"In Napoli, beside the sea..."
-In Napoli, Dean Martin
Napoli (or Naples in English) is less than an hour by train from Caserta. We spent a day there back in 2018, just to visit its amazing National Archaeological Museum. But on that trip, we didn't venture any further than the Museum, due to time constraints (you need at least a full day for that museum - it really is wonderful - and we were leaving for home the next day). So we thought now would be as good a time as any to go back, even if only for another single day.
Since we were staying in Caserta, and had been to the Reggia, we decided we wanted to visit its Neapolitan sister palace, the Palazzo Reale.
We saw that from the train station we would need to then take the metro out three stops. Fortunately, the metro station happened to be located in the train station, so it was easy to navigate ourselves there. What wasn't so easy was getting tickets for the metro system! Most metro systems I've encountered allow you to buy an all day pass, or at least a ticket for multiple uses. But I just couldn't figure out how to find any such options on the ticket dispensing machine. As I didn't want to hold up the line of ticket buyers forming behind us while I struggled to make sense of the ticketing machine, we gave up and quickly found a ticket window with a human being, where we bought individual tickets from a cashier who seemed puzzled as to why we wanted to buy more than one ticket each at a time. The ticket agent and I were struggling to understand each other, to be sure, but in the end, we got what we needed. Sure, we probably got "extra" tickets, or the wrong tickets, or whatever; but as it's quite inexpensive to ride the metro regardless, we didn't see that as a big deal.
We rode three stops to the Municipio station. As we walked from the station towards the Piazza del Plebiscito, where the palazzo is located, my first impression of this part of the city was: crowded and dirty. Yet, the vibe was very energetic; there was evidence of quite a bit of ongoing construction and renovation work too. I noticed a lot of young families, and groups of young people generally, out and about enjoying the day. The weather was perfect for a city stroll - warm and ranging from sunny to partly cloudy.
While it wasn't a particularly long walk from the metro station to the Palazzo, we did have to navigate through a rather high-traffic area. We passed some other points of interest which made me want to come back here again before we leave Italy:
Castel Nuovo (don't worry - I took better pictures of this later)
Part of the famous Galleria Umberto I- we'll come back to this, too
This is directly across the Piazza del Plebiscito from the Royal Palace - the Basilica of San Francisco di Paola - we'll have to check this one out on another visit. But note the kids in their costumes, as I mentioned in my previous post.
I think that the façade of the Royal Palace in Naples is more interesting, visually, than that of the Royal Palace of Caserta, although it doesn't have all that shrubbery in the foregrounds, or the miles kilometers of gardens behind it:
We found that the interior has quite a few similarities to its sister palazzo, particularly in the décor; this one also has what I think of as a Very Grand Staircase:
The mainly Baroque interiors of the Historic Apartments (the rooms you can tour, which include the royal Chapel and a court theater) were similar to those of the palace in Caserta:
I approve of this throne, which is much fancier and thus more royal than the one in Caserta. It looks more comfortable, too.
While many of the chandeliers in Caserta were made of Murano glass, we didn't see many like that here; this one was pretty typical of the rooms of the palace in Naples
We also took a peek at the interior courtyard, where they are currently constructing...something. I didn't find a sign explaining the purpose of the little house:
After our tour of the royal apartments, we headed back outside, and saw this modern series of sculptures in the garden area behind the palace:
We decided to walk toward the water - the harbor and port were relatively nearby - in hopes of being able to see Mount Vesuvius. It was a downhill walk, and the sidewalks and streets were crowded (there were lots of folks were wearing masks even though it's technically no longer required outdoors). Alas, the weather gods were not with me - cloudy skies hindered the view:
Back up the hill we climbed, looking for a restaurant with outdoor seating in order to lunch and people-watch. We stopped at what I assume is a typical tourist-trap restaurant, but you know what? In Napoli, even the tourist-trap pizza is tasty!
I had the pizza Margherita, because that is the best pizza, while Paolo had what the server called "pizza fritta," that is, fried pizza prepared somewhat like a calzone, only fried instead of baked; similar to but larger than a panzerotto
After we enjoyed our leisurely lunch, we decided to head back to the station so that we could take the metro out to the Duomo stop (this required purchasing another ticket). On our way, we stopped to take some better pictures of Castel Nuovo as well as of the Galleria (many of the shops appeared to be closed, perhaps because it was Sunday - otherwise I might have gone on a little shopping spree):
We would have definitely gone into the castle but sadly, it was closed
13th century castle amidst 21st century traffic
Once we reached the metro stop for the Duomo, it turned out that actually getting to the Duomo was a bit of an uphill hike, through a somewhat dingy neighborhood decorated with plenty of unlovely graffiti. But the exterior of the cathedral itself was rather impressive looking:
You can't see it in this photo, but just to the right of the church was a pair of soldiers with their military jeep parked on the sidewalk
The Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary is known for 1) being the seat of the Archbishop of Naples, and 2) for its vial of the allegedly miraculous blood of San Gennaro (Saint Januarius), which supposedly liquifies every now and then despite being over 1700 years old.
Main Altar
I'm always surprised at how vibrant these old colors remain centuries after the original application
Pope Innocent IV, or "IIII"
Pope Innocent XII. At least they got his Roman numerals correct.
The gated chapel in the center is the Royal Chapel of the Treasure of San Gennaro; his blood as well as many other relics of various saints are kept here. We didn't get to go inside, unfortunately, as there were some type of devotions taking place - hence the closed gate. I suppose we could have peeked through the bars, but I feel that's a rude thing to do while the true believers are praying to their god.
We ventured down into the crypt:
Relics of San Gennaro
After this, we headed back to Napoli Centrale, using our last metro tickets to go one stop. We had time for gelato from Mammamia in the train station (basically the Baskin-Robbins of gelato, but still, not bad) before catching the InterCity train back to the hotel.
Overall impression of Naples: busy, noisy, dirty (Paolo made the mistake of using the hand rail walking down the steps in the train station, and his palm came away black!), vibrant, lively, bustling...definitely worth visiting. I'm hoping we can go back and spend a few days exploring more of the city, as there seems to be so much more to see.
Thus ended our brief adventure in Campania. We took the train back to Termoli Monday morning. While on the train, we passed under what I believe was the Aqueduct of Vanvitelli (same architect who worked on the Reggia di Caserta). I tried to take a picture of it, but unfortunately wasn't fast enough to get a good shot. This is the best I could do (which isn't very good at all):
Now to plan for our next little adventure...
