Naples
Italy
The loudest, oldest and best-fed city in Italy, with Pompeii on one side and the islands on the other
Photo by Ariel Automat on Unsplash
Photos by Vytenis Malisauskas, Fabio Fistarol, Vincenzo De Simone and Danilo D'Agostino on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Italy
April to June, and September to October — the summer is hot and the city empties in the holiday weeks
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 150mm in Nov
Where it is
40.85°N, 14.27°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
Weeks of it- Eat a pizza where the queue is Neapolitan rather than foreign
- Do the archaeological museum before Pompeii, not after
- Walk Spaccanapoli end to end
- Take the funicular up for sunset over the bay
- Go to Procida rather than Capri
Naples travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Italy
Mid-rangeCards are accepted by law for any amount and a few places still grumble. Keep coins for the coffee standing at the bar, which costs a third of what the table costs.
ATMs & cards
Use a bank machine — Intesa, UniCredit, BPER. Avoid Euronet, which is everywhere in the tourist centres and gives one of the worst rates in Europe.
Avoid these
- Euronet
- the machines around Piazza Garibaldi
Use these instead
- Intesa Sanpaolo
- UniCredit
- BPER
Naples has a heavy Euronet presence around the station and the old centre. Use a bank machine and always take the euro price.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Italy
Reasonably safeScooter-borne bag snatching is the city’s standing warning, and it is real around the station and Spaccanapoli — wear a bag across the body and away from the road. The historic centre and the seafront are busy and comfortable in the evening; the Circumvesuviana is where pickpockets work.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (9 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- scooter-borne bag snatching — the city’s standing warning; wear a bag across the body and away from the road
- Piazza Garibaldi and the station — the commonest place for it, at any hour
- the Circumvesuviana to Pompeii — crowded, and where pickpockets work the line
- the Spanish Quarter after dark — fine on the main lanes, disorienting off them
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Italy visa rules
No visa needed
Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.
Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)
A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.
How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Italy
Excellent and cheapRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date
Getting treated
EU/EEA and Swiss visitors are treated on the same terms as residents with an EHIC or GHIC card; UK visitors use a GHIC. Everyone else pays, and travel insurance is worth having for the repatriation cover rather than the treatment. Pharmacies handle a lot of minor problems directly and are the fastest route to advice.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
OutstandingPizza was invented here and the argument about where to eat it has no end. Sfogliatella for breakfast, a coffee taken standing, ragù that cooks for six hours, and the buffalo mozzarella comes from the plain outside the city.
Nightlife
Piazzas rather than bars: people buy a drink and stand in the square, and the square is the venue.
- Piazza Bellini — the one everybody starts at, and stays at
- Chiaia and Via Ferrigni — the smarter end, and the cocktail bars
- Vico Belledonne — a lane of bars that fills to the walls
- the Lungomare — a long walk with a drink and the bay in front of you
Closing: Nothing fills before eleven. Bars to 2am or 3am, and the pizzerias shut long before that.
A beer in a bar: €3–5
A drink in the square costs a third of a drink at a table, which is why everybody stands.
Getting around
Workable- UberWorks here
- BoltWorks here
- FREE NOWWorks here
- IT TaxiWorks here
FREE NOW taxis, which is what Italy allows · IT Taxi the national taxi app · Uber Black and Taxi only — no UberX anywhere in Italy · Bolt taxis, in Rome and Milan
- Against a taxi
- The app is the taxi. Uber Black is a different, dearer category.
There is no cheap ride-hailing tier in Italy — the law reserves the work for licensed taxis and NCC hire cars.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Rome — 6 hours ahead of you
2 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–11:00 your time, 15:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 03:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 03:00–11:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Italy
Why these are Italy's numbers and not Naples's
Home broadband — Good. Comfortable for two people working, streaming in the evening, large downloads. Broadband here runs at 84% of the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Fair. Maps, calls and streaming; tethering a laptop works for an hour, not a day. Mobile runs at 78% of the global median of 109 Mbps.
Ookla publishes no separate figure for Naples, so these are medians for all of Italy. Cities usually beat the national number and remote islands and national parks fall well below it — treat this as the country's shape, not as a measurement of the street you will be staying on.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Italy, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
Italian
- HelloBuongiornobwon-JOR-no
- PleasePer favoreper fa-VO-reh
- Thank youGrazieGRAT-tsyeh
- Yes / NoSì / Nosee / no
4 more phrases
- Excuse meScusiSKOO-zee
- How much is it?Quanto costa?KWAN-to KOS-ta
- The bill, pleaseIl conto, per favoreeel KON-to
- Cheers!Salute! / Cin cin!sa-LOO-teh / chin chin
Ciao is for people you know. With shopkeepers and waiters, buongiorno until evening, then buonasera.
Religion
Catholic
The Vatican is a sovereign state inside Rome. Dress codes are enforced at St Peter’s and most major churches: shoulders and knees covered, and they will turn you away.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Say buongiorno rather than ciao to anyone you do not know
- Drink cappuccino only before about 11:00; after a meal it is an espresso
- Cover shoulders and knees to enter churches, including the major basilicas
- Validate regional train tickets before boarding or risk a fine
Don't
- Do not ask for parmesan on seafood pasta — it is a genuine culinary offence here
- Do not sit on monument steps in Rome or Florence; both cities fine it
- Do not order a coffee "to go" and expect it to be normal
- Do not tip beyond rounding up; coperto already covers the cover charge
Where to stay in Naples
No Holistay rentals in Naples yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Naples on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Capodichino NAP
20 minfrom the airport· 4 km as the crow flies
20 min by Alibus into the centre.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
