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Galleria Umberto I
Doppelganger of Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, the trick to appreciating this mammoth glass-and-steel masterpiece is to walk with your head tilted up: its grand central dome soars to a lofty 56 metres. The mysterious stars of David imbedded in the glasswork are said to suggest local Jewish investment in the building. Complete with a sumptuous marble floor, the Galleria makes a surreal setting for impromptu late-night soccer games.
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Grotta di Seiano
At the bottom of a long, steep and exhausting descent, the Grotta di Seiano is not, in fact, a cave but a 1st-century tunnel linking the Roman Villa Pausilypon to Pozzuoli. Ventilated by three air ducts opening onto the sea, it was dug out of the tufa rock by Cocceius, the same Roman engineer who built the Crypta Neapolitana in Parco Vergiliano . When the villa's owner Publio Vedio Pollione died in 15 BC, he bequeathed his clifftop pad to friend and emperor, Augustus.
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Guglia di San Gennaro
The oldest of the three obelisks in the centro storico, the Guglia di San Gennaro was dedicated to the city's patron saint in 1636. And like the Guglia di San Domenico it was a token of gratitude, only this time to San Gennaro for protecting the city from the 1631 eruption of Mt Vesuvius. The stonework is by Cosimo Fanzago, the bronze statue at the top by Tommaso Montani.
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La Nunziatella
A hulking red heap perched high above Chiaia, the convent of Nunziatella is home to the sharp, preened cadets of Italy's prestigious Royal Military Academy of the Nunziatella.
Built in 1588, the convent was donated to the Jesuits by its benefactor, noblewoman Anna Mendozza Marchesana della Valle. It was used as a novitiate until the Jesuits were kicked out of town in the mid-18th century.
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Lago d'Averno
If someone tells you to go to hell, Lago d'Averno (Lake Averno) is a good place to start. In Virgil's Aeneid , it's from here that Aeneas descends into the underworld.
Not that there's anything infernal about it. Chilled-out and vine-fringed, the lake is an easy walk north of Lucrino train station.
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Largo San Giovanni Maggiore
Dominating the western flank of this fetching little square is Giovanni da Nola's impressive 16th-century Palazzo Giusso, home to the Istituto Universitario Orientale. Facing this is the Chiesa San Giovanni Pappacoda, whose original 15th-century structure barely survived the attentions of an 18th-century makeover. Antonio Baboccio's Gothic portal remains, along with a bell tower constructed out of tufa, marble and piperno stone.
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Lungomare
Strolling the lungomare (seafront) is as Neapolitan as lunch at Nennella. Running the length of Via Partenope and Via Francesco Carrociolo, this 2.5km (1.5mi) seaside stretch is particularly beautiful as the sun sets and the light over the sea takes on an orange hue - picture Capri on the horizon, Mt Vesuvius looming to the south and you hopelessly smitten.
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Marechiaro
Immortalised in a traditional 19th-century Neapolitan song 'Marechiaro' (Clear Sea) by Salvatore di Giacomo and Francesco Paolo Tosti, the little fishing village of Marechiaro is one for die-hard romantics. Complete with its own church, the Chiesa di Santa Maria del Faro, this is the place for candle-lit meals by lapping seas.
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Museo Archeologico dei Campi Flegrei
Packed with ancient local booty, this is where you'll find the bewitching Nymphaeum, dredged up from underwater Baiae and skilfully reassembled. Monuments consecrated to the nymphs, nymphaeums , were a popular spot to the tie the proverbial knot. Other finds include a bronze equestrian statue of the Emperor Domitian (altered to resemble his more popular successor Nerva upon his deposition) and recent finds from Rione Terra.
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Museo Archeologico Nazionale
Even if the idea of an archaeology museum usually sends you to sleep, this place will amaze you. With many of the best finds from Pompeii and Herculaneum on display, as well as hundreds of classical sculptures and a trove of ancient Roman porn, the Museo Archeologico Nazionale is world museum heavyweight. You could easily spend a couple of days exploring the museum, although it is possible to do an abridged tour in a morning.
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Museo del Tesoro di San Gennaro
The city's love affair with San Gennaro is well documented at this savvy museum at the Duomo's southern end. Two floors glimmer with precious ex voto gifts made to the saint, from bronze busts and sumptuous paintings to silver ampullas and a gilded 18th-century sedan chair used to shelter the saint's bust on rainy procession days. Included in the price of the ticket is a multilingual audioguide.
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Museo Pignatelli
In the early 19th century, Naples was gripped by classical fever. If it was Doric or Ionic, it was in . So when Ferdinand Acton, a minister at the court of King Ferdinand IV (1759-1825), asked Pietro Valente to design Villa Pignatelli in 1826, Valente whipped up this striking Pompeiian lookalike, complete with English garden.
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Orto Botanico
Slap-bang on gridlocked Via Forio, Naples' botanical garden has its work cut out for it. Yet, in spite of the fumes, the vegetation stands tall, lush and utterly inviting.
