24 hours in Naples… is that enough?

Naples! The city I went to in 2019 for my birthday. The reason I wanted to go is because of the fooood! Naples is the birthplace for some great Italian food. I can already say the food did not disappoint! In this article, I will tell more.

What to expect in this article:

4 Reasons why you have to visit Burano and Murano (Venice)!

24 hours in Naples... is that enough?

No. It is not. I can end this blog it with saying this. But I don´t want to do that. I want to give you the best itinerary to still enjoy Naples even when you just have 24 hours. Sadly that was all the time we had there.

Pompeii
We flew to Bari on Friday afternoon, because tickets from Sevilla to Bari were pretty cheap (40 euro pp). The reason we wanted to visit Italy was because it would be my birthday on Monday! So my boyfriend bought me the plane tickets, how sweet of him right!? 🙂 So we just had Friday evening until Monday.

On Saturday morning, we went to Naples by Flixbus to spend our Saturday and Sunday. We only spend 12 years for 2 people! So I recommend you to at their page.

So yes, I have to make a confession: we were there actually for two days. But, Saturday afternoon, straight after putting our stuff in the hotel, we went to Pompeii because we felt that we had to see this. After arriving there by train (which takes you 45 minutes) we spend around 4 hours there.
Pompeii is an archaeological site that has the ruins of an ancient Roman town destroyed in 79 AD by the eruption of the volcano Vesivius. It was interesting to walk around in a city with so much history and that I have heard about very often.

Saturday 18.00- 20.00

After Pompeii, we reached Naples around 6 PM, where we walked around a bit. Then of course, we had to eat pizza! Our landlady told us to definitely go to L’antica Pizzeria Da Michele.
This is the place that has a Michelin star, but still is very cheap and tasty pizza´s to eat. You can choose between the Margherita and the Marinara pizza.

To be honest, we did not feel very safe walking through the small streets of Napels late at night. I do not know why, but we both felt it. After the amazing pizza we had to try some gelato. I scream for Italian ice cream! So at Bongelato, we had the best chocolate ice cream and also a cinnamon stick which didn´t taste bad!

One full day in Naples

On Saturday, we were thinking about ór visiting the Amalfi Coast ór visiting Mount/Volcano Vesuvius, ór just visiting Naples on Sunday. All three sounded absolutely amazing, but we had to pick one because on Monday morning, we would head back to Bari. After thinking long and hard, we eventually chose to ´just´ visit Naples.

9.00-11.00 City centre

Naples didn´t disappoint us! At all!
Sunday, we got up really early to head to the city center, which was still really empty, so we had enough time to take photos of all the small streets everywhere.
I can tell you Naples is very photogenic! Then in the center we were looking for a place to have breakfast and we had the best food at L.u.i.s.e!

11.00-13.00 Seaside

Completely filled, we walked towards Galleria Umberto, which is a gallery similar to the one in Milan. I have never been there, but I can tell you that I was really impressed by seeing this gallery.

Then we walked to Nuovo Castel, a castle close to the sea. Headed right to walk next to the sea and have a stunning view over the Vesuvius volcano, so we took some time to make a few pictures.

Then the place where you definitely can take a lot of amazing pictures is 20 minutes further (by walk) and that is Castel dell´Ovo. This one is free to visit and you will have a nice view over the seaside of Naples.

P.s. Don’t forget to visit the Amalfi Coast, which is close by.

Don't forget to book an activity!

13.00-16.00 Castel Sant'Elmo

From Castel dell´ Ovo, we had the idea to walk to Castel Sant’Elmo. This castle is on top of Napels, so from there you will have a great view over Napels. On Google Maps, we saw that this would take us 40 minutes.
Normally I wouldn´t do this, but in a new place you always discover new places like this. So we walked up, had some snacks on our way, saw cute streets to photograph and after what I think was 1,5 hours, we finally reached the castle.

On our way up, we did not see anyone else and also didn´t see any directions, so maybe our Google Maps was really wrong, but we didn´t mind.
To enter the castle you pay 5 euro, or 2,50 euro when you are younger than 25 years old.
On top of the castle, you will an incredible view over Naples, especially over the Vesuvius.

16.00-20.00 Indian food 😛

From Castel Sant’Elmo, we walked down towards Casa Infante to have some ice cream, as it would probably be the last one.

Afterward, we wanted to go to the center again, so we took the metro. We stopped at Toledo Metro station as this was right in the center and apparently a beautiful station to see.

Walking up the stairs from the metro, we stumbled upon lots of people walking in the center. I was surprised by the number of people on a normal Sunday night, but I did enjoy it. In the center, we did feel much safer than the small streets we were walking on Saturday night, but we still didn´t want to be home too late.

So after visiting Piazza del Plebiscito, which really looks like the square of Vatican City, we had to end our evening with some good food. After scrolling down on Tripadvisor and hunting for some pasta, we had to give up, because everything was outside our budget, unfortunately.

We were kind of done with pizza. I know, really bad haha, we already had eaten 3 pizzas by then. We were thinking about having Indian food. A restaurant close to us and with good reviews on Tripadvisor was Mughal-e-Azam. Yum! The chicken Biryani and mango Lassi were really good. It was a nice change from the amazing Italian food.

After this meal, we headed back home. Firstly because we didn´t feel so safe the other night, but also because we had to be up by 5 the next morning to head back to Bari.

My advice

I would suggest visiting Naples for at least one whole week. That may sound a lot, but you need at least two days for Naples.
Then you can visit Pompeii, which is just 45 minutes by train. If you would like, you can also visit the Vesuvius volcano and the Amalfi coast, with incredible places like Sorrento, Positano, and Amalfi itself of course.

But do visit Naples! It´s a great city with the best food. Literally, everything I have had there, all tasted uuh-mazing!
It´s photogenic, the seaside was refreshing with the view over the Vesuvio, it has lots of cute streets and the view from Castel Sant´ Telmo is stunning.