THE KEY TO NAPLES

Don’t miss the chance to discover one of Italy’s most fascinating cultural capitals on this full-day Naples shore excursion. Your private guide will meet you at the port, as you disembark your cruise ship, and lead you down tangled alleys, across bustling piazzas, inside ornately decorated churches allowing you to experience the city in all its riotous appeal. You will admire some of Naples’ most famous attractions and learn about its rich and riveting past, beginning with the city’s early origins as the ancient Greek Neapolis, up to its full bloom in the 1700s.

Your tour begins 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 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 green are provided by the garden’s hedges, lemon and orange trees, whose vivid leaves 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 skilful 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 the sacred and the profane, of intense creativity and humorous insight.

No trip to Naples would be complete without paying homage to the local patron saint Gennaro, whose relics are safely locked away inside the cathedral. Three times a year thousands of devotees gather here to pray for and witness the miraculous liquefaction of the saint’s blood, interpreted as an assurance that disaster is not about to strike and a sign that the months ahead will be favourable for the city.

The last stop of the morning will bring you to the Chapel of Pio Monte della Misericordia where you will have the opportunity to examine at close quarters the fine composition and stark chiaroscuro of the Seven Works of Mercy, one of master Caravaggio’s most ground-breaking paintings.

After some free time for lunch enjoy exploring 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 beautifully 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 two-storey, rectangular-plan 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 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, reach the final stop on your tour: Palazzo Reale. A visit to this magnificent mansion will allow you to catch a glimpse of the splendour that must have once reigned at court. Standing in the grand, elegant Piazza del Plebiscito, opposite Naples’ very own Pantheon – the domed Basilica of San Francesco di Paola – the palace was the official residence of the Spanish Bourbons. Architect Domenico Fontana designed the first nucleus in the early 1600s, though the building we can admire today is the result of successive enlargements and redecoration carried out in the 18th and 19th centuries. The entrance hall with the majestic marble staircase sets the tone and prepares visitors for the impressive sights to come. Highlights include the court theatre, the throne room and the private apartments which are still furnished with original period pieces and richly embellished with tapestries and frescoes, attesting to the wealth and prestige of its occupants.

In the afternoon climb back on board your cruise ship after an unforgettable journey through the city.