Bonetto - Lonely Planet Naples, Pompeii & the Amalfi Coast

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Naples, Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast is the Italy of your wildest and most lingering dreams: a rich, intense, hypnotic rag of Arabesque street life, decadent palaces, pastel-hued villages and aria-worthy vistas.

Few parts of Europe would dare compare their cultural riches to those of Naples and its fabled surrounds. A former royal capital, Naples has been home to countless cultural deities, from painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio to sculptor Cosimo Fanzago and composer Alessandro Scarlatti. The region lays claim to Italys largest opera house and royal palace, many of the countrys finest paintings, sculptures and frescoes, and not to mention a large share of Graeco-Roman ruins. Let your imagination run wild at the temples at Paestum, on the chariot-grooved streets of Pompeii, or in the frescoed magnificence of Villa Oplontis. Compare the Gothic minimalism of Naples Complesso Monumentale di San Lorenzo Maggiore to the outrageous rococo of its Chiesa di San Gregorio Armeno. From frescoes to marble carvings, the regions glut of artistic marvels will satiate the greediest cultural appetites.

Naples and its region are the countrys culinary soul, home to Italys best pizza, pasta, mozzarella, vegetables, citrus and seafood. Its like one never-ending feast; wood-fired pizza and potent espresso in Naples, long, lazy lunches at Cilento agriturismi (farm stays), alici fritte (fried sardines) on weathered Tyrrhenian islands and lavish pastries in chintzy Salerno pasticcerie (pastry shops). Even the simplest bite can be a revelation, from salty, almond-flavoured taralli (round, savoury biscuits), to the sweet, fluffy ricotta inside a sfogliatella (ricotta-filled pastry). Should you scour the markets for seasonal produce? Tuck into coniglio allIschitana (Ischian-style rabbit) at a rustic island trattoria? Pick up some famous colatura di alici (anchovy essence) in Cetara? Or just kick back with a crisp local Falanghina as you debate who has the creamiest buffalo mozzarella Caserta or Paestum? Whatever your choice, be certain that good food and wine are always just around the corner.

Mother Nature went into overdrive in Campania, creating a thrilling jumble of rugged mountains, steaming fumaroles, and dazzling coastal grottoes. Its like one giant playground begging for a tackle, be it fast-paced and furious, or romantic and relaxed. Crank up the pulse rate exploring bat-filled grottoes at the Grotta di Castelcivita, cave diving off the Capri coast, or feeling the earths subterranean wrath at the Solfatara Crater. If you need to bring it down a notch, the options are just as enticing, from horse-riding the slopes of Mt Vesuvius to sailing your way along the Amalfi Coast or simply stripping down and soaking at a thermal beach on Ischia. The options may be many, but there is one constant a landscape that is beautiful, diverse, and just a little magic.

Harbour at Marina Grande (), Capri
RICHARD I'ANSON/GETTY IMAGES

Theres nothing like waking up to the sound of a Neapolitan street market, whether its rough-and-ready Mercato di Porta Nolana (). A feast for the senses, its as much akin to a North African bazaar as to a European market: fruit vendors raucously hawking their wares in Neapolitan dialect, swordfish heads casting sidelong glances at you across heaps of silvery sardines on ice, the irresistible perfume of crunchy casareccio (homestyle) bread, and the just-baked sfogliatelle (ricotta-filled pastries).

Mercato di Porta Nolana, Naples
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Pompeii

Nothing piques human curiosity quite like a mass catastrophe and few can beat the ruins of Pompeii (), a once-thriving Roman town frozen for all-time in its 2000-year-old death throes. Wander Roman streets, the grassy, column-lined forum, the city brothel, the 5000-seat theatre and the frescoed Villa dei Misteri and ponder Pliny the Youngers terrifying account of the tragedy: Darkness came on again, again ashes, thick and heavy. We got up repeatedly to shake these off; otherwise we would have been buried and crushed by the weight.

Street in Pompeii
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Grotta Azzurra

Capris craggy coast is studded with more than a dozen sea caves, most of them accessible and spectacular, but none as justifiably famous as the Grotta Azzurra (Blue Grotto; ). Charted since antiquity, what makes this cave so spectacular is its magical, iridescent blue light. Whats the secret, you ask? Its all in the refraction of sunlight through the water, which is reflected off the shimmering white sand. Visiting the cave is an experience in itself, on a little wooden rowboat complete with singing captain.

Inside the Grotta Azzurra
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Procida

Wind-swept and citrus-scented, tiny Procida () oozes old-school southern Italian appeal. Faded gelato-hued houses crowd the marina as a first evocative introduction to an island where tourism has remained remarkably low- key a tourist office only opened here in 2012. Narrow strung-with-washing lanes beckon strollers to the backstreets, secret swimming spots make for summertime bliss, and a handful of crumbling historic sights add a quiet sense of mystery. You may well eat some of the best fish of your trip here, served so fresh its almost flapping.

Marina Corricella, Procida
RICHARD IANSON/GETTY IMAGES

Ravello

Ravello () exudes a tantalising sense of beauty, idle luxury and the past. Perched above the Amalfi Coast, the town bristles with sumptuous churches, palaces and villas. Among the latter is Villa Rufolo, its romantic gardens famously inspiring the German composer Wagner. In commemoration, a summer festival of classical music is held on its terrace, a fabulous event best booked ahead. Lyrical connections aside, Ravellos setting is sublime, framed by lush countryside.