Situated in the south of Italy, a trip to Naples is a welcome change from the rich and famous cities that you will find in the wealthier parts of Italy located in the north of the country. There are many that would not really speak any kind words when they discuss Naples thanks to the dubious reputation it enjoys as being a seamier city in Italy that boasts of high crime rates and where the people are very fanatical. Though a visit to Naples will certainly come with the risk of being mugged or encountering other seamier side of life, using proper sense of caution should see you safely through your visit without much mishap or other nasty occurrences.

You should really make it a point to give yourself the time to go out and seek out the city for all that it offers, because you will find more to interest you out on the streets than in the many museums. Still, you could have yourself photographed in Naples and a good location for that would be at the Galleria Umberto I.

A visit to Naples should also convince you that in spite of its rather unsavory reputation, it is still a very beautiful city with wonderful bay as well as great viewing opportunities such as taking in the sight of Capri and also the Ischia Islands.

When in Naples, you can take a slight excursion and make a trip to Pompeii as well as Herculaneum, which are a pair of cities that were once buried beneath a volcanic eruption around 79 AD.

There is also Naples’ old district to visit and here there is much of the city’s history embodied in the buildings that have somehow come through unscathed even in spite of blazes, wars and also earthquakes.

The origins of Naples can be traced back to its foundation by Greeks in the year 7 BC and the designs from those ancient times have survived till the present. And, to add to this marvelous atmosphere is the utter disregard that people show to rules as there is a complete absence of rules, sidewalks and also traffic signals and signs, and in spite of that, there is still a coming together of people and machines in some semblance of order that really defies all logic.

There are also many churches as well as religious buildings to see including the Cathedral of Naples, San Domenico Maggiore and San Pietro Martire to name a few. Add to that a number of castles, palaces and also museums and you will certainly get to see a lot of places while in Naples including Castel dell’Ovo, Castel Capuano, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte and Royal Palace and many more.

There is also a subterranean side to Naples where there exist some old reservoirs of the Greco-Romans on which the city had been built. Thus there are many kilometers of tunnels running beneath the city, which you might want to see by going to “Napoli Sotteranea”.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 at 3:46 pm and is filed under Italy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.