NAPLES 360°

As you disembark your cruise ship in Naples, meet your private guide and enjoy a full-day tour of one of Italy’s most fascinating cultural capitals.

Your day begins with a visit to the Gothic complex of San Lorenzo Maggiore, built in the 13th century on the remains of an ancient Roman forum, which in turn was erected on the site of an earlier Greek agorà. After admiring the gorgeously decorated Chapter Hall and Hall of Sisto V, follow your guide on a subterranean journey back in time, to a dark and silent town that must once have been as chaotic and lively as the present-day metropolis. Reach the cloister, climb down the time-travel staircase and find yourself hurtled into a bygone era. The archaeological site has been open since 1992, when a painstaking 25-year excavation programme concluded that a remarkable two-storey, rectangular-plan, mosaic-paved market had once occupied this very spot. You are now standing at the very core of the ancient city. Feel the thrill of stepping back 2,000 years as you walk along a cobblestone street, once the main route through the stalls. Walls and store-fronts, still surprisingly intact, allow visitors to vividly re-evoke yesteryear’s urban scene. Learn what life was like centuries ago as you peek inside the shops. You will come across a bakery, a butcher’s, a laundry, a winery and the aerarium, the tax collectors’ office. Your private guide will enrich your tour with historical curiosities, point out interesting discoveries and portray colourful scenes of everyday Naples long ago.

Back on the surface, munch your way through Naples’ streets and squares on a flavoursome gastronomic stroll. Gourmands will have the opportunity to see where locals meet, eat and purchase food and learn about the city’s culinary traditions. Your guide will lead you through the city centre, sprinkled with all sorts of tempting eateries, and point out Neapolitans’ best-loved haunts. You will stop for a ritual coffee at a renowned bar, drop in at a celebrated pastry shop to savour traditional sweets, including scrumptious sfogliatelle and baba soaked in rum, and sink your teeth into the world-acclaimed local source of pride: pizza. Tasty highlights also include local fried snacks and creamy gelato… simply delicious, or better, buonissimo… Your food walk will end with a glass of limoncello and a toast: cheers to Bella Napoli!

In the afternoon your Naples discovery journey will continue with a visit to the Church of Gesù Nuovo. Originally built in the 15th century as a private noble mansion and converted into a Christian temple by the Jesuits in the late 1500s, the church still preserves the striking facade of the original Palazzo Sanseverino with its distinctive diamond-shaped ashlars. Inside an eclectic, flamboyant parade of Baroque virtuosity, brimming with frescoes, stuccoes and coloured marble decorations, attests to Naples’ prime role in fostering the greatest talents of the 17th century, including Francesco Solimena, Luca Giordano and Cosimo Fanzago.

Just a few steps away, guests may admire a preview of paradise as they wander through the extraordinary cloister of the Church of Santa Chiara, once a place of private contemplation for the nuns of the Order of Saint Clare. Bright hand-painted majolica tiles depicting figs, citrus fruits and vines adorn the sixty-four octagonal columns while the ceramic benches feature everyday scenes of urban and rural life in the 1700s. Additional splashes of colour are provided by the four parterres blooming with conifers, lemon and orange trees, whose vivid greens stand out against the cerulean backdrop of the Neapolitan sky.

From here amble along Via Benedetto Croce, cross Piazza San Domenico Maggiore and reach the mysterious Sansevero Chapel. Prince Raimondo di Sangro drew up the iconographic layout of the interior and commissioned the finest 18th century artists with the task of embellishing its walls with allegorical statues. Accounts of the prince’s beliefs, alchemic practices and fascination with the occult will surely intrigue you as you unravel the underlying meaning behind the works displayed here. Giuseppe Sanmartino’s amazingly realistic sculpture of the Veiled Christ is among the chapel’s highlights together with the so-called anatomic machines, two authentic human skeletons bearing precise reproductions of arterial and nervous systems made from beeswax, iron wire and silk… a puzzling, somewhat macabre sight that sparked rumours and dark legends about Prince di Sangro’s evil powers.

Other, more joyful surprises await you in Via San Gregorio Armeno, known for its artisan workshops selling hundreds of exquisitely crafted statuettes and figurines for traditional nativity scenes. Detailed miniatures of the Holy Family, shepherds and donkeys together with representations of pizzerias, fruit markets, gastronomic delights and caricatures of politicians spill out onto the street in a uniquely Neapolitan fusion of sacred and profane, creativity and humour.