Heady, heaving, Naples, with its mysterious Cosa Nostra and crumbling coffee cafes, is unquestionably one of Italy’s most fascinating cities. Famed for its beat-up appearance, its Centro Storico is awash with sooty statues, carved and chiselled in the likeness of saints and poets.
But Napoli is definitely more devil than it is angel, and therein lies its charm. Narrow alleyways of leaning plaster facades run into open piazzas, strung and criss-crossed along the way with laundry lines and humming petrol scooters. On the port, the grubby facades of medieval strongholds, the Castel dell'Ovo and the Maschio Angioino stand defiant, menacing and strong bearing the brunt of the Mediterranean waves.
Looming above the town, the great caldera of Mount Vesuvius pipes and fumes eerily to this day, still looking southwards over the Roman settlements of Pompeii and Herculaneum that it so famously annihilated in 79 AD. As any Naples tour guide will inform you, this is a town where all around the shadows and sceptres of the past linger; concealed in the alcoves of the old city, or hidden beneath the ruins in the House of the Faun.
Oh, and don’t leave without trying a pizza—they are rumoured to be the best in all of Italy.