Founded by Joseph Bonaparte between 1807 and 1819, the gardens belong to Naples University, hence the need to request a look. But it's worth asking nicely - if for no other reason than to stretch out under a So-Cal palm and breathe away that road-rage stress.
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Ospedale delle Bambole
You may not have a Barbie in need of a facelift while in Naples, but the city's legendary doll hospital is worth an emergency visit - hanging dolls' heads, injured saints, flower-sprouting mannequins and fairy lights. All that's missing is a puppet called Pinocchio.
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Osservatorio di Capodimonte
Overcast skies never faze the crew at Italy's oldest observatory - they simply look earthward for some of the best sea and skyline views in town. Perched high above the city, this elegant neoclassical number was founded by King Ferdinand I of Bourbon in 1819 and built according to the designs of astronomers Giuseppe Piazzai and Federico Zuccari. The in-house museum features an interesting collection of astronomical instruments.
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Palazzo delle Poste
Looking like a giant, graffitied UFO, Naples' main post office is a striking Fascist concoction. Product of an urban renewal programme that wiped out the San Giuseppe quarter, it was designed in 1935 by Giuseppe Vaccaro and features a number of Fascist architectural hallmarks: most notably its foreboding scale and black marble columns - a reference to the black armbands worn by Mussolini and his right-wing posse.
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Palazzo Donn'Anna
The most famous unfinished palazzo in Posillipo, Palazzo Donn'Anna takes its name from Anna Carafa, for whom it was built as a wedding present from her husband Ramiro Guzman, the Spanish viceroy of Naples. When Guzman hot-footed it back to Spain in 1644 he left his wife heartbroken in Naples. She died shortly afterwards and Cosimo Fanzago gave up the project. The semi-derelict palazzo is not open to the public.
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Palazzo Reale
Former downtown royal pad, this large palace was built around 1600. Envisaged as a monument to Spanish glory (Naples was under Spanish rule at the time), it was designed by local architect Domenico Fontana and completed two long centuries later in 1841.
A double staircase leads to the royal apartments which house the Museo del Palazzo Reale, a rich and eclectic collection of baroque and neoclassical furnishings, porcelain, statues and paintings.
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Palazzo Reale di Capodimonte
Believe it or not, this colossal peachy pad was meant to be a hunting lodge. At least that's what Charles VII of Bourbon had asked for when construction began in 1738. But it seems that size really did matter to the king, whose plans for the place kept getting grander and grander. By 1759, the city had a new palace. Just as well, really, for when Charles inherited his mother Elisabetta Farnese's hefty art collection, space was at a premium.
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Palazzo Sanfelice
Don't be fooled by the run-of-the-mill exterior and scruffy La Sanità address. When Ferdinando Sanfelice built this pile for his family in 1726, it quickly became an avant-garde icon. The main talking point was the wildly theatrical double-ramped staircase in the second internal courtyard. From hereon, there was no stopping Sanfelice, who perfected his dramatic staircase design in various palazzi across the city. Unmissable is the one in the Palazzo dello Spagnola.
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Palazzo Spinelli di Laurino
Dodge past the porter patrolling the entrance to this Renaissance palazzo and you'll find an unusual oval-shaped courtyard. This, together with the imposing double staircase, was the work of architect Ferdinando Sanfelice, whose hallmark staircase design was a must-have for 18th-century Neapolitan nobility.
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Pan (Palazzo delle Arti Napoli)
One of the city's two new hotbeds of contemporary art - the other being MADRE - PAN is the brainchild of European art curator and critic Lóránd Hegyi. Three slick white minimalist floors host innovative exhibitions, spanning everything from painting, photography and sculpture to multimedia, design and architecture. Housed in a pink 16th-century palace, PAN also boasts an experimental art lab, multimedia library, archive and slick cafe-bookshop.
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Parco Archeologico di Baia
In Roman times, this 1st-century BC palace and spa complex was hot, literally and figuratively. Emperors would entertain their splash-happy guests in a series of lavish thermal baths that descended to the sea. While the hedonists have long gone, some of its treasures remain; including exquisite floor mosaics, a stuccoed balneum (bathroom), outdoor theatre and the impressive Tempio di Mercurio, with its domed swimming pool filled with goldfish.
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Parco di Capodimonte
Like Hampstead Heath with sunshine, this big park was designed by Ferdinando Sanfelice in 1742 as a hunting reserve for King Charles VII. In order to provide the proper environment for his prey, the grounds were turned into a botanical wonderland; a fact not lost on Neapolitans, who flock here for a spot of weekend R&R. Within the park walls there are five lakes, a wood, and various 18th-century buildings, including the Palazzo Porcellane.
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Parco Vergiliano
Squeezed in between a railway bridge and the cliffs of Posillipo hill, this shady urban oasis hides two historical treasures; Virgil's tomb and the world's longest Roman tunnel.
Also buried in the park is the 19th-century poet Giacomo Leopardi.
