Kevin wrote a magnificent travel guide for Naples:

See Naples and Die! Touring Naples and the Phlegraean Fields

Everything you want to know about the town, the sights, the nearby areas, and transportation to Naples and around Naples.

Thanks Kevin!!

I uploaded a few of my photos from Naples December 2003.

Remember those great old photos that Robert Santa Monica sent us? Showing Naples in the 1800s.

And we have some Campania photos on SlowPhotos.

Kevin, I am so impressed. Well done. Kudos to you! I can see it that this is going to be a really well used resource.

Excellent Kevin...its such a complicated city, we really needed an insider's view. It will help me as I plan my up-coming trip to Napoli. Bravo!

Kevin, this is great - thanks! I've been to Naples several times and will be back again, I hope before the end of this year, so it's particularly timely for me. I'm also going to try and get to Caserta for the first time, to see where my great-grandmother came from. Everyone else, for the five generations I have information on going back to 1812, came from Naples.

Thanks Kevin, and Pauline and Buddy. I have been waiting with baited breath for this since last night when I saw the post with the picture of Buddy typing.

I will be heading to Naples for the first time this October, so this is very timely for me too. Maybe there will be an opportunity for a GTG over some of that excellent coffee!

Having been a fan of Virgil from high school there is more than one of these sites from the Phlegean Fields that I would like to visit. I don't rent a car when I go to Italy and use public transportation. My last attempt to visit Cumae, I only got as far as Pozzuoli before I got stuck and wasted a lot of time until it was not possible to get to Cumae and back in the daylight. So, it would be nice if one could figure out how to get to some of these sites using public transportation, or just a simple statement that this site is best seem by arriving by auto.

Kevin, thanks for writing this. My husband's best friend and his wife are from Monte di Procida, and last summer when we were on our way home from our trip to Le Marche, it happened that our vacations overlapped for a few days. So we were able to spend two days with them and their families before driving to Rome for our trip home. What a wonderful experience, and what breathtaking views! Antonio's brother works at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, and on our next trip we will definitely visit there.

Great report!

Thanks to all for the kind words. I do hope these notes are helpful. This was a fun project to work on, since I felt duty bound to personally visit each site, sometimes several times, to try to get it right . I'm working on a photo album with pictures of most of the places described, and hopefully it will be finished soon.

Mary - we actually live in Monte di Procida (where it seems like every other family has at least one member living in the US for at least a while). It's a very nice place to live, and the views - as you say - are great.

Pat - I drive almost everywhere in Italy (even downtown Naples on occasion) and believe that it's by far the best way to see most sights throughout the country with the exception of the centers of the largest cities. As far as this guide goes, all of the sights outside central Naples are easiest to visit by car. You can get to Pozzuoli and Baia by train, and to most of the others by local bus, but it's far more convenient to drive and most sites have at least some parking. I'm not an expert on the buses (since I do drive most places) but I did provide web links in the document to the operators.

Kevin,

Many thanks for your most helpful notes. Up to now we haven't dared to venture to Naples, but I hope your notes will help to give us gthe confidence to do so soon.

You mention that driving and parking are both very difficult. Do you have any advice on where to park? Is it safe to leave a parked car in the city (if you can find a place to park)? Are there places near Naples where one can park and ride into the city by train or bus?

I'd appreciate any help you can give!

Hugh

Kevin,

Great report,and it brought back happy memories!

We loved BACOLI and found the people so friendly to us. In fact, the elderly gentleman in the village shop took a shine to David's mother and waited to help her shop every day. He was a native of Bacoli who had lived in Australia and spoke a mix of Italian and Aussie...which she seemed to understand

Another shopkeeper gave us a tray of "sunday cakes" beautifully wrapped, for such a low price we could not believe it,when we asked if the price was correct they indicated it was because we were tourists and they were pleased to see us in Bacoli.

Yet another day we asked for directions to the parking lot, and to our surprise, the family we asked told their young blonde daughter to get in the car with us and show us the way!!(our sons were very impressed!!!and not with her navigational skills we must have looked safe!

In Naples proper, we met a taxi driver who really went out of his way to help us,and entertained us royally en route. Ditto the very friendly young woman in the Hertz car hire depot who took great pains to ensure we could find our way around and out of the city in the hire car,and boy were we glad she did,driving in Naples is not for the fainthearted. Actually, sitting in the passneger seat is not either,scooters appear from nowhere and pass by in a blur....

Driving issues aside, all over Naples/Campi Fleagrea we met only lovely helpful people.

Small things,but to us really heartwarming and it made us feel at home.

Then of course we met up with you and Kim

Do you remember the rabbit loose in the restaurant? dinner on the hoof!

