Naples Travel and Things to Do Guide

The third-largest city in Italy (after Rome and Milan), Naples is an introduction to the drier, hotter south of the Italian peninsula; as well as to pizza, wine, gelato, espresso, and sun worship. The city—known as Napoli in Italian—has a beautiful downtown area around its port much favored by tourists, while its UNESCO center is the largest historic center in Europe, with a history dating back more than 2,500 years. Pompeii and Herculaneum are in close proximity, just like Sorrento, Capri and the Amalfi Coast. As Italy's most important port and one of its most important business centers, Naples offers event venues that cater to a diversity of groups.
The main airport is Naples International (NAP), which is four miles northeast of the city center and has service to all points in Europe and some extra-Europe direct flights. Most of the North American connections are from Rome's Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport (FCO), which is just 1 hour away from Naples.
Surprisingly, there are no huge convention venues in Naples, but there are several mid-size expo, event, and congress centers. Perhaps top of the list—for its bayside location mostly—is Terminal Napoli, which is right by the city's cruise terminal and has 40,000 square feet of exhibit space, its largest room able to host 600 persons.
Hotel venues in Naples include the 397-room Royal Continental Napoli, which has 12 meeting rooms, a 530-seat auditorium, and 1,750 square feet of exhibit space, among other facilities; the 160-room Grand Hotel Vesuvio, which has seven ornate meeting and banquet spaces for up to 400 persons; the grand, 139-room Palazzo Caracciolo Napoli MGallery Collection, which is in a 13th-century building with eight meeting rooms onsite, the largest able to host 80 persons (as well as access to the stately Museo Diocesano, which can cater to 500 and is full of sacred art); the 124-room Hotel Ramada by Wyndham, Naples, with its more than 2000 sqm of flexible meeting rooms and banquet space and a modern conference centre that accommodates up to 800 persons;; and the 96-room Grand Hotel Santa Lucia, which has six function spaces, the largest able to accommodate 320 persons.
Apart from the Terminal Napoli, other larger congress-able spaces include Mostra d'Oltremare, which is in the suburb of Fuorigrotta and has a surface area of over 700,000 sqm. The New Oltremare conference building, with 20 separate halls named for Italian cities and Mediterranean countries has function space for more than 1,000 persons; Città della Scienza with its modern Conference Center with 820 seats, exhibition areas, outdoor spaces, a restaurant, a theatre and an open amphitheatre; three sites under the auspices of academic institution Il Centro Congressi dell'Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, in the city center, Via Partenope and Monte Sant’Angelo, the former with the very grand, historic Aula Magna Storica room, the latter with a large auditorium; and the Palapartenope Theater, which puts on concerts by major entertainers and has room for more than 6,000 persons, its largest room able to host 3,500. Two historic event sites are the grand, pink, 18th-century Villa Signorini, which has beautiful gardens, space for 350 persons inside and out, 17-room Villa Signorini Relais, a hotel, and the Ristorante Le Nuvole; and, nearby in Sorrento, 30 miles to the south around the beautiful Bay of Naples, the 9th-century Castello Medioevale, which was the home of the dukes of Sorrento and today is a stunning site for events of more than 600 persons.
The 2,500 years of the city are evidenced in many incredible venues that can be privatized for your unconventional MICE events. There are four castles – Castel dell’Ovo, Castel Sant’Elmo, Castel Nuovo and Castel Capuano, which can host formal events in a medieval atmosphere. The city hosts three Royal Palaces – Naples Royal Palace, Capodimonte Royal Palace and Portici Royal Palace – with an amazing baroque charme. Churches and Museums are spread all around the city center: the incredible Monumental Complex of Donna Regina, the Filangieri Museum and the Bank Archives are three jewels located near San Gregorio Armeno, the world-famous street of nativity craftsmen. The Catacombs of Naples and the Bourbon Tunnel are underground spaces that can become the unusual scenario to a candle-light gala dinner or intimate events.If you are looking for a real immersion in art, Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano can be your best choice with its latest Caravaggio masterpiece, or the unique San Carlo Theatre, the first lyric theatre in all Europe. Did you know that the first railway in Italy started from Naples? The National Railway Museum of Pietrarsa celebrates this primacy, with its stunning locomotives and a beautiful amphitheatre overlooking the Gulf of Naples and Capri.
Naples is a treasure of traditional certified food and wine productions. The hilly territory and the mild climate make the area suitable for the viticulture, therefore to the production of a large number of valuable white and red wines like Falanghina and Aglianico. Homeland of pizza, mozzarella, espresso coffee and Limoncello, Naples is the ideal destination for cooking classes, wine tasting and team buildings. Eat delicious Neapolitan cuisine at seafood restaurant La Scialuppa, which has a grand interior and a setting by Naples' castle; bayside La Cantinella, which is more intimate; Umberto, which is close to the Parco Villa Cellamare, opened in 1916 and has separate bar, pizzeria, and main dining rooms; Ciro a Santa Brigida, which is farther inland in the center of Naples and also has separate fine dining and pizza sections; and, for a real splurge, with perhaps the best views in the whole city, La Terrazza in the Hotel Excelsior, Naples, which is most memorable on a warm evening.