Museo Ferroviario di Pietrarsa
Portici (NA)
Hidden gemHistory & archaeology
The story
In the old Bourbon workshop where Italy's first railway was born, historic locomotives rest by the sea, with the Vesuvius closing the horizon.
More gems in Portici
Nature & hikingReggia di Portici + Orto Botanico
Portici (NA)
Commissioned by the Bourbons at the foot of Vesuvius, the palace looks out over the sea of the Miglio d'Oro; behind its eighteenth-century halls, the botanical garden gathers palms and rare plants in a green breath of air.
- History & archaeology
Palazzo Reale di Portici
Portici (NA)
Commissioned by the Bourbons at the foot of Vesuvius, the palace looks out on the sea on one side and the volcano on the other, set in a park that runs down to the coast.
More gems: History & archaeology
History & archaeologyStatua del Nilo ("Corpo di Napoli")
Largo Corpo di Napoli
A river god reclining for centuries in a quiet square, whom Neapolitans call the Corpo di Napoli: he leans his bearded head among putti and a sphinx.
History & archaeologyCappella Pontano
Decumani
A small Renaissance temple on the decumanus, which the humanist Pontano had raised for his lost wife, still lined inside with Latin inscriptions dictated by his grief.
- History & archaeology
Sedile di Nilo
Decumani
On the corner of a small Spaccanapoli square survives the seat of the old Nilo quarter, where the nobles once gathered before the sedili of Naples vanished.
History & archaeologyPort'Alba
Napoli
A seventeenth-century arch cut into the walls leads to the booksellers' street, where stalls of second-hand volumes pile up among yellowed pages and the shade of the old city.
History & archaeologyPorta Capuana
zona Garibaldi
Between two cylindrical towers an arch of white marble opens like a Renaissance triumph, the old city gate facing the road to Capua.
- History & archaeology
MANN — Museo Archeologico Nazionale
P.za Museo
One of the world's great archaeological museums: here the Toro Farnese, the mosaics of Pompeii and the Gabinetto Segreto tell the whole ancient Mediterranean in a single visit.