Exploring Naples & Baia
We’re back in the city of Naples this time after a wonderful week on the beach in Calabria.
We had 3 days to spare, one of which included my birthday and we decided to get out of the city and explore more of the surrounding area.
We headed for Baia and the archeological ruins up the coast as well as taking a trip over to the isle of Ischia again as there were things on there that we haven’t done yet.
We visited the Amphitheatre at Pozzuoli and ate in some fabulous restaurants.
After 3 fantastic days exploring Naples we had to find a way to get back to Palermo as our flight home was from there and we opted to take the ferry. An overnight trip which we’d done before to Catania and also to Palermo from Rome and it was really a great way to travel and as it was overnight we could leave one part of Italy in the evening at 8pm and arrive in another part of Italy in the morning 6am.
We visited the port and bought our ticket from one of the travel agencies. €100 for a 2 berth cabin was not bad at all.
But firstly let me tell you what we got up to in Naples.
How did we get to Naples?
After our time in Calabria we headed north on the train up the Amalfi coast to explore Naples once again.
Getting around Italy by train is really easy and most stations have machines which are multilingual which makes it easy to buy a ticket. If you want to book your ticket ahead of time then the Trenitalia website is a good place to go and again this is in different languages which makes it easy to naviagte.
From Calabria we caught the train to Naples which is around a 7hr journey but there are plenty trains throughout the day and it cost around €40 .
Exploring Naples accomodation options
We found a fantastic little B & B down by the port which suited us perfectly for our 3 day stay.
B & B Monserrato was a fairly new conversion and it was new, bright, modern and fairly centrally located.
The bathroom was one of the best bathrooms we’ve had in a B & B, modern suite and powerful shower with plenty of hot water.
The wifi was free and the signal strong.
Francesca your host is delightful. Really helpful and enthusiastic about making sure we had a good time.
Breakfast could either be brought to your room in the morning from the local cafe round the corner or you could visit the local cafe with a voucher and get a fairly standard breakfast of orange juice, croissant/pastry and tea or coffee.
Really nice. In Naples they have a speciality called a baba which is basically a rum coated syrupy cake which you could have instead of a croissant but once was enough for us with that. Really fragrant rum was not the best in the morning but the Neoplitans love it.
I’ve mentioned this B & B in our Naples Italy | Some of the places we’ve stayed and liked post.
I would really recommend this wonderful little B & B
Exploring Naples History
We visited Baiae
Baiae was an ancient Roman town situated on the northwest shore of the Gulf of Naples and now in the region of Bacoli
There’s an abundance of things to see here and we were absolutely delighted with the things we found.
The sunken city of Baia.
The ancient Roman city of Baiae, lies at the bottom of the Gulf of Naples off the coast of Baiae.
It was once a popular coastal resort famous for its idyllic location and therapeutic mineral springs that drew the likes of famous romans such as Caesar, Nero and Caligula. It was the ultimate party town where the wine flowed and the parties lasted for days.
Today, you can take tours in a glass-bottom boat out from the harbour or dive down to view the ruins.
There you can see paved roads flanked with buildings, dozens of marble statues, and bath complexes. Some of these buildings still have their mosaic floors intact. Covered by seaweed, this once great city has now become home to a varied marine life.
Unfortunately on the day we visited the sea was too rough for boat trips but we’ll absolutely visit again.
Had we been able to get out into the bay then Chris was going to dive with Subaia diving centre and the glass bottomed can be accessed by the Naples Tour Service here
The archeological park of Terme di Baia
The archeological park is like walking through history. This area was once baths for the Roman elite and the structure is still somewhat standing for all to see. They were later named “temples” of different gods such as Diana, Mercury or Venus for convenience, but they were actually baths. The deeper you go in, the lower you can go, and get a fantastic perspective of this place. During summer, ancient plays are acted to revive the spirit of ancient times.
The entrance ticket costs €4, and it grants access to 4 sites and is valid for 2 days.
What not to miss here:
- The artwork in the baths still vivid today
- The stunning floor mosaics
- The Temple of Mercury which boasts the oldest example of a dome (c40bc) and is really something when you duck inside.
- The gardens and pathways that meander through the site
- The stunning views from the site
To get to Baiae you can take the Cumana line from Montesanto station all the way to Fusaro station and then you have about a 10 min walk to the entrance to the Archeological site.
The journey takes around 40 mins and runs largely along the coast. It costs around €4 for a ticket.
