapolitan nativity scenes and a huge bay panorama. Reach these slopes by funicular, including the route to Vanvitelli.

A city day beyond the main sights

For an overview rather than a museum-by-museum day, City Sightseeing Naples runs two routes for €26, valid for 24 hours with hop-on access, and also offers a Pompeii shuttle. Lino Tour arranges tailor-made excursions around the city and its surroundings. The regional information point at Piazza del Gesù Nuovo 7 distributes a free map and information about savings cards; Visit Naples is the corresponding online reference.

Pompeii and Vesuvius: the landscape remembers

Pompeii and Vesuvius are best treated as one story told in two places. The excavated city shows daily life before the eruption of AD 79; the volcano explains the force that sealed it and still shapes the settlements around the Bay of Naples. Put them together only if you can start early and tolerate a long day on foot.

Getting to Pompeii

Pompeii lies 22 km southeast of Naples and 17 km southeast of Herculaneum. By car, take the A3 Napoli-Salerno to the Pompei exit and follow the signs for Scavi. Guarded parking lots cluster near the Porta Marina, Piazza Esedra and Anfiteatro entrances. By train, the Naples-Sorrento Circumvesuviana stops at Pompei Scavi-Villa dei Misteri, about 100 yards from the Porta Marina ticket office. The Naples-Poggiomarino line stops at Pompei Santuario, which is more convenient for the modern town, its sanctuary, hotels and restaurants. An FS station south of the centre is useful when arriving from Salerno or Rome.

The excavated city

Ancient Pompeii covered about 170 acres at the seaward end of the Sarno Plain and held perhaps 10,000 to 20,000 people. More than two million visitors now arrive each year, so a late-afternoon visit can be calmer than the morning rush. Build a route around the Forum, the city's cultural, political, commercial and religious centre; the House of the Tragic Poet with its chained-dog mosaic; the wealthy House of the Vettii; the frescoed Villa of the Mysteries; and the Amphitheatre, built around 70 BC. The archaeological park suggests two-hour, four-hour and six-hour itineraries at Porta Marina, and an audio guide can help connect the separate streets and houses. Use the official Pompeii site for the current entry system.

Climbing Vesuvius

Vesuvius rises 16 km east of Naples and 8 km northeast of Herculaneum. The volcano appears to have two peaks: Monte Somma on the north, possibly part of the older crater wall, and the present cone to the south, formed inside that ancient crater. The upper slopes still show the marks of nineteenth- and twentieth-century eruptions, including the 1944 lava flow beside the approach road from Ercolano. Clear air can reveal the curve of the coast and the small houses among orange and lemon groves; cloud can erase the view completely, and the summit often clears later in the day.

Drive to the Torre del Greco exit on the A3, then follow Via E. De Nicola and the signs for Parco Nazionale del Vesuvio. Vesuvio Express sells a shuttle and timed entrance package for €30 from Ercolano Circumvesuviana station, with eight round trips each day, and one daily departure from Napoli Centrale for €40. The vehicle reaches the top in about 20 to 40 minutes. Crater admission is €12, requires a timed ticket bought in advance through the park's official ticket portal, and includes a compulsory guide. The climb is steep over volcanic stone, so sturdy or athletic shoes are essential; sandals are a poor choice.

Capri: an island built for looking outward

Capri has drawn escape-seekers for roughly 2,500 years. Augustus called it Apragopolis, the City of Sweet Idleness; emperors, artists and twentieth-century stars followed. The island's hotels and restaurants can be among the region's most expensive, but the views, rock formations and walking routes cost nothing. That balance is the key to enjoying Capri without turning every hour into a purchase.

Arrive at Marina Grande, then choose your town

Hydrofoils, Sea Cats and similar fast craft leave Naples from Molo Beverello; slower car ferries use Calata Porta di Massa. Capri is also linked with Sorrento's Marina Piccola and Salerno's Masuccio during the appropriate sailing seasons. Marina Grande feeds arrivals towards the funicular, which climbs to Capri Town several times an hour. From there, buses continue to higher Anacapri, while a 13-minute chairlift from Piazza Vittoria reaches Monte Solaro. Within both towns, walking is easier and more pleasurable than bringing a car. Check Capri Tourism for changing departures and remember that a late return can be impossible: the last Naples sailing may be 11 pm in high season but 8 pm or earlier in low season.

The island's viewpoints and ruins

Anacapri is the quieter upper town and a starting point for walks, including the roughly 80-minute round trip to Migliara Belvedere. Capri Town gathers around Piazza Umberto I, the Piazzetta, the island's social stage. From the Giardini di Augusto, admission €2.50, the terraces look down to Marina Piccola and the rock-cut Via Krupp. The Certosa di San Giacomo costs €10 and closes Monday. Further out, Villa Jovis, the best-preserved and largest of Capri's twelve Roman villas, costs €6 and closes Monday, January and February, plus weekdays in March.

