Family holidays as a contact sport

Naples is dirty, scruffy, hectic, covered in graffiti and ABSOLUTLY FUCKING BRILLIANT.
We based ourselves in the heart of the historic centre for a week in February 2025 and had a really great family holiday. Now admittedly after two days my seven year old daughter did ask if we could go somewhere that didn’t have rubbish on the floor, men shouting and mopeds weaving around, however by the end of the week these didn’t seem to be concerns on the march to one of the plethora of local gelaterias.

We had 7 days to explore the city at a child friendly pace, (including side trips to Paestum, Pompeii and Caserta) but really could’ve spent several more days here without exhausting our options, it isn’t unsurprising that a city with 3,000 years of history kept on throwing up things of great interest.

Our love of this city, was almost the opposite of Clyde, whilst we enjoyed some of the major sites, it was what he categorised as the ugly sprawl between them that we found most captivating. They are mostly grey, sometimes rather dilapidated and at times bland buildings. They were plastered in graffiti, or housing unique shops or food stalls, or a resident drying their laundry from a balcony, and quite frequently all of the above. And this is what made the city so utterly vibrant and life affirming. 

From 10 metres below your feet to 20 metres above your head there were layers and layers of human activity, and you could read and interact with each and every part of it if you wished. 

Whilst I was there I listened to a podcast in which British film director Asif Kapadeia described the intense atmosphere of central Naples as like living permanently on an Indian train. And it was that intensity that I found so captivating.

D10S

This fervent air helped explain to me the relationship the city has with one of its most famous ex-residents, Diego Maradona. If you weren’t aware of the Argentine footballer before visiting Naples, there is not a hope in hell you won’t recognise him after even the most cursory visit. His image (icon) is on pretty much every surface in the city, you can even have an espresso next to a shrine dedicated to a lock of his hair. But beyond a famous face that brought joy for a while to a football team, there is something so Neapolitan about Maradona, this cheeky under class Pibe de Oro seemed to chime so well with the city I encountered. Its reputation as a city that Italians and Europeans more generally look down upon, is almost worn as a badge of honour, and its scruffy and scrappy nature can bring about moments of incredible joy. And the fact that I visited Naples in a year that they won a 4th Scudetto does add an extra frisson for me, like doing the Camino de Santiago in a holy year.

However there is no doubting though that this scruffy and intense centre can sometimes need escaping from, and we found the most enjoyable way to do this was to ride the funicular up to the more affluent district of Vomero, which brought back fond memories of Lisbon. Here we spent a wonderful few hours in the park of Villa Floridiana (which is actually part of the core zone of this WHS) eating fried food (meh) and lovely bakery goods (much better) whilst looking out from the great terrace across the bay and spending an inordinate amount of time watching terrapins attempting to clamber onto sunbaked rocks. 
The day couldn’t been much better, but on the way back to another funicular we stopped at Gelateria Soave 1950, and reader I can safely say that in 40+ years of eating ice cream, I have never had one as good as the Pistachio option served here, direct from the still churning vat.

That flags up one of the other joys of Naples, the food.

• I think it is essentially impossible to have a bad pizza, you could spend all week trying to find the best (we were surprised the mini chain of Sorbillio made the ones we enjoyed most), but to be honest they are all a lot better than what I can get at home, and about a third of the price.
• I really love aubergines, so having a plethora of Melanzane Parmigiano to try was glorious (my favourite was at La Cantina di via Sapienza),
• You will be hard pressed to find a better pastry than sfogliatella (our favourite came from Antica Pasticceria Vincenzo Bellavia available at both the station and airport).
• I’m absolutely certain that someone with local knowledge will see my recommendations, scoff and lead me to a place with an even better example, and that is part of what makes this city so incredible.

My only real piece of advice is try to avoid the walk from the Central Station to the historic centre, especially for your first taste of the city. It wasn’t necessarily the worse thing, but it was a little scruffier than other parts of the city without the more redeeming features and for fresh arrivals the loitering groups and crazy traffic may put you a little more on edge than a quick hop of a stop or two on the metro does.

This is a city that rewarded us for throwing ourselves at it. It isn’t as beautiful as some European historic centres, but there are few places in the world where 3,000 years of people's lives can so evidently be seen and experienced, it is utterly brilliant.