Our ship docked conveniently next to the historic city center of Naples, a UNESCO World Heritage site. This was our first visit to Naples so we spent the day strolling through town. Right on the waterfront is the ancient Castel Nuovo.
Close by is the Royal Palace,
the Teatro di San Carlo Opera House,
and the Piazza del Plebiscito.
Turning around, we had a partial view of the beautiful Galleria Umberto I.
Via Toledo is the main street with shops, restaurants and lots of pedestrian traffic. The side streets are narrow and crowded with life.
We stopped to buy chocolate in this old fashioned shop. It didn’t look like much from the outside but it was delightful inside.
Every street scene begged for a photo!
The church of Gesu Nuovo with it’s unique exterior was originally a palace.
This narrow street was jam-packed with shops and stalls selling Christmas trinkets.
These rustic diorama-like displays were very popular. They had little lights in the windows and miniature waterfalls. Not sure how you would carry it home.
Naples is where the Margherita pizza came from. It was “invented” in honor of a visit by Queen Margherita using the colors of the Italian flag – red/sauce, green/basil, and white/mozzarella. We had to give that a try.
It was excellent!
There were lots of tasty pastry shops too.
We returned to the ship by way of an upscale part of town, the Corso Umberto I. Fancy shops and apartments!
Our first look at Naples gave us just a small taste of what this city has to offer. It’s worth another visit.
Gracia's Travels - a photo-blog 
How charming! I’ve noticed you have a fondness for cats in your pictures, but this time you got a dog – very handsome one, too!
I do love cats! They are more apt to be hanging around by themselves so they are easier to photograph. Dogs are usually with their people. I’ve noticed that the dogs I’ve taken pictures of are usually waiting in doorways waiting for their people!
I loved the margherita pizza when we went to Italy — so simple, yet so good!
Napoli looks lovely, a little bit like Nice but a lot more architectural gems. If you like the Napoli pizza, try Pizza Pulcinello on Rainier Ave S. They do the margherita one also.
Thanks, Patricia. I’ll have to give that one a try.
Hi! I’m from Napoli, Thanks for the pictures and for nice words about my city. Most of visitors don’t understand the city’spirit. Indeed Napoli is messy and dirty, however it’s authentic and not comformized too, something unique to see in europe. Napoli was well developed, wealth and one of the top european city until two centuries ago, before northern italian empire conquired south italy (under spanish empire) and turned it out to the currently poor conditions. About pizza, the best pizzeria are at ‘via tribunali’ in old city area, the ONLY city pizza is margherita and marinara. Please do not ask for any different type. Pastries are very good, ‘must-to-try’ are babà (with rhum) and sfogliatella (in royal gallery there is one of the best). Coffee as to be tried as well, the city’s water flover is strongly influenced by the volcano and it gives a special taste to everything based on water (coffee, pasta and pizza included). The historical caffè ‘Gambrinus’ at the main square ‘Plebiscito’ is a place to go, for amazing interiors and coffee taste. The nativity scene street (S. Gregorio armeno) is wonderful and higly suggestive during Xmas period, as well as packed with people and crowded. In the city there is the oldest theater in Europe. Napoli was well developed, wealth and one of the top european city until two centuries ago, before northern italian empire conquired south and turned out to the currently poor conditions. Thanks for visiting Napoli!
Thanks for the extra info on Napoli!