Exploring NAPLES, Italy's Most Misunderstood City? Visiting Post Lockdown Napoli

hello good morning and welcome to napoli i'm now here in south italy's largest city naples and it's a bustling energetic unapologetic and quite beautiful place in its own unique way i suppose and before i get started this morning i want to run you through where i'm staying here in the city i have the banksy room here at sweet sleep which has different themes and the ensuite just here with the shower there's also a balcony through here but do bear in mind that there is construction right outside the hotel at the moment bustling maples just ahead train station around the corner and an interesting city view to feel like you're right at the heart of the action so if you are interested in staying at sweet sleep then i will leave the link in the video description there's also a fantastic rooftop where you can get great views of naples and i had my breakfast there this morning which is included i'm now in the center of the city in one of naples main touristy streets and i'm heading towards the santa kiara monastery to kick things off today [Music] so i think there are three things that make the santa clara monastery complex so unique firstly it's the tiles which run all along the boundaries secondly the cloisters which do the same the columns and thirdly the incredible murals which just work their way around like most places here in italy seems like i'm the only one here although i did come first thing in the morning to try and get some empty shots of the place and that plan seems to have turned out pretty successfully [Music] so [Music] so [Music] after visiting the monastery complex make sure you pop into the basilica to santa kiara which is vast and gothic behind me mostly destroyed by allied bombing in world war ii and largely restored to what it is today but used to be one of the most important churches in the city so having left the santa clara monastery i'm now here in a quiet back street of naples and has all the ingredients of a classic lane in this city narrow alley with buildings high up on either side and washing hanging and motorbikes buzzing past although like i said it's really quiet at this specific moment in time because it is siesta it's now the middle of the afternoon and i'm going to work my way through some of the most interesting streets of naples historic center [Applause] [Music] um so i've just come out by one of the most famous pizza places in town and go to all the most famous places hello hi how are you ciao i'm guessing what's your name jason what are you doing youtube it's a travel vlog it's a tower blog okay i wanna explain you why we are here okay we're from a city called ferruera and we made the protest to protect our land and our river yeah that's polluted okay yes is it in the south or the north yeah it's it's here close to here close to naples yeah okay cool so blah blah blah [Music] so i'm now turning right here onto via san gregorio amino which is a very special and unique street here in naples and let me show you why so this street is essentially famous for its pasta which are nativity scene figurines and you'll find modern embellishments of them such as football players and different touristy things but essentially the history lies within the mini religious icons that you'll find on either side of this narrow lane so this is one of the two touristy streets that run parallel towards the city's main shopping street they have all this kind of graffiti and street art and different prints and also numerous gift shops places to get street food cafes and generally very interesting as a tourist and really show off naples's unique image and atmosphere [Music] as i walk through all of these very interesting streets there is just so much history in all the buildings and views that i can get between the alleyways around me here i am as the road opens up to the via toledo the city's main shopping street which runs down a long way on the left here is the gallery italia and i will run through all of the art galleries museums and places of interest that i don't have time to show you in proper detail at the end of this video and some of them are absolutely incredible and really worth seeing here in naples not quite as famous as its bigger brother in milan the galleria umberto in naples is really quite impressive and certainly worth stop [Music] so the via toledo turns into the piazza del plebiscito and to my right here is the royal palace of naples also known as palazzo riyala another one of the things i'm going to be highlighting at the end of this video absolutely incredible views once the bay of naples opens up here so a bit of an update for you between there is ovo castle and by the time i got to the entrance even though it was 5 30 and google map says it closes at 6 30 the guys in there wouldn't let me in and there was an online ticket required which i booked on the spot but they still wouldn't let me in hey i've got myself some bruschetta which i haven't actually tried here in italy so far and i've got a spritz here as an apparatif and yeah we'll continue on with this naples video one thing you'll see almost everywhere here in naples is the cornicello which is usually found as a small amulet that people can wear around their necks and a lot of the touristy shops will be selling them with different things in the cornicello style and it actually looks kind of like a red chili pepper but it's not it's a horn and it's supposed to protect against the evil eye and bad luck in general it's interesting because they're absolutely everywhere so definitely a feature of naples and whether they're in other places in southern italy i'm not sure people have to let me know in the comments below [Music] having left ovo castle which you can see glowing in the sunlight over there in the distance i'm now here on the waterfront just in front of a very nice and affluent district of the city called kiaya behind me on the other side of that park you can see a few of the buildings over there loads of people walking along the waterfront here and beautiful colors you can see the other side where sorrento is on the coastline and then the island of capri almost a stone's throwaway it feels like and even the other side of naples as we continue i don't even know if that still counts as naples this is quite far away from the train station and at the top of the hill over there in the distance is where i'm planning to go tomorrow morning and if i can wake up early enough and get there i'm hoping to do it at sunrise and then enter the castle too so join me in the early hours good morning it's now 5am here in napoli and i'm about to embark on my walk towards the castle that i highlighted just seconds ago castle elmo you can see the streets are very quiet indeed still dark in the sky but some light starting to pop through so on we go [Music] nearly there now i can see the castle just up there some great views already beginning