Where Maradona is a Saint and Pizza Tastes Like Nowhere Else: How to Spend Three Days in Naples

A spider crawled up my sleeve as we sipped black coffee at Geneva’s international airport. Being more than mildly superstitious, someone who never forgets to toss salt over her left shoulder when spilled, I naturally took this spider as a dark omen before takeoff.

“Quick! Champagne!”

We rushed to the nearest bar to slosh down a bubbly glass of champagne before boarding our low-cost airline. Priorities. 

Prior to our journey to Naples, we spent cozy nights at home eating bowls of Italian wedding soup with reruns of The Godfather. These were the only two elements we knew about Italy’s less glossed over destination: that it was the birthplace of pizza and the Camorra.

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Day I: Arrival in Naples’ Historic Center

Before arriving in Naples, the pilot announced that due to an emergency landing, that we could take in the views of Mount Vesuvius and the Mediterranean Sea from above until further notice.

We landed to a message from our hotel warning us about taxi prices from the airport into Naples — a gentle reminder not to overpay, as a recent group of American tourists had unknowingly spent €60 for an eight-kilometer ride.

Upon arrival into the historic center, we saw shrines of Diego Armando Maradona, a professional soccer player from Argentina who led Naples from underdogs to world champions. His face is painted on stone homes throughout the city alongside devotions to the Virgin Mary. A bright blue Maradona spritz is also advertised at bars, and shops sell #10 jerseys for newborns and pairs of Maradona emblazed with his face.

Our stay at the Santa Chiara Boutique Hotel was conveniently located in the historic center, a few steps from the city’s most prized chef d’oeuvre, the Veiled Christ.

Reservations are required for entry into the Sansevero Chapel, where the veiled Christ is placed at the centerpiece, a crowd forming a circle to observe Jesus’s lifelike hands and feet, marked by wounds from being pinned to the cross, a crown of thorns placed delicately next to his skeletal feet. A temple protrudes from his forehead, his expression covered by what gains this sculpture world recognition: a thin veil delicately swept across his body. Crafted by Italian artist Giuseppe Sanmartino in 1753, then 33-years-old. The veil sculpted with one marble block was so detailed that the public believed it to be a real piece of fabric, undergoing an alchemic process to transform the cloth into stone.

Day II: Pompeii and Herculaneum

The next morning, we zipped through chaotic Naples traffic in a tourist van, alternating our gaze between near-misses on the road and the silhouette of Mount Vesuvius. Nearly 2,000 years ago, this volcano froze an entire Roman world in time; today, our guide told us, evacuating modern Naples — nearly a million residents — would take at least three days.

“But you know, with the Italian organization, I’m not so sure that would be possible,” our guide shrugged. “I mean in…in three days I’m still packing my luggage.”

As one of the world’s best, if not THE best, preserved archeological sites, we were met early morning by groups of tourists, audio guides in a chorus of international tongues and different vibrantly colored flags waving above us to lead the herd.

While we visited on our own with audio guides in French, I was overwhelmed by the vastness of this ancient city – a whole 66 hectares. While we easily could have spent the day here alone exploring, our visit was condensed to two hours. Our instincts led us to many former villas with remains of wall paintings, even a Roman brothel and school to train Gladiators.

When trying to find the exit, we got lost in an ancient cemetery, headstones with lions and mythical gods leading us to four bodies – plaster casts made of victims from the blast of 79 AD. This process of creating casts of victims was instigated by Giuseppe Fiorelli, who led excavations of the site following the unification of Italy in 1859. The second blast of Mount Vesuvius covered the deceased with a blanket of ash, which the hardened over time. As the bodies decomposed, voids were left, where which archeologists decided to fill will plaster, a technique that Fiorelli had used to show details of ancient coins. The detailed casts highlighted expressions of victims, often in rigid poses from the muscle spasms caused by increased temperatures, and even their clothing. Many victims were grouped together in families – a heartbreaking sight even 2,000 years later.

Day III: Slow Morning in Naples

“Geneva feels like Naples during COVID times,” my friend and Naples-native Chiara shared. Early on Saturday morning I could see why – by 10 a.m. the historic center was alive with street vendors selling red horned cornicelli, a talisman from ancient times symbolizing good fortune and fertility. For now, child-free by choice, we did not buy one.

At one point, the passage we walked through was so compact with people that it morphed into what seemed one body – a large mass stuck between two stone walls and unable to move. The group leaned to one side to force passage for a wheelchair and the elderly. When asking what was happening to a nearby lady, she replied “It’s Sunday.”

 I have to wonder what Naples is like during peak tourist season.

Unlike most destinations in which I try to compact as much as possible into an itinerary noted hour-by-hour, we enjoyed Naples at a slower pace, leaving room to stumble upon some of my personal favorite discoveries during the weekend:

Santa Chiara Monastery

Entering the Santa Chiara Monastery feels like stepping into another world. The calm here is a stark contract from the Piazza del Gesu.

The real treasure lies behind the church: a cloister wrapped in bright blue-and-yellow ceramic tiles, each column hand-painted with vines, fruit, and scenes of rural Mediterranean life. They shimmer against a garden scented with lemon trees, their branches heavy with ripening fruit. Walking through this space feels both intimate and surreal — a sanctuary of color and quiet.

The frescoed walls reminded me of the medina in Marrakesh, while my husband said it looked like something taken straight from southern Spain. In truth, it feels like a blend of many worlds, yet uniquely Neapolitan.

Address: Via Santa Chiara, 49/c, 80134 Napoli |  Website: https://www.monasterodisantachiara.it/en/

Gran Caffè Gambrinus

Once supplier for the Royal House of Savoy, the Gran Caffè Gambrinus is known as one of Europe’s best literary cafes, where Empress Sissi of Austria ate violet ice cream, and where authors Oscar Wilde and Ernest Hemingway were inspired to write. In the window, the very cups that former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Pope Francis drank out of are on display. The lemon sorbet here was my personal favorite culinary experience while visiting Naples.

Address: Via Chiaia, 1, 80132 Napoli  |  Website: https://grancaffegambrinus.shop/

 National Archaeological Museum of Naples

What struck me most about the National Archaeological Museum of Naples was the absence of Jesus.

Once used as a storage space for artefacts from Pompeii and Herculaneum that were too delicate to be left exposed to nature’s elements, the museum now showcases a world shaped by dozens of deities. The collection reveals how deeply Ancient Rome’s identity was woven into its gods: protectors of nature, fertility, the hunt, war, the sea, and every aspect of daily life. Beyond the official gods of the state, families also kept their own domestic gods, honored in private shrines within the home.

The museum also houses a secret cabinet, a collection of erotic art that once excavated, shocked Victorian Europe who had held the Romans to exceedingly high moral standards. The god Priapus had much less to do with sex and was a common symbol to ward off the evil eye. The secret cabinet was closed off to women, children and the general public for well over a century, accessible to men for a fee. According to Atlas Obscura, viewing this collection became a rite of passage for gentlemen on their Grand Tour — a private glimpse into a world that did not conform to their era’s sensibilities.

Address: Piazza Museo, 19, 80135 Napoli  |  Website: https://www.museoarcheologiconapoli.it/en/

Pizza Worth Writing Home About: Where to Eat in Naples

Mimì alla ferrovia

Locals consider this restaurant an institution and many celebrities have been spotted dining here, including Robert de Niro. We highly recommend the pasta alla Genovese.

Address: Via Alfonso D’Aragona, 19/21, 80139 Napoli |  Website: https://www.mimiallaferrovia.it/en/

Pizzeria Concettina ai Tre Santi

In the 1950s Concettina fried pizzas on a street corner, and generations later, her family is still serving some of Napoli’s most unique pizzas to queues of hungry customers lining outside the door. I opted for a simple Margherita pizza (which we learned was created with the colors of Italy’s flag in mind) which was the best pizza I’ve had in 35 years of existence.

Address: Via Arena della Sanità, 7 Bis, 80137 Napoli  |  Website: https://www.concettinaaitresanti.com/

Trattoria Enoteca Campagnola

La Campagnola is a cozy restaurant hidden from the noise of Napoli’s busy historic quarter. Local wine and traditional Neapolitan dishes are well worth a stop.

Address: Via dei Tribunali, 47, 80138 Napoli  |  Website: https://www.facebook.com/Campagnola1947/?locale=it_IT