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Parco Virgiliano
Playground of the city's well-heeled denizens, this large park sits high above the shimmering sea on the westernmost tip of posh Posillipo hill. Kick back on a terrace and soak up the views; from Capri to the south, Nisida, Procida and Ischia to the southwest, to the Bay of Pozzuoli and Bagnoli to the west. Open 14 hours a day, this leafy getaway features swings and slides for the kids and low-key bars for the grown-ups.
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Piazza Bellini
Just to the north of the western end of Via dei Tribunali, lively Piazza Bellini is a hotspot for the city's bohemians. Each night, its ivy-clad cafes and bars hum with jazz-loving writers, left-leaning students and a healthy dose of flirtatious glances. At its centre, 4th-century ruins of the Greek city walls add a classical touch.
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Piazza Dante
On hot summer evenings, Piazza Dante turns into a communal living room, packed with entire families who stroll, eat, smoke, play cards, chase balloons, whinge about the in-laws or simply sit and stare.
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Piazza dei Martiri
If Chiaia is Naples' drawing room, then Piazza dei Martiri is its sultry chaise longue. Anyone worth their Gucci shades heads here for caffè and languid outdoor lounging. Get a crash course in both at squareside café La Caffettiera.
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Piazza del Gesù Nuovo
Flanked by the spiky Chiesa del Gesù Nuovo and the Basilica di Santa Chiara, this lively square is one of Naples' most beautiful. For hundreds of years it was the principal western entrance to the city. But it wasn't until two major modifications in the 16th century that the piazza took on its current proportions.
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Piazza del Mercato
Where cars now park, heads once rolled. For centuries, this scruffy square was the site of gruesome public executions, including that of Conrad of Swabia and those of over 200 ill-fated supporters of the 1799 Parthenopean Republic. Equally grim is its honour as the starting spot for the devastating plague of 1656. The square sits at the easternmost point of the city's old medieval wall.
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Piazza del Municipio
Dominated by the iconic Castel Nuovo, Piazza Municipio isn't looking its best at the moment as construction continues on the new metro system. At the head of the square stands the 19th-century Palazzo San Giacomo. Attached to it is the 16th-century Chiesa San Giacomo degli Spagnoli, burial place of 16th-century Spanish viceroy Don Pedro de Toledo and his wife Maria. On the northern flank stands the Teatro Mercadante, a local theatre heavyweight.
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Piazza del Plebiscito
Until the world's G7 bigwigs landed in Naples for their 1994 summit, the city's largest piazza was also Europe's most impressive car park. Today, legs substitute wheels and this vast cobbled space is a hotspot for New Year revellers and World Cup celebrations.
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Piazza San Domenico Maggiore
For some unexplained reason, this airy square is a hit with dreadlocked Spaniards. Along with local students and foreign tourists, they flock here for a late-night beer, cigarette and chat.
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Piazza Trieste e Trento
Cocktail-sipping poseurs and packs of flirting teens make this an essential city pitstop. Grab a lemon granita from the hole-in-the-wall acquaiolo (drink stall) and take in the famous locals, which include the Palazzo Reale, Teatro San Carlo and legendary Caffè Gambrinus.
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Pio Monte della Misericordia
Caravaggio's masterpiece Le Sette Opere di Misericordia (The Seven Acts of Mercy) is considered by many to be the single most important painting in Naples. And it's here that you'll see it, hung above the main altar of this small octagonal church. A disturbing image, it depicts two angels reaching down towards a group of shadowy Neapolitan characters, while on the right a hungry grey-bearded man is breast-fed by a young woman.
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Piscina Mirabilis
An archaeological pièce de résistance, the Piscina Mirabilis (Exquisite Pool) lies tucked away in a Bacoli backstreet. To access it, contact custodian Signora Filomena at No 9. Awaiting underground is the world's largest Roman cistern. Featuring 48 soaring pillars and a barrel-vaulted ceiling, it resembles a great subterranean cathedral, eerily bathed in shafts of sunlight.
Admission is free but save face and tip the Signora - around €1.00 will do.
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Porta Nolana & Mercato
At the head of Via Sopramuro stands the 15th-century Porta Nolana, one of the medieval city gates. Two cylindrical towers support an arch decorated with a bas-relief of Ferdinand I of Aragon on horseback. Under and beyond it, is the most vivacious street market in all of Naples. Street theatre at its rawest, it's an intoxicating scene of glistening seafood, buxom vegetables, plump cheeses, contraband cigarette stalls and pink inflatable dolphins.
