Beneath the streets of Naples lies another city, dug out by the Greeks two and a half thousand years ago. And fifteen kilometers away, Vesuvius is still active. Twelve stops through the Pompeii museum, the Greek walls, the alchemist prince's chapel, the tunnels forty meters underground, a president's pizzeria, a murderer's painting, the blood of Saint Januarius, the castle of the trap party, Maradona's Quartieri Spagnoli and the lookout over the volcanoes. Approximate audio duration: 21 minutes.
▸ Ver en español
Nápoles: el Vesubio, la pizza y la ciudad subterránea
Debajo de las calles de Nápoles hay otra ciudad, excavada por los griegos hace dos mil quinientos años. Y a quince kilómetros, el Vesubio sigue activo. Doce paradas por el museo de Pompeya, las murallas griegas, la capilla del príncipe alquimista, los túneles a cuarenta metros bajo tierra, la pizzería de un presidente, el cuadro de un asesino, la sangre de San Jenaro, el castillo de la fiesta trampa, los Quartieri Spagnoli de Maradona y el mirador sobre los volcanes. Duración aproximada de audio: 21 minutos.
Tour stops
12 stops · ~21 min of audio · 4.8 km on foot (~1 h 10 min walking) · about 1 h 45 min in total
You are in front of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. Look at the great reddish building: it was a cavalry barracks and a university before becoming a museum.
Inside is what Vesuvius swallowed and kept. In the year 79 the volcano buried Pompeii and Herculaneum under meters of ash and mud. The cities were frozen on an ordinary day.
In the eighteenth century the Bourbon kings of Naples began excavating them. Frescoes, mosaics, statues, carbonized loaves, it all ended up here.
Among the most famous pieces is the mosaic of Alexander the Great in battle, millions of tesserae that dec…
2
The New City
You are in Piazza Bellini. Look at the hollow in the middle of the square, surrounded by a railing: down there are large blocks of yellowish stone. They are remains of the city's Greek walls.
Naples was founded by Greeks. First they built a settlement by the sea, which legend links to the siren Parthenope: a siren who, rejected by Ulysses, let herself die, and whose body washed up on this coast.
Around 470 BC they founded a new city, further up. They called it Neapolis: new city. That is where Naples comes from.
That new city had a grid plan, with three long parallel streets and alleys cros…
3
The Bomb That Did Not Explode
You are in the Piazza del Gesù Nuovo. Look at the church facade: grey stones carved into diamond points, one by one. It looks like the facade of a fortress, and originally it belonged to a palace, that of the princes of Sanseverino, from the fifteenth century.
The Jesuits bought it and turned it into a church. They kept the facade.
Get closer and look at the stones: many bear engraved marks, strange signs. Some say they are esoteric symbols, others that they are musical notes written in an ancient alphabet. Nobody knows for sure.
Inside, in the rooms dedicated to the doctor saint Giuseppe M…
4
The Alchemist Prince
You are in front of the Sansevero Chapel. From outside it is a discreet door in an alley. Inside is one of the most astonishing sculptures in the world.
It is the Veiled Christ: a dead body lying on a mattress, covered by a veil so fine it seems transparent. You can see the ribs, the wounds, the face beneath the cloth. It is all a single block of marble. Giuseppe Sanmartino carved it in 1753.
The chapel was decorated on the orders of Raimondo di Sangro, Prince of Sansevero. He was an inventor, chemist, Freemason and alchemist. The Neapolitans of his time were afraid of him.
They said the ve…
5
Pulcinella and the Footballers
You are on Via San Gregorio Armeno. Look at the shops spilling out onto the pavement: nativity scenes, shepherds, sheep, miniature houses, hanging angels. Here it is Christmas all year round.
It is one of the Greek alleys that crossed the main streets. Nativity craftsmen have worked on this street for centuries.
The Neapolitan nativity scene is not limited to the birth. It is a whole city in miniature: butchers, innkeepers, beggars, pizza makers, the daily life of Naples around the child.
And among the traditional figures you will find others. Politicians, actors, popes, singers and, above …
6
Forty Meters Beneath Your Feet
You are in Piazza San Gaetano, at the entrance to Napoli Sotterranea. Look at the square's pavement. Now imagine that, some forty meters further down, there are galleries, wells and cisterns stretching beneath the whole center.
This square was the agora of Greek Neapolis and later the Roman forum. Below begins the other city.
The Greeks quarried tuff here to build their houses and walls. They left huge cavities. The Romans turned them into cisterns and connected them to an aqueduct that brought water from the mountains.
