Travel like a Local – Naples (Italy)

5 Places Locals love in Naples, not the usual tourist attractions!

1. Area Marina Protetta Gaiola

The best place to fight the baking-hot temperatures of summer like a true local, the Gaiola Underwater Park is a great destination for both archeology and nature lovers…and those who want to simply enjoy the crystal-clear water. It is earthly paradise, right in town.

2. Catacombe di San Gennaro

Adopt a Skull. Neapolitans have unique traditions when it comes to dealing with their dead, whose origins have been obscured by time. Although many of the ritual observances – which the modern Church takes a dim view of – are on the wane, some locals still practise rites that can seem downright macabre to outsiders. The Neapolitan cult of the dead involves caring for the skulls – “capuzzelle” in local dialect – and bones of the unknown dead.

3. Museo Cappella di San Severo

Have a religious experience in Cappella Sansevero. The funerary chapel of the Di Sangro family was built in 1590. The figures in the crypt are utterly macabre. Obsessed with embalming, the eccentric prince of Sansevero, Raimondo di Sangro supposedly carried out experiments on defunct servants, injecting chemical substances into their bodies to preserve them. Local lore has it that they were not always dead when the operations took place. Others say that the figures are only models – though no one can say exactly what they’re made of.

4. Lungomare Carracciolo

Find modern love at Lungomare. Keep an eye out along the Lungomare (seafront promenade) for clusters of padlocks attached to poles, with the names or initials of couples painted on – the modern equivalent of true love knots

5. Tandem

When your belly rumbles, Tandem is the place to be: this restaurant is specialized in ragù and their meat sauce is so good that you can have it even without pasta, just with some bread to mop up your plate! Vegetarians, do not fear: you can order a veggie version!