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Chiaia, Villa Communale, Mergellina And Posillipo
Via Chiaia leads west from Piazza Trieste e Trento into a quite different city from the congested vicoli of the centro storico or Quartiere Spagnoli, lined with the city’s fanciest shops and bending down to the Piazza dei Martiri - titled after the nineteenth-century revolutionary martyrs commemorated by the column in its centre. This part of town, the Chiaia neighbourhood, displays a sense of order and classical elegance that is quite absent from the rest of the city centre, its buildings well preserved, the people noticeably better heeled - although the upper part of the district, which spreads up the hill towards Vómero, is as maze-like and evocative as anywhere in the city. From Piazza dei Martiri, you can stroll down to the waterfront and Villa Communale , Naples’ most central city park and the place from where it’s doable to appreciate the city best as a port and seafront city, the views stretching right around the bay from the long lizard of its northern side to the distinctive silhouette of Vesuvius in the east, behind the cranes and far-off apartment blocks of the sprawling industrial suburbs. The park itself sometimes hosts a large antiques and bric-a-brac market on Sunday mornings.
The road that skirts the park, Via Caracciolo , makes a nice way to achievement around the bay to Mergellina, particularly in the primeval evening when the lights of the city enhance the views. On the way you might want to take in the century-old Aquarium (April-Oct Tues-Sat 9am-6pm, Sun 10am-6pm; Nov-March Tues-Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 10am-2pm; L3000/¬1.55), though its rather glum collection of tanks containing fish, turtles, eels, octopuses and rays, together with a revolting array of pickled marine life, may place you off your dinner. Across from here, on the other side of Riviera di Chiaia, the gardens of the Villa Pignatelli (Tues-Sun 9am-2pm; L4000/¬2.07) are a peaceful alternative to the Villa Communale, and the house itself, now a museum, is kept in much the same way as when it was the home of a prominent city family and a turn-of-the-century meeting place for the city’s elite. It’s tastefully furnished and by city standards low-key, its handful of rooms holding books, porcelain, the odd painting and a set of photos signed by various aristocrats and royal personages.
Villa Communale stretches around the bay for a good mile, at the far end of which lie the harbour and main square - Piazza Sannazzaro - of the Mergellina district, a good place to come and take at night and a terminus for hydrofoils to the bay’s islands. There’s not a lot else here, only the dense and lovely Parco Virgiliano (Tues-Sun 9am-1pm), north of Piazza Sannazzaro, which holds the spot where the Roman poet Virgil is supposed to be buried, marked by a Roman monument. Nearby is an ancient tufa quarry and a disused tunnel, which once linked city to Pozzuoli. To get there, follow the Salita della Grotta from the other side of the tunnel off Piazza Piedigrotta. Of the other neighbourhoods nearby, the Fuorigrotta district, the other side of the Mergellina hill, is not of interest unless you’re going to a football match, since it’s home to Napoli’s San Paolo stadium . Ditto Posillipo , further along the shore, which is an upmarket suburb of the city stacked with fat villas and pockets - though, again, people do come out here to eat.
