children itineraries

The best way to get to know Naples is to walk around its ancient streets in the historical centre. Your children also will find walking in its characteristics streets very amusing and interesting, with its old craftsmen’s shops and laboratories.  But, we recommend that you are careful in the chaotic traffic in the city centre. It can be very dangerous, especially for your children, as cars and motocycles shoot out from all directions disregarding traffic-lights and pedestrian crossings. So, always keep an eye on your children. The most characteristic street in Naples, is the most ancient one: Spaccanapoli. Its name means “Split Naples”, as this road literally splits the ancient city centre into two parts. Spaccanapoli is a long straight road and on both its sides a labyrinth of narrow lanes spreads out, where you can still see Naples traditional way of living, and at the same time history surrounds you with churches, historical palaces, squares and so on. Along Spaccanapoli, in fact, there are some of the city’s most important monuments: the huge church spire “Guglia dell’Immacolata”; the Church of Gesù Nuovo, with its interior in a wonderful Baroque style; The Monastery of Santa Chiara, in Gothic Style, with its splendid courtyard. Coming from Church of Gesù Nuovo, past the Monastery, turn left and walk along via San Sebastiano (full of musical instruments shops and lute-makers’ laboratories), then  you will get in Piazza Bellini, that is a square full of life, with open-air cafeterias around the monument built to commemorate the composer Vincenzo Bellini, who studied in Naples at  the Academy of Music  that is at a few steps from the square. In the square you can admire the archaeological remains of the ancient Greek walls that once stood on the square’s site. After a while of rest in the cafeterias or giving a look to the book stalls (most of them specialized in art books) in the near Port’Alba street, you can reach in a few minutes via San Gregorio Armeno. This road is famous worldwide  as the “nativity scene road” because there are several craftsmen’s laboratories that makes figurines for nativity scenes, and who still use traditional methods. There are figurines of all kinds and of all prices, from the cheap ones (simple but very accurate) to the most expensive ones, worth to be exhibited in Museums for their faithfulness to the 17^th century handicraft and the luxury in materials. The nativity scenes are on sale all year round, but in Christmas term this road is overwhelmed by crowds of tourists and Neapolitans.  Your children will love this place, where they will admire the stunningly rich in details “presepi”, offering a lively and colourful representation of the uses and costumes of  the life in Naples   in the 17^th century. In fact the “nativity scenes” were not meant to be historically true and so they did not mirrored the biblical life, but they were a show of the contemporary people’s life. So you will find the figurine of the “pizzaiolo” (pizza cook) or the greengrocers’s stall with tomatoes and potatoes in exhibition. Your children will be amused by the realism of these reproductions, for example the mills with real water endlessly flowing or the self-moving  authoma-figurines (the old woman baking pizza, the fisher, and so on).  They will also be able to recognize in some figurines contemporary personages (like the Pope,  famous actors or politicians) as some artisans every year conceive a new figurine  inspired by contemporaries facts and this is for them an original way of advertising their laboratory.

By Chiara  and Rosaria