Via Chiaia

Join the perma-tanned locals for a fix of people watching, window shopping and palazzo gazing on this pedestrianised street. Linking Piazza Trieste e Trento with Piazza dei Martiri (and Santa Lucia with Chiaia), it’s a particular hit with evening flâneurs, not to mention home to the 16th-century Palazzo Cellamare at No 149. Built as a summer residence for Giovan Francesco Carafa, the palazzo later hosted Bourbon monarchy guests, including Goethe and Casanova. Towards the western end of the street you pass under what looks like a triumphal arch but is, in fact, a bridge built in 1636 to connect the hills of Pizzofalcone and Mortella. Past the arch, turn right into blue-ribbon Via Gaetano Filangieri and continue up to Via dei Mille, where sharply garbed locals and shops mix it with flouncy Liberty (Italian Art Nouveau) architecture.