The Greek cisterns
Solemn chambers the Greeks cut and the Romans filled with water.
Armando Mancini from Napoli, Italia — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Dominik Matus — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Dominik Matus — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Dominik Matus — CC BY-SA 4.0
Beneath Naples's streets lies a second city: forty metres down runs a labyrinth the Greeks cut as quarries twenty-four centuries ago, the Romans turned into aqueducts and cisterns, and the Second World War made a shelter for tens of thousands of Neapolitans under the bombs — every era of the city leaving its stratum in the dark. The guided tour — the only way in — descends long stairs to the solemn Greek cisterns and passes the shelter relics: toys, beds and dolls left by those who hid; then the famous climax: a very narrow passage crossed by candlelight in your own hand to a lit underground cistern — optional for anyone tight spaces trouble. The finale springs back above ground: remains of a Roman theatre discovered inside ordinary apartment homes, entered through a house door — Naples as it is: history cohabiting with its people.
Solemn chambers the Greeks cut and the Romans filled with water.
Dolls, beds and life's traces from long nights of bombing.
A shoulders-wide passage by candlelight — the tour's famous peak.
Nero's Roman theatre surfacing inside lived-in flats.
Piazza San Gaetano 68, 80138 Naples
San Lorenzo Maggiore and the Roman MarketA Gothic church over a complete Roman market: San Lorenzo Maggiore on Via dei Tr1 minute walk4.4
The Doll HospitalIn 1895 Luigi Grassi painted backdrops for Naples theatres and puppet shows out 2 minutes walk4.8
Naples CathedralNaples Cathedral is the house of San Gennaro — the city's patron, centre of Chri3 minutes walk4.8
Pio Monte della MisericordiaA Caravaggio in the place it was painted for: the Pio Monte charity was founded 3 minutes walk4.7
The Obelisk of San GennaroA baroque obelisk before Naples cathedral, raised in the seventeenth century in 3 minutes walk4.4The tour mostly runs through wide, high chambers via broad stairs — only the narrow passage challenges, and it is entirely optional with a bypass. Tell the guide and it is arranged; do not skip the tour on its account.
Two tales under one ground: here the Greek-Roman depth and two thousand layered years; there a nineteenth-century royal tunnel with abandoned cars and an escape story — newer and stranger. Antiquity first here; curiosity there; ample time takes both.
Slots book online or in person fifteen minutes before, at the Piazza San Gaetano entrance in Spaccanapoli's heart — mid old-centre, so fold it into that day; midday peaks, so go early or late.