The Grotta Azzurra owes its intense blue to a hidden opening that bends the light. Reaching it involves one boat from Marina Grande or Anacapri's northwest embarkation point, then a transfer to a small rowboat. The boat journey from Marina Grande starts at €24, followed by €18 for the rowboat; even slight rough seas can close the grotto. The three Faraglioni rise almost 350 feet above the water off Punta Tragara, while Marina Piccola offers swimming platforms and paid bathing lidos. From Anacapri, the Monte Solaro chairlift costs €11 one way or €14 return and closes in adverse weather. Villa San Michele costs €12 and leads through Axel Munthe's collections to a pergola and Sphinx parapet over the Bay of Naples.

Eating on Capri

Capri's tables lean towards seafood, handmade scialatielli and paccheri, local lemons and the island's own version of Neapolitan cooking. The most memorable meals often combine a view with a simple dish, but high-season closures and reservations matter. Main-course prices below are the published averages for dinner, or lunch where dinner is not served.

Sleeping on Capri

Sorrento: the coast's practical balcony

Sorrento sits 50 km south of Naples on a cliff above a small beach and two harbors. A ravine divides the town: the eastern side has a line of grand hotels, while the western historic quarter is flatter, quieter and full of stone lanes, balconies and medieval arches. Piazza Tasso, named for the poet born here in 1544, is the traffic-heavy centre; step away from it and Sorrento becomes a useful walking town with craft workshops, bars and access to the coast.

Arriving and finding the right harbour

From Naples, take the Circumvesuviana from Piazza Garibaldi or a hydrofoil from Molo Beverello. A direct bus serves Sorrento from Naples airport. By car, use the A3 Naples-Salerno, exit at Castellammare, and follow the signs for Penisola Sorrentina and then Sorrento. Marina Grande is the old fishing harbour and a good evening destination, although it requires a steep climb or the local bus. Marina Piccola, below Piazza Tasso, is where ferries and hydrofoils dock.

Sorrento's quieter sights

The Chiesa e Chiostro di San Francesco combines a church with a 12th-century Moorish-style cloister of tufa arches and columns; the cloister is free, while the adjoining photo gallery costs €5. Museo Correale di Terranova fills an eighteenth-century villa with Neapolitan paintings, porcelain, inlaid furniture and regional Greek and Roman finds; admission is €15, or part of the €31 Sorrento Musei ticket, and the museum closes Monday. Sedile Dominova is a free, sixteenth-century open loggia in Largo Dominova. For the broadest view, the Villa Comunale looks from Capri to Vesuvius and connects by steps to Marina Piccola.

Sorrento tables and beds

Positano: a vertical town above the sea

Positano lies 14 km east of Sorrento and 57 km south of Naples. About 4,000 residents live among pastel buildings, bougainvillea and steep stairways that climb the slopes of the Monti Lattari. The town is beautiful because it is vertical, and that beauty has a physical price: from Piazza dei Mulini, buses cannot enter the centre, so visitors continue on foot over the scalinatelle. Wear shoes that can handle stone and stairs, not just sandals chosen for the beach.

Arrive, then walk down

SITA buses leave from Sorrento's Circumvesuviana station, with additional services from Naples and, in summer, Rome. Summer hydrofoils connect Positano with Naples, Salerno and Sorrento. Once in town, turn onto boutique-lined Via dei Mulini and descend towards Palazzo Murat, Santa Maria Assunta and Spiaggia Grande. The route is short on a map but full of steps and pauses for views.

Roman chambers, church and beaches

The MAR - Museo Archeologico Romano lies below Santa Maria Assunta, roughly 30 feet under the piazzetta. Excavations begun in 2003 expose parts of a Roman settlement buried by the AD 79 eruption, including frescoes, stucco, bronzes and two crypt areas; admission is €15. Palazzo Murat has one of the town's prettiest courtyards and sits by the beach. The parish church of Santa Maria Assunta has a green-and-yellow majolica dome and a thirteenth-century Madonna and Child. Spiaggia Grande is the main swimming beach, while the Via Positanesi d'America follows the cliffs towards Fornillo Beach and passes the defensive Torre Trasita.

Amalfi: a maritime republic in a gorge

Amalfi occupies a green valley between the Lattari Mountains and the Bay of Salerno. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries it was a naval power competing with Genoa and Pisa; today ferries replace warships, while Arab-Sicilian passages, lemon terraces, paper mills and the cathedral keep the old identity visible. The waterfront Piazza Flavio Gioia remains the coast's main bus and ferry interchange.

Arrive by water or the Amalfitana road

From April through October, ferries from Salerno or Naples, sometimes via Sorrento, are usually the easiest arrival. Sita Sud buses run from Naples and Sorrento throughout the year. Drivers can follow the Statale 163 Amalfitana from Sorrento or Salerno, or leave the A3 at Angri and cross the mountainous Valico di Chiunsi. For local information, use the Amalfi Tourist Board.

Cathedral, shipyard and paper

The Arsenale di Amalfi is a surviving shipyard first recorded in 1059 and now home to displays on the maritime republic's years from 839 to 1139; admission is €3. Duomo di Sant'Andrea brings together a ninth-century basilica, a cloister of delicate double columns, a crypt and a later cathedral layered with Byzantine, Gothic, Romanesque and Baroque elements; admission is €4. Uphill, the Museo della Carta occupies a fifteenth-century mill in the Valle dei Mulini. Amalfi's paper industry converted former flour mills from the twelfth century, reached more than a dozen mills by 1811, and declined after flooding in 1954. Admission is €4.50, or €7 for a guided tour with papermaking; weekdays in January and February and Mondays in November and December are closed.

