Naples in 3 days, on foot

This 3-day self-guided walking plan for Naples covers 29 narrated sights in an easy day-by-day order. Each day is split into a morning and an afternoon loop, and every stop has a two to three minute audio story in the Gingerguide app.

You set the pace: this is a suggested order, not a schedule. Walk it in 3 days, or stretch it out. Reorder freely; Naples rewards a detour.

Day 1

Morning

1. National Archaeological Museum of Naples: The world's foremost collection of Greco-Roman antiquities, housing treasures from Pompeii and Herculaneum including the spectacular Alexander Mosaic.
2. Naples Cathedral (Duomo di Napoli): A magnificent Gothic cathedral begun in the 13th century, home to the miraculous liquefaction of San Gennaro's blood and an ancient Early Christian baptistery.
3. Spaccanapoli: The straight, ancient street that literally "splits Naples", a living spine of Neapolitan culture lined with baroque churches, pizza shops, and artisan workshops.
4. Castel Nuovo (Maschio Angioino): A commanding 13th-century Angevin fortress on the Naples waterfront, famous for its magnificent Renaissance triumphal arch and sweeping harbour views.
5. Certosa di San Martino: A magnificent 17th-century Baroque Carthusian monastery perched on Vomero hill, housing the greatest museum of Neapolitan art and history and the world's finest collection of nativity scenes.

Afternoon

1. Castel dell'Ovo: The oldest surviving castle in Naples, built on a tiny island once occupied by the Roman villa of Lucullus, famous for its egg legend and magnificent harbour views.
2. Piazza del Plebiscito: The grand civic heart of Naples, a vast semicircular colonnade embracing the Pantheon-inspired church of San Francesco di Paola and the Royal Palace, forming the largest square in the city.
3. Royal Palace of Naples: The magnificent 17th-century Bourbon palace facing Piazza del Plebiscito, home to lavish royal apartments, a historic library, and eight statues of Naples' dynasties in the facade niches.
4. Teatro San Carlo: The world's oldest continuously active opera house, inaugurated in 1737, predating La Scala by 41 years, renowned for its exceptional acoustics and sumptuous Bourbon interior.
5. Underground Naples (Napoli Sotterranea): A 2,400-year-old labyrinth beneath the city streets, Greek-carved tunnels expanded as Roman aqueducts, used as World War II air raid shelters, now open for extraordinary underground tours.

Day 2

Morning

1. Quartieri Spagnoli: The labyrinthine 16th-century Spanish soldiers' quarter, a tight grid of narrow streets with washing lines overhead, Maradona shrines, street food vendors, and an unmistakably raw pulse of Neapolitan life.
2. Maradona Murals & SSC Napoli Football: Diego Maradona is revered as a deity in Naples, the city where he played 1984–1991, won two Serie A titles, and became a symbol of southern Italian pride and identity.
3. Neapolitan Pizza & Pizzeria Brandi: Naples is the birthplace of pizza, Pizzeria Brandi claims the Pizza Margherita was invented here in 1889 for Queen Margherita of Savoy, its colours representing the Italian flag.
4. Catacombs of San Gennaro: Naples' extraordinary early Christian catacombs on the Capodimonte hill, vast underground burial galleries adorned with ancient frescoes, mosaics, and the tombs of Naples' earliest bishops and saints.
5. Herculaneum: Buried alongside Pompeii by Vesuvius in 79 AD but even better preserved, buildings stand to their second floors, wooden furniture survives, and organic materials found nowhere else make it the most extraordinary Roman site in the world.

Afternoon

1. Mount Vesuvius: The only active volcano on the European mainland, and the most dangerous in the world, last erupted in 1944 and looms over Naples, offering a dramatic hike to the crater rim with sweeping Bay of Naples views.
2. Chiaia & Mergellina Waterfront: Naples' elegant seaside promenade, the Via Caracciolo stretches along the bay past the Chiaia neighbourhood to the old fishing village of Mergellina, lined with pastry shops, cafes, and stunning Vesuvius views.
3. Pompeii: Day Trip from Naples: A 35-minute train journey from Naples brings you to Pompeii, the Roman city buried by Vesuvius in 79 AD, the most extraordinary archaeological site in the world, where 2,000 years of history lie exactly as the volcano left them.
4. Galleria Borbonica: A secret Bourbon tunnel network built in 1853 beneath the Royal Palace area, used as a WWII shelter and still housing vintage vehicles abandoned since the war, now open for atmospheric guided tours.
5. San Gregorio Armeno: Christmas Street: Naples' famous "Christmas Street", a lane in the historic centre lined year-round with artisan workshops selling handmade presepe nativity scenes, from traditional shepherds to custom celebrity figurines.

Day 3

Morning

1. Palazzo dello Spagnolo: An 18th-century noble palace in the Sanità district, famous for its extraordinary double helical external staircase, one of the finest examples of Baroque architecture in Naples.
2. Pignasecca Market: Naples' most chaotic and beloved street market, where vendors sell fresh fish, vegetables, and the city's famous fried pizza, pizza fritta, from open-air stalls in the heart of the Spanish Quarter.
3. Basilica di Santa Chiara: A magnificent Gothic church with a remarkable majolica-tiled cloister, one of the most beautiful spaces in Naples, and the tombs of the Angevin and Bourbon royal dynasties.
4. Capodimonte Museum and Park: A Bourbon royal palace on a hill above Naples, housing one of Italy's greatest art collections, Titian, Raphael, Caravaggio, Botticelli, with sweeping views of the city and Vesuvius from its terrace.
5. Sfogliatella and Neapolitan Pastry: Naples is the capital of Italian pastry, home of the sfogliatella shell pastry, pastiera napoletana, struffoli, and the legendary Caffè Gambrinus (1860), the oldest and grandest café in the city.

Afternoon

1. Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella: The oldest conservatory in Europe, founded in Naples in the 16th century, where Bellini, Donizetti, and Cimarosa studied, the institution that made Naples the musical capital of 18th-century Europe.
2. Canzone Napoletana: O Sole Mio: Naples is the birthplace of the world's most recognisable Italian songs, O Sole Mio, Funiculì Funiculà, Santa Lucia, a 19th-century musical tradition that conquered every concert hall and café on earth.
3. Via Toledo and Galleria Umberto I: Naples' magnificent main shopping boulevard and the Galleria Umberto I (1891), a soaring iron-and-glass arcade modelled on the Milan Galleria, with a spectacular domed roof and cross-shaped ground plan.
4. The Veiled Christ (Cappella Sansevero): A veil of solid marble lies so softly over the dead Christ that visitors still lean in to check it is not cloth, carved from a single block in 1753.

Full Naples guide and all stops → · Other itineraries: 2 days