Naples Travel Forum

We will be cruising into Naples in the summer. I have a few questions I would like answered and if someone could help it would be great.
1. Is Naples safe? If not, where should I avoid?
2. Is it easy to get to the train station from the cruise ship to travel to Pompeii? How do I get there? If I take a taxi, about how much will it cost?
3. I have read that the other site, Hercu... is worth seeing. What is the difference, and is it worth stopping on the way back from Pompeii?
4. Pizza originated in Naples. Where would I get the best, most authentic pizza? How would I get there.
5. Is there a plaza or town center in Naples where there are shops and cafes etc to visit that is a must see?
6. Any other suggestions... quaint towns, villages outside of Naples?

Hi, I hope you enjoy your time in Napoli. We drove from Napoli to Pompeii, but I believe the train should be easy enough to find from the port and it drops you off across the street from Pompeii. There's a pizza shop directly across from the port, although up a side street. If you walk away from the main office and cross the street you'll see the street and it's on the right hand side. I'll ask my wife if she remembers the name. Take proper precautions, keep your money hidden and an eye on your baggage and you should be fine. Depending on how much time you have I'd either take the hydrofoil to Capri (about 45 minutes, frequent departures) or drive out to Sorrento, both are stunning places to visit and easy to get to from Napoli. We didn't go to the other site, but found we could have easily spent several more hours at Pompeii, I don't think we scratched the surface of what there was to see. Hope this helps some.
Frank

First of all, Naples is as safe or as dangerous as any other big city. Just take the precautions that you would adopt in any other big city. You would probably do best to take a taxi from the cruise terminal to the train station, although there are buses but I cannot for the life of me remember the numbers. It's not far and I would say to walk....... It is an easy train ride from Terminale (the train station in Naples) to Pompeii Scavi on the Circumvesuviana line - trains are frequent, safe, cheap. The train station is right at the site. Don't know how long you have in Naples altogether but I personally would not attempt to do both Pompeii and Herculaneum in one day. We were in Pompeii for over seven hours and still left with things to see - it is a huge site. We were there in February and there were very few people but in the summer the place will be very crowded and VERY hot, so allow for this. Herculaneum is absolutely worth a visit - it is much smaller and gives you much more of a feel of a "living" place and also gives you a very good idea of the amount and depth of excavation that had to be carried out. It is also very much a work in progress - when we were there they had just finished putting up the scaffolding so that they can start excavating what looks like a large palace - the facade is right on the edge of the site and the excavation will go in under the present town. If people could only visit the one site, I would unreservedly recommend Herculeaneum. You can also include Villa Oplontis on the same day as visiting Herculeaneum. Look at my pages for Pompeii and Naples. Also VTer Leics has good pages on Pompeii, Herculeaneum, Villa Oplontis, Torre Annunciata et al.
As for pizza, if you are up near the National Archaelogical Museum, then I have recommended a place in my Naples page. However, quite honestly, any place seems to serve excellent pizzas. I would suggest you read about Neopolitan pizzas first, as if you want an authentic one, as opposed to just a pizza in Naples, then you should know what it will consist of.

i agree w/ other posters.
i'd also suggest you look through the other postings related to this exact topic. it is a very popular one.