to reveal themselves but i'm not going to show you just yet until we get the full thing very humid here i'm sweating from this sticky heat so i've now made it to the viewpoint which is called belvedere san martino and the sun is just rising above the clouds right now the castle elmo is just here but it doesn't open until 8 30 and that offers full panoramic views of the bay of naples and pompeii this particular viewpoint is more in the direction of the sunrise but you can't quite see the full bay of naples and capri and the other coastline of sorrento but that's okay we'll see a little bit later on in the morning for now let's enjoy this breathtaking view over the city and the dramatic sunrise [Music] [Music] having taken in the sunrise which was maybe a little bit cloudy i'm now here entering into castle saint elmo which overlooks the bay of naples and was only 2 euros 50 to enter a little bit of a walk to reach the top but i'm now here and are you ready for full panoramic views of naples which we didn't get at sunrise look at that vesuvius over there and the bay parts of the city that i was in yesterday and the district of kiya and views from the other side originally saint elmo was in fact a church until its strategic location at the top of this particularly high hill overlooking naples was taken advantage of and 400 years later it was turned in to a castle the spanish viceroy of naples pedro de toledo then took it one step further and turned it into a fortified castle in 1538 making my way back down from castle elmo and through the spanish quarter and i thought it would be a good idea to show you what these streets are like as they're particularly interesting sloping and the buildings and the laundry overhanging as i mentioned at the beginning earlier on in the video you simply can't go to naples expecting florence or venice or rome it's completely on its own and works in its own way has its own attitude and everything about the city separates itself from other towns of italy and don't expect it to change and you'll eventually fall in love with it the more days you spend here just the way it is [Music] just stumbled on this large mural of diego maradona who you'll see all over the city of naples he's worshiped like a god here played for a few years and won the european cup italian championships and he was forever loved by the working class people of the city he bonded with them on a level that most footballers don't tend to do absolute legend here even if he did handball the goal against england in 86 he scored a wonder goal after that which could not be forgotten and he even played here in 1990 in the world cup semi-final against italy and the neapolitans themselves had to decide who to support italy or maradona's argentina in the end maradona's argentina went through but uh incredible memories of this city for that man exciting street art all over the spanish quarter which is really great if you like that urban style that you can find here a common sight here in naples icons of madonna sitting in glass on the outside of the buildings the outer fringes of the spanish quarter do have some touristy streets usually running down to the via toledo lots of local restaurants with menus kind of accustomed to visitors and usually when you head up sort of in the direction towards elmo castle the more local and less touristy it gets so you can kind of find both here in kotari espanola so i've now sat down here in the spanish quarter as you can see at a place called pizzeria the tretala and i've got a seafood pizza here which looks absolutely incredible i had to include some food in this video as naples is so synonymous for its cuisine and in the next video i'm going to be doing an exclusive vlog on food here in naples trying some of the most famous ones but i wanted to give this particular place a shout out because their pizza really is so good i came here the other day and tried it and it was unbelievable so before i end the video i'm gonna run you through a bunch of things here in naples that you can see and do in a bit more detail the place of interest and one i recommend seeing the most is the museo capella san severo you can't take any pictures or videos inside but in this baroque chapel you'll find the mesmerizing veiled christ sculpture it's so realistic and unbelievable it'll most likely leave you speechless so don't miss it next up worth seeing is the national archaeological museum this holds naples is best collection of ancient sculpture artifacts paintings frescoes mosaics and epigraphs many items on display here are from the ancient settlements below vesuvius that were buried and then preserved by the ash for mostly paintings head to the galleria de italia just off the via toledo which features work from artists like caravaggio and botticelli amongst art spanning from the 17th to early 20th century additionally worth seeing is the royal palace of naples effectively a 16th century throwback to the period when naples was under spanish rule it has a lot of interesting rooms which provide a good insight into the unique and diverse history of the city powered and controlled by different occupying forces also worth popping into is naples is duomo consecrated in 1315 but then largely destroyed in an earthquake it is arguably the main church in naples and all of southern italy another castle to see is castle nuovo which is one of the first sights that people tend to see when arriving into the city via cruise ship you can climb the castle ramparts for front seat views of the bay of naples and its harbour there was a lot of construction at the time of my visiting and different parts of the castle were closed so keep that in mind if you plan to visit in the near future as you have seen there is simply an abundance of things to see and do here in naples i could go on to highlight more such as underground naples or the cemetery just north of the city which i didn't get around to visiting myself and so i probably won't elaborate on them other than saying that they also are highly rated this video has only shown the inside of the city and some of the things that you can do in it outside there is just so much more nearby and i will cover a few of those places in the coming videos although next is a full napoli food tour so stay tuned for that and i'll see you then peace [Music] you

Channel: Jason Billam Travel

Views: 198,779

Keywords: naples, napoli, naples italy, italy naples, italia, napoli italia, italia napoli, naples vlog, naples travel, naples food, exploring naples, italy city, naples city, naples people, naples tour, naples travel guide, italy vlog, napoli vlog, what to do in naples, what to see in naples, naples travel vlog, naples volcano, naples pizza, neapolitan, italy food, italy travel guide, naples trip, naples tourist, visiting naples, italy's best city, naples best city, naples safe

Id: XcPpYJIj6AY

Length: 25min 42sec (1542 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 14 2020