For centuries Naples drank from these wells. Down went the pozzari, the…
7
A President's Pizza
You are in front of the Di Matteo pizzeria on Via dei Tribunali. Look at the window full of fried snacks, the people waiting on the pavement and, inside, the photos on the walls.
In 1994 Naples hosted a G7 summit. The president of the United States, Bill Clinton, slipped away from protocol and ate a pizza here, in the street, standing up. The photo still hangs.
Pizza is Neapolitan. It was poor people's food: dough, tomato, sometimes nothing else. It was sold in the street and eaten folded, a portafoglio, like a wallet.
The official story says that in 1889 a pizza maker named Raffaele Esposi…
8
The Murderer's Painting
You are in the church of the Pio Monte della Misericordia. Look at the high altar: a dark painting, full of figures jostling in a street at night, lit by a light coming from one side.
It is The Seven Works of Mercy, by Caravaggio. He painted it in 1607 for this charitable institution, founded by seven Neapolitan noblemen. It has never left here. The statutes forbid selling it.
Look at the scenes: a man giving another a drink, someone burying a dead man whose feet stick out of the darkness, a young woman breastfeeding an old prisoner through bars. These are the works of mercy, but in a Naples…
9
The Blood That Liquefies
You are in front of Naples Cathedral, the Duomo. Look at the white Gothic-looking facade: it is nineteenth century, but behind it stands a medieval cathedral and, beneath it, Greek and Roman remains.
Inside, in a dazzling chapel of marble and silver, two glass ampoules containing a dark, dry substance are kept. According to tradition, it is the blood of Saint Januarius, San Gennaro, the city's patron, beheaded in the year 305.
Three times a year the archbishop shows the ampoules to the crowd. If the blood turns liquid, the city breathes: it is a good sign. If it does not liquefy, misfortune …
10
The Trap Party
You are in front of the Castel Nuovo, which Neapolitans call the Maschio Angioino. Look at the round towers of dark stone and, set between two of them, a triumphal arch of white marble.
The castle was built by the French kings of Anjou at the end of the thirteenth century. In the fifteenth century the Aragonese conquered it, rebuilt it and added that arch to celebrate King Alfonso's entry into the city.
Inside is an enormous hall with a star-shaped stone vault: the Hall of the Barons. The city council meets there today. Its name recalls a betrayal.
In 1486 the great nobles of the kingdom co…
11
The God of the Quartieri
You are in the Quartieri Spagnoli, in front of the Maradona mural. Look at the enormous face painted on the wall, the sky-blue scarves, the candles, the photos, the handwritten messages. This is not an attraction: it is an altar.
This neighborhood was laid out by the Spanish in the sixteenth century, when Naples was a viceroyalty of Spain. Straight, narrow, steep streets to house the troops.
Over time it became one of the densest and poorest neighborhoods in Europe. Whole families in the bassi, one-room homes at street level. For decades, Camorra territory.
In 1984 a twenty-three-year-old A…
12
Between Two Volcanoes
You are in the Parco Virgiliano, at the top of the Posillipo hill. Look at the whole gulf: to the east, Naples and Vesuvius with its split summit; to the south, the island of Capri; below, the little island of Nisida joined to the coast.
Posillipo comes from the Greek pausilypon, the place that makes pain cease. Wealthy Romans built their villas here. Centuries later aristocrats and millionaires followed their example.
But this beauty sits on fire. Look east: Vesuvius. Its last eruption was in March 1944, with the city occupied by the Allies. The ash destroyed dozens of American bombers at a…
How long does the "Naples: Vesuvius, Pizza and the City Underground" audio tour take?
It has about 21 minutes of audio across 12 stops and a 4.8 km walking route (~1 h 10 min on foot). Plan roughly 1 h 45 min in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "What the Volcano Kept" (coordinates 40.8536, 14.2506). The app guides you from stop to stop with a map.
Is it free?
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.
Why use an audio tour instead of a guided group tour?
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for. Start at any time of day, on your own schedule. Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route. Works offline once downloaded.
What languages is this audio guide available in?
This tour is available in Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian. Switch languages anytime from inside the app.
Do I need wifi to listen to this tour?
No. Download the tour over wifi before you go, then listen without any data connection.
How do I access this tour?
Download Trevurs on iPhone (App Store) or Android (Google Play), then open Naples and pick "Naples: Vesuvius, Pizza and the City Underground". No account required to start.
Free app
No wifi needed · Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian