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Porta San Gennaro
This city gate was rebuilt in its current position in the 15th century after the expansion of the city walls. Named after San Gennaro because it marks the beginning of the route up to the Catacomba di San Gennaro, it retains traces of a 17th-century fresco by Mattia Preti. The artist decorated all the major city gates to give thanks for the end of the plague epidemic in 1656.
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Porticciolo
Once home to the area's fishing fleet, Mergellina's marina is now a crowd-pulling combo of anchored yachts and kitsch Neapolitan chalets; neon-lit gelaterie and bars right on the water's edge. On summer evenings, families, love-struck teens and the odd worn-out tourist flock here for gelati, cocktails and a spot of double parking.
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Raccolta de Mura
Hidden among the chairs of the Bar del Professore is an entrance to an underpass, which leads to one of the city's best-kept secrets - a tiny gallery dedicated to Neapolitan song and dance. Hanging on its pink-tiled walls is a fetching collection of old music-hall programmes and posters, vintage photos and models of Punchinello (Naples' original version of Mr Punch). Stereo speakers provide a suitable background of warbling Neapolitan crooners.
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Rione Terra
Rising 33m above sea level at the western end of the seafront, Rione Terra is the Pozzuoli's oldest quarter and ancient Puteoli's acropolis. During the age of Augustus, an existing Capitolium here was lavishly restructured in white marble by architect Lucius Cocceius Auctus. Renamed the Temple of Augustus, it famously rivalled the temples of Rome.
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Santissima Annunziata
This 14th-century religious complex is as well known for its former orphanage as it is for its jasmine-scented, light-filled basilica. Designed by Carlo Vanvitelli at the end of the 18th century, the basilica's interior is a bold affair with some 44 Corinthian columns lining the nave and a soaring 67m-high dome. The third chapel on the left features a wooden statue of the Virgin Mary, one of the few remnants from the original 14th-century church.
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Solfatara Crater
Unnerving and surreal, this geological freakshow is a vivid reminder of just how active the ground below here is. Called Foro Vulcani (home of the god of fire) by the Romans, the crater's acrid steam, bubbling mud and sulphurous water have been lauded as health cures for thousands of years.
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Statua del Nilo
This rather grim statue of the ancient Egyptian river god Nilo was put up by the city's Alexandrian merchants, who lived in the area during Roman times. When they moved out the statue disappeared, eventually turning up minus its head in the 15th century. Renamed Il Corpo di Napoli (The Body of Naples), it remained headless until the end of the 18th century when a great bearded bonce was added.
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Stazione Mergellina
In the 1920s and 30s, Stazione Mergellina was the station to be seen alighting a train. Currently under the surgeon's knife, it's set to steal the scene again. Designed by Gaetano Coast in 1925, its beaux-arts style is a flouncy combo of glass and iron framework, grand classical columns and high camp extravagance, including two depictions of Mercury languidly posing above the station entrance.
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Stazione Zoologica (Aquario)
Europe's oldest aquarium is more 'vintage charm' than 'cutting-edge' with its dripping tanks of spooky squid and nervous little Nemos. Housed in an elegant neoclassical building, its 23 tanks contain some 200 species of marine flora and fauna exclusively from the Bay of Naples. Founded in 1872 by German naturalist Anton Dohrn, its research centre plays a vital role in rehabilitating Loggerhead sea turtles injured by ships in the bay.
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Tempio di Serapide
East of the port, sunken in a leafy piazza, stands the Tempio di Serapide (Temple of Serapis). Despite its name, it wasn't a temple at all, but rather an ancient macellum (town market). Named after a statue of the Egyptian god Serapis found here in 1750, its ancient toilets (at either side of the eastern apse) are considered works of ancient ingenuity. Badly damaged over the centuries by bradeyism , the tempio is occasionally flooded by sea water.
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Via Chiaia
Linking Piazza Trieste e Trento with Piazza dei Martiri (and Santa Lucia with Chiaia), pedestrianised Via Chiaia is a lively mix of trendy boutiques, imposing palazzi and perma-tanned fashion slaves. Built in the 16th century, it follows the line of the natural divide that separates the hills of Pizzofalcone and Mortella.
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Via San Gregorio Armeno
Naples is famous for its traditional presepi (nativity scenes) and Via San Gregorio Armeno is where locals come to buy theirs. The street heaves with artisan studios and shops where crib-makers craft an eclectic range of figurines and crib pieces, from gorgeous hand-carved baby saviours to celebrity caricatures. Popular after Silvio Berlusconi's election defeat was a figurine of the media mogul carrying his head and testicles on a platter.
