Places/Italy

Campania

Naples

A loud, brilliant port under a volcano. The Italy that Rome is not, and the correct door to the coast.

Naples asks more of a visitor than Florence and returns more if you stay. The chaos is real and mostly ordinary life at a higher volume. Give it nights, not an afternoon on the way to a ferry.

The bay is the point, with Vesuvius across the water. Pompeii is a day of its own, early, with a booked entrance, not a rumour you attach to a beach.

See

• The seafront

  Walk toward Castel dell’Ovo. The view is free and it explains the city better than a bus tour of the centre.

• A historic centre street, in daylight

  Spaccanapoli is narrow, loud and worth one walk. Do not make it your evening plan.

• Pompeii, as a separate morning

  Train from Naples, the site at opening, water, and leave before the heat makes every stone the same stone.

• A museum if the weather turns

  The archaeological museum holds what Pompeii no longer has on site. It is the serious companion, not a rainy-day filler you resent.