Naples stands on 40 metres of soft volcanic tuff, quarried for 2,500 years. Go down into the Greek quarries and Roman cisterns, then out to the catacombs of the Rione Sanità.
The Greeks cut stone for their walls out of the ground beneath them. The Romans turned the hollows into aqueduct cisterns, and in the Second World War Neapolitans sheltered from bombing in them.
Napoli Sotterranea, on Piazza San Gaetano, leads guided groups 40 metres down: quarries, cisterns, a candle-lit passage barely a shoulder wide, and the remains of a Roman theatre hidden inside ordinary houses. It costs €10 at the door or €15 online.
North of the centre, the Rione Sanità was a valley of tombs outside the Greek walls. The Catacombs of San Gennaro have two levels of early Christian galleries with frescoes, run by a community cooperative that has helped revive the district.
A guided visit including the San Gaudioso catacombs costs about €13. Nearby are the "hawk-wing" staircase of the Palazzo dello Spagnolo and the pizzeria Concettina ai Tre Santi.
A morning underground and lunch in the Sanità.
Down the cut stairs into the quarries and cisterns, with a candle for the narrow part.
Part of the Roman theatre where Nero sang, built into the cellars of a house.
Walk or take the bus up to the district's market streets.
Sanfelice's double open staircase, rising like a bird's wings in the courtyard.
The cooperative's tour of the frescoed galleries, then pizza at Concettina.
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Napoli Sotterranea is on Via dei Tribunali; the catacombs are by the Basilica dell'Incoronata Madre del Buon Consiglio, bus from Piazza Dante or Museo.
Tours leave on the hour in English and Italian; book online in busy months.
The district is lively and friendly by day; the cooperative's guides are local young people.
Naples practical notes →Photographs from Wikimedia Commons and Pexels under their licences.
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