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City Transport
The only way to really get around city and stay sane is to walk . Driving can be a nightmare, and to negotiate the narrow streets, hectic squares and racetrack boulevards on a moped or scooter takes years of training. In any case, not to achievement would mean you’d miss a lot - city is the kind of place best appreciated from street level. For longer journeys - and city is a big, spread-out city - there are a number of alternatives, both for the city itself and the bay as a whole. Public transport comes under the care of Azienda Napoletana Mobilità (ANM). Its city buses are efficient, if crowded and slow, and are much the best way of making short hops crossways the city centre. The bus system is supplemented by the metropolitana , a small-scale underground network that crosses the city centre, stopping at about four stops between Piazza Garibaldi and Mergellina and runs eventually out to Pozzuoli and Solfatara in about half an hour; a new metro station at Piazza Dante will soon connect the city centre with Vómero and the hills. In addition, three funiculars scale the hill of the Vómero: one, the Funicolare di Chiaia, from Piazza Amedeo; another, the Funicolare Centrale, from the station at the bottom of Via Mattia, just off Via Toledo; and a third, the Funicolare di Montesanto, from the station on Piazza Montesanto. Another, the Funicolare di Mergellina, runs up the hill above Mergellina from Via Mergellina. Tickets for all ANM modes of transport cost a flat L1500/¬0.77 and are acquirable in advance from tabacchi , stations, or the transport booth on Piazza Garibaldi; an all-day ticket costs L4500/¬2.32. Normal ANM tickets are valid for ninety minutes and allow any combination of bus or tram rides, plus unlimited trips within ninety minutes on an additional two means of transport - for example the metro, funicular (one trip only) or railway .
If you need to take a taxi - and you should realize that they can be interminably slow - make sure the driver switches on the meter when you start (they often don’t); fares start at L4000/¬2.07 for the initial journey - minimum fare L6000/¬3.10. Note that journeys to and from the airfield incur an extra charge of L5000/¬2.58; trips after 10pm or before 7am cost an extra L4000/¬2.07; and those on public holidays an extra L3000/¬1.55; all of which gives plenty of scope for confusion, and even resident Neapolitans are wary of the stunts taxi drivers pull to get a higher fare. There are taxi ranks at the train station, on Piazza Dante and Piazza Trieste e Trento, or phone 081.556.4444 or 081.556.0202.
For solely out-of-town trips - around the bay in either direction - there are three more rail systems. The Circumvesuviana runs from its station on Corso Garibaldi right round the Bay of city about every thirty minutes, stopping everywhere, as far south as Sorrento, which it reaches in about an hour. The Ferrovia Cumana operates every ten minutes from its terminus station in Piazza Montesanto west to Pozzuoli and Báia. And the Circumflegrea line runs every twenty minutes, again from Piazza Montesanto, west to Cuma. Tickets are acquirable at the stations, and are very reasonable.
Useful bus routes
#R2 Piazza Garibaldi-Corso Umberto-Piazza Bovio-Via de Pretis-Piazza Municipio-Corso Vittorio Emanuele-Via San Carlo-Piazza Trieste e Trento-Piazza Municipio-Via Medina-Via Sanfelice-Corso Umberto-Piazza Garibaldi
#R3 Piazza Trieste e Trento-Piazza Municipio-Riviera di Chiaia-Mergellina
#110 Piazza Garibaldi-Museo Archeologico-Museo di Capodimonte
#140 Via Santa Lucia-Mergellina-Posillipo Piazza Garibaldi-Pozzuoli
#152 Piazza Garibaldi-Piazza Municipio-Piazza Vittoria-Mergellina-Pozzuoli
#401 (night bus) Piazza Garibaldi-Riviera di Chiaia-Mergellina-Pozzuoli
#435 (night bus) Circular route from Stazione Centrale via Via Toledo and Piazza Trieste e Trento