A day trip to Ischia
We had visited Ischia before but wanted to go back as there were things we missed as on our first trip we spent the day walking in the hills and didn’t have any extra time to explore the island.
How did we get there:
We caught a ferry from Naples over to Ischia. There are sevaeral ways you can get from Naples to Ischia but for us the ferry was the easiest and the ticket booths are Porta di Massa where the ferries depart from was pretty easy to find. You can alternatively choose the hydrofoil or catamaran and those depart from Molo Beverello which is slightly up the cost from the main port. Whichever you choose there are multiple departures throughout the day and at least 30+ in high season.
Check the return times as you don’t want to get caught out missing the last boat back to Naples and having to fork out for a nights stay at short notice.
One of the main things we wanted to come back for is the Aragonese Castle. This spectacular building is a medieval castle. The castle stands on a volcanic rocky islet that connects to the larger island of Ischia by a causeway. The castle was built by Hiero I of Syracuse in 474 BC. We had read about the is place in our guide book and really wanted to visit as it had some fantastic stories.
The castle is around 20 – 30 mins walk from the port and its quite a pleasure to walk as there are lovely little winding streets with cafes and restaurants and tourist shops along the route.
It costs €10 for an adult €6 for a child and under 9’s go free.
The access point to the castle has a lot of steps and is quite steep however there is an elevator that takes you to the start of the self guided walking tour.
There are 25 stations throughout the castle and grounds and on buying your ticket you’re given a leaflet explaining each station and that’s the beauty of it, you’re left to guide yourself round the various exhibits and gardens of the castle. You can of course join a group tour and that can be arranged at the ticket office. We chose to guide ourself and it was fantastic.
Some of the highlights were:
The Church of the immaculate conception | Built after 1737, in place of a previous chapel dedicated to St. Francis, the Church of the Blessed Virgin of the Assumption, also known as the Immaculate Conception, was commissioned by the Mother Abbess Battista Lanfreschi of the adjoining Convent of the Poor Clares.
The Nuns cemetery – the stone chairs | Located beneath the Church of the Immaculate Conception, it consists of a series of low vaulted areas which contain the drainers, high backed stone chairs on which lifeless bodies sat. The flesh slowly decomposed, the fluids were collected in special jars and finally the dried skeletons were piled up in the ossuary. This macabre practice was grounded in the need to highlight the uselessness of the body as a simple container of the spirit; a person’s refusal of a burial once again underlined this conviction.
Every day, the nuns went there in prayer to meditate on death and, spending several hours a day in such an unhealthy environment, often contracted serious illnesses, in some cases deadly. The cemetery had no windows and ventilation was only guaranteed by the so-called “ventarole”, long, narrow square-shaped tunnels that connect it to the outside environments
The Terrace of the immaculate conception | Facing westward you have wonderful views of the bridge and Fishermans beach as well as views (on a clear day) right over to Monte Epomeo
The Flavian Amphitheatre of Pozzuoli
This Amphitheatre is recognised as the 3rd largest roman amphitheatre in Italy with the Colosseum in Rome being the largest.
To get to Pozzuoli you can take the Cumana line from Montesanto station to Pozzuoli. A short walk from Pozzuoli train station, the Flavian Amphitheater is clearly signposted (‘Antifeatro Flavio’). Coming out of the station, turn right and head on to the main road (Via Solfatara). Turn right and follow the road down until you see the clearly see the ruins behind trees. Walk all the way around the Amphitheater, and you will eventually come to the entrance.The Amphitheater is closed on Tuesdays.
It costs €4 to get in but if you have your Baiae Terme ticket then you can use that as it covers this site too.
Exploring Naples Food
A couple of restaurants to recommend which we discovered on this trip to Naples and Baiae.
Firstly just opposite Fusaro station on the Cumana line there’s a little restaurant called Alimentari Illiano Fusaro.
Here they cooked the most delicious home cooked food and seemed to cater just for the locals. A small deli with a little restaurant attached.
The offered set meals which included a drink for roughly €7.50 per person
We really enjoyed it here so much that we’ve been back a few times.
Our second recommendation is the restaurant Chris chose for my birthday meal. Cisterna Cafe & Bistro is a modern restaurant with a great food and drinks menu.
Its located pretty centrally in Naples and is just off Via Toledo which is the main shopping street.
The menu was tapas like and had a variety of different foods. We opted for a selection of different dishes and were not disappointed.
Would absolutely recommend this restaurant and would go back the next time we’re in Naples.
For information on some other restaurants we’ve tried and liked whilst in Naples you can check out our How to navigate food in Napoli blog post.