Ravello: gardens above the Bay of Salerno

Ravello stands 5 km northeast of Amalfi and 40 km northeast of Sorrento, high above the coast among chestnut and ash woods, lemon terraces and vineyards. Amalfi founded the town in the ninth century; its wealthy cotton merchants elected their own doge in the eleventh, and in the twelfth century the town resisted Pisa with Norman help. Prosperity peaked in the thirteenth century, when Ravello had 13 churches, four cloisters and numerous villas. Later rivalry and plague reduced the population from more than 30,000 to a few thousand, but artists and musicians gradually returned to its gardens and palazzi.

Reaching Ravello

Buses from Amalfi take about 20 minutes along the cliff road. From Naples, the A3 to the Angri exit and the road towards Ravello takes about 75 minutes; hiring a car and driver avoids the stress of driving the route yourself. The town's summer cultural season centres on the roughly two-month Ravello Festival, which uses both the modern auditorium and historic gardens.

A garden-and-music day

The Auditorium Oscar Niemeyer crowns the hillside with a white curved roof, a 400-seat concert space and a giant eye-shaped window over the bay. Ravello's Duomo was founded in 1086 and retains a bronze door with 54 relief panels, medieval pulpits and a museum in the crypt; admission is €4. Giardini del Vescovo occupies a former bishop's residence, is free, and has wheelchair access through a new ramp on Via San Giovanni del Toro. The Museo del Corallo is free and closes Friday through Sunday.

Villa Cimbrone is a fifteen-minute uphill walk from the main square, with gardens about 1,500 feet above the sea and the Belvedere of Infinity; admission is €10. Villa Rufolo sits directly off the piazza, with an Arab-Sicilian cloister, Norman tower, Wagner Terrace and gardens that inspired Richard Wagner's Parsifal; admission is €8, with an extra charge for concerts. Mamma Agata teaches Costiera Amalfitana cooking with a morning class and lunch from €250; classes must be arranged ahead and are not offered Wednesday, on weekends, from December to March, at Easter or from August 10 to 25.

Eating and drinking in Naples and Campania

Pizza, pasta and tomatoes are only the beginning. Campania's cooking changes with its landscape: the Sorrentine Peninsula, the Bay of Naples, the hills and the plains each bring a different pantry. Look for cucina povera shaped by peasant households, roadside produce stalls and village sagre celebrating one prodotto tipico at a time. Annurca apples are associated with the Benevento area, giant lemons with the Amalfi Coast, roasted chestnuts with the hills near Avellino, and watermelons with the plains around Salerno.

Pizza, coffee and the bar counter

Naples is the undisputed home of two classic pizzas: margherita and marinara. Portions are generous, so a mignon or a shared pizza can make sense; takeaway shops also sell slices, arancini and crocchè di patate. Coffee is usually short and intense. Ask for a caffè macchiato with a little milk, a caffè lungo with more water, or senza zucchero or amaro when you want no sugar. At a bar, leave a small tip on the counter if you wish to blend into the local ritual. In restaurants, check whether service is already included; an additional 5% to 10% is reasonable, while a pizzeria tip is more often reserved for unusually good service or extra dishes.

Buffalo, wine and the regional table

Water buffalo supplies more than mozzarella. Across Campania you may find buffalo ricotta and mascarpone, smoked or plain provola and scamorza, and dishes using buffalo meat. Caserta is associated with nero di bufala, while the Salerno area is known for smoked caciocavallo. Campanian wines also have deep roots: aglianico is the powerful red, fiano the important white, and the region's rugged farms and limited mechanisation help explain why small-production bottles can cost more even when quality is high. When a waiter recommends the day's dish instead of pointing to the menu, accept the conversation: local kitchens often reserve their best idea for the daily special.

Discounts and a final route check

State-run museums, monuments and archaeological sites are free on the first Sunday of each month. That can reduce the cost of a multi-sight day, but it is not a quiet time to visit. For a longer stay, Campania Artecard covers about four dozen museums and monuments in Naples and beyond, with combinations of free entry, reduced admission and public transport. Benefits can also include discounts on audio guides, theatre tickets, city tours and other activities, depending on the card.

• ✦Reserve Pompeii, the Sansevero Chapel, Capri ferries and the Blue Grotto before the high season if your dates are fixed.
• ✦Check the official museum or park site for closing days before arranging a route around a single attraction.
• ✦Keep a paper or offline copy of ferry, bus and train details; coastal mobile coverage and timetable information can be uneven.
• ✦Ask hotels on the coast about half board in summer, and confirm whether a room rate includes breakfast, parking, transfers or a boat service.
• ✦Build a weather buffer into every island or summit plan: rough water closes the Grotta Azzurra and chairlift, while cloud can hide Vesuvius and the coast.