Naples

I love Naples.  Of course she has issues, like any city, but Naples is alive in a way that many places are not.  Naples is not just going through the motions of getting through another day, the city always seems to be alternately stretching and pulling toward the future while tenaciously holding on to the past, even though not all of that past is worth keeping.

Naples is a university city, teeming with young people.  You'll find them hanging out in Piazza Plebiscito, alongside the royal place ...

... or at Piazza Dante

or at Piazza Gesu Nuovo.

There is so much to see and do in Naples, I've spent weeks there over the past several years and have only begun to scratch the surface.

For history buffs, Naples is probably most famous for the National Museum of Archeology, where many of the treasures of Pompei reside.  I haven't found a great web site for the museum, but at least part of the Cultural Ministry's site on the museum is in English, here.

Art lovers head to the Museo di Capodimonte.  When I was there in February, I wandered around the halls nearly alone for hours, just me and Botticelli, Carracci, Caravaggio, El Grego, Titian, and all the other masters in the Farnese collection.

Museo di Capodimonte

For peace in the middle of the city, you can't beat the cloisters at Santa Chiara, which is just off Piazza Gesu Nuovo and on the edge of Spacanapoli, the old quarter.

Santa Chiara Cloisters

Detail of Santa Chiara Cloisters artwork

For more on Santa Chiara, see here:  http://www.santachiara.info/ver_en/index.htm

I could go on and on, and I will, but for now let me leave you with a link to the City of Naples's web site, which has a surprisingly good English language section:  Naples Tourism Information