25 min
5 min
35 min
Metro 1 · Metro 2 · Metro 6 · Funicolare B · Funicolare D
5.7 / km²
11
15
2,065
+19% vs city
Counted from OpenStreetMap and Inside Airbnb (CC BY 4.0)
Staying in Chiaia, Santa Lucia & Posillipo
One zone, three different places. San Ferdinando is the old royal centre - Piazza del Plebiscito, the Palazzo Reale, Teatro San Carlo, the Galleria Umberto I and Castel Nuovo - and it runs down to Molo Beverello, where the boats to Capri, Ischia and Procida leave. Santa Lucia is the seafront under Castel dell'Ovo, which is where most of the four-star hotels are. Chiaia is the shopping and eating district behind Villa Comunale, and it is where Neapolitans with money live.
What you buy here is calm and a view. The seafront road is closed to traffic, so Via Caracciolo and Via Partenope are a two-kilometre promenade rather than a road, busy with people running and eating until late. It is the part of central Naples where nothing about the street asks you to pay attention.
What you pay is the highest rates in the city and a walk. The centro storico is 25 minutes on foot from Piazza dei Martiri, or two stops on Line 1, and the difference in character over that distance is total. Chiaia closes earlier and quieter than the centre, which is either the point or the problem.
Posillipo is also in this zone and is not the same offer. It is the headland west of Mergellina: villas, sea views, a protected marine park at Gaiola - and five kilometres from the old town with buses and taxis as the only way back. Book it for the view, on a second visit, ideally with a car.
What works
- Line 1 and Line 6 both stop at Municipio, plus San Pasquale and Mergellina
- Capri, Ischia and Procida ferries leave from Molo Beverello inside the zone
- Piazza del Plebiscito, Palazzo Reale and Teatro San Carlo are all here
- The car-free seafront is busy with people until late, which is why it feels safe
- Chiaia has the city's shopping streets and its quietest central sleep
What does not
- The most expensive rooms in Naples, and the gap over Toledo is not small
- The centro storico is a 25-minute walk or two stops on the metro
- Chiaia goes quiet early; the late night is in the old town, not here
- Posillipo addresses in this zone are 5 km out and effectively bus-only
- Santa Lucia's seafront hotels are a strip of chains, not a neighbourhood
Places like Mergellina and the boardwalk of Via Caracciolo are generally full of people till late at night and very safe.Via Partenope and Via Nazario Sauro, packed with restaurants and hotels, follow the San Ferdinando waterfront and provide you with a beautiful view of the bay of Naples.