Kevin, great notes. I loved my little taste of Naples a couple of years ago, and your notes would have been a great boon to have along. I'd happily end my days at Sfogliatelle Mary...

Pauline, thanks for the link to my old photos. I was just looking through the album the other day, wishing I had been born before the car.

yrs, Robert

quote:

Originally posted by WestSussexBird:
You mention that driving and parking are both very difficult. Do you have any advice on where to park? Is it safe to leave a parked car in the city (if you can find a place to park)? Are there places near Naples where one can park and ride into the city by train or bus?

Hugh,

Driving and parking are difficult here, but not impossible.

The challenge of driving, aside from the sheer volume of traffic, is just that traffic flow is very free-form. Lanes, stop signs, red lights (many but not all, and knowing the difference is a challenge ), pedestrian crossings, etc. are simply ignored for the most part. Traffic flows into every available piece of pavement (and sometimes sidewalk). If you can just let yourself "go with the flow" it's really not all that hard, though it can be painfully slow. The most difficult part for me is the incredible number of motorbikes, whose riders all believe that (a) they are invincible and (b) they have an absolute right to do anything they want to do without regard for road conditions or anyone else around them. You have to be very alert and have good reflexes to deal with all of these challenges, but it isn't as impossible as some would suggest.

Parking is another matter. Street parking is almost impossible to find in most neighborhoods. There are parking garages around the city, but they can be hard to spot and tricky to get into. If you need a place to leave a car overnight or for several days, I'd suggest looking for a hotel with a garage (which won't be cheap and will limit you to some of the more expensive hotels) or see if your hotel/B&B/apartment can arrange parking in a public garage. When we first moved to Naples and were living in the Spanish Quarter, our landlord arranged a space in a local parking garage for a few Euros (maybe 10?) per day.

If you're just looking for parking for a day's visit into the city, you could either try to find a space on the street or look for a public garage. I've generally had good luck finding street parking in the area between the Castel dell'Ovo and Piazza Plebiscito, though you do have to feed a meter. Another option would be to park at the airport and take the Alibus downtown. There aren't a lot of other parking areas on the periphery where you could catch a train or bus to the center. There is some parking at the ferry port in Pozzuoli from which you could take a train downtown - it would probably be OK for a day trip but I'm not sure I'd trust it for overnight parking.

The safety/security question is difficult. If there's nothing visible inside the car, it would most likely be OK in the locations I've mentioned above or in any parking garage. Break-ins and car theft do occur, of course, and there are areas where I probably wouldn't park on the street (Spaccanapoli neighborhood, Spanish Quarter, Piazza Garibaldi area, etc.). Other neighborhoods, such as the Vomero, Posillipo, Mergellina, or the area near the Capodimonte museum are safer. Obviously, an expensive car or one with anything of value visible inside is at higher risk than my beat up old Alfa!

Many thanks, Kevin, for all your comments about parking.

I should have mentioned that we drive in a campervan. It's reasonably small (it's a VW) so if street parking slots are available we can generally find one to fit into. However, it's 2.8m high so parking garages are out. Are there any open-air car parking areas?

Our campsites book mentions two campsites at Pozzuoli. So perhaps our best option will be to camp there and take the train.

Hugh

The areas I mentioned earlier at the airport and at the ferry port in Pozzouli are both open-air car parks, so you should be able to use them. I can't think off-hand of any others that would be convenient to transport.

I know of two camping areas in the Pozzuoli area - one is at Solfatara (the volcanic crater between Pozzuoli and Naples) and the other is at the foot of Monte Nuovo (near the town of Arco Felice, a little west of Pozzuoli). Neither is very close to a train station, but there are plenty of buses in both areas that could get you to a station or to downtown Naples.

Kevin, I read your "See Naples & Die" article. Bravo!! Excellent description of the major sites (the ones I've seen so far at least) and an accurate portrait of the people in this region.

We've only been here for a few months, but have found that most of the locals have been warm, friendly, helpful, and truly interested in showing us the best of their region if we simply make a small effort to speak their language and adapt.

Other posts asked about using public transportation. I do agree that some of the major sites require a car or bus, but I do not drive at all in Naples, and use only the local train system (Cumana or metro). Many of the local sites in downtown Naples, Vomero, or in the Phlegrian Fields area can be reached without ever venturing onto the highway, if you find the right hotel.

The following page has information about public transportation options to areas around Naples:

www.summerinitaly.com/planning/transportation.asp

Hi, Allison - I'm glad you enjoyed my notes. It was nice to meet you the other day. Hope we run into you again soon!

We visited Soltafara and saw the camp site. it looked fine and had a nice cafe onsite which served nice snacks. It was close to bus stops so should be easy to use as a base.