Are you staying in the Megaron B&B? If so, keep your 20 cent coins to use in the ancient lift. You can easily walk down the stairs but up with luggage is another matter.

We are staying at the airport (ugh) and leaving luggage there. Spending day and evening in Naples.

drbeier,

Michelin puts the distance from Capodimonte to the archeological museum at 3.5 km. Bear in mind that you will walk at least 2 or 3 km inside the Capodimonte museum, so your legs may balk at another 3.5 km, even though they are all downhill.

My experience of taxis in Napoli is that they are easy to find, fairly inexpensive and have meters. Were it me, I would go the Capodimonte, go to Starita for lunch or snack, and ask the folks at Starita where to get a taxi. They will either point you to a taxi rank nearby or use their cell phones to call one for you. I realize that stories abound about "taxi rip-offs" in Napoli, but that is the way I would behave. I've gotten into many taxis in Napoli on the spur of the moment and never had a reason to believe I was overcharged.

All that said, unless the only way you can afford a Neopolitan stay is using "points" that put you at the airport, I suggest you cancel your airport hotel and book a b&b in Napoli, and take a taxi to the airport for your early flight. The taxi rate to the airport is fixed from anywhere in the center, and b&bs in Napoli are usually a bargain and charming as well.

Thanks for the helpful advise (and apologies again to Steve for poaching!) I certainly would prefer to stay in town, but, between museums, churches, multiple pizza stops, and having to be at the airport around 6 AM, I figured I would not be there long enough to enjoy it.

I agree - and the money you'll save staying in a B&B in central Naples (about $75USD) verses an airport hotel will pay for the taxi ride out to the airport.

drbeir,

If you stay in town to eat dinner, you will have to pay for a taxi back to an airport hotel anyway. I don't know how you arriving in Napoli, but from the the port or the train station you will probably take a taxi to your airport hotel. So then you could end up with TWO taxi fares.

(To make matters worse, while the taxi fare from the center of Napoli to the airport is a flat fee, I woudn't be surprised if a taxi driver didn't feel obliged to give you the flat fee if your airport hotel isn't actually at the airport.)

Also, you will be eating up a lot of time arriving in Napoli, going to your airport hotel, going to town, and going back to your airport hotel. Just go to Napoli and go to town.

At 5am in the morning, it will take you all of 15 minutes to get from the center of town to the Napoli airport (which doesn't even open until 5am I believe). A b&b owner will be happy to call his most reliable taxi service for you.

There's no need for a taxi between Starita and the archaeology museum. The walk will only take you about 5 minutes, as they're only a few blocks away from each other. Again, it's all downhill.

I would, however, take a bus or taxi from Capodimonte to Starita, then walk to the archaeology museum from there. There are plenty of taxis in the neighborhood of Capodimonte, plus there's a bus stop right outside the museum's main entrance.

You could hoof it from Capodimonte, but, like as been said above, you will most likely welcome the chance to sit for a bit between museums.

Zeppole or anyone else,

Has any one done the Catacomb tours or the Napoli Sotteranea tour?

We went on the San Gennaro catacombs tour. It was only offered in Italian that day(we were there in the winter), but we went along anyway. I was able to cobble together a few things from the tour guide with my feeble high school Italian, but had read quite a bit about it beforehand. I'd suggest you do, too. It was well worth seeing, the paintings are just lovely and it's quite an experience just to be inside them. Get there early.

We didn't go on the Sotteranea Tour, but did take a peek at the excavations below San Lorenzo Maggiore (Roman market, houses and road). It paled somewhat in comparison to the other archaeological sites we had seen, so I'm not sure I'd do it again.

Hopefully others will pipe up about the Sotteranea tour.

The Naples B&B I've booked suggeted the San Gennaro catacombs tour. Previous trips to Rome I have taken two different tours of the Catacombs, which were interesting.

Here's their web site, Steve:

http://www.catacombedinapoli.it/eng/...mbe.asp?ref=ok

These catacombs aren't filled with bones, FYI. The underground burials are mostly empty. The early Christian wall paintings are the draw here.

Thank you NanBug. That's good to know.

I took the Sotterranea tour and was interested, but not as much as I thought I would be. However, it is fairly short (an hour or less) and you will probably walk right past the entrance while you are in the neighborhood of Capella Sansevero and Pio Monte Della Misericordia, so you can check the times and your mood and make a spontaneous decision. It involves a significant amount of stair climbing, and while I didn't mind it, I was surprised they didn't warn people how steep the ascent back up to street level is.

What is interesting is the explanations of how the underground areas were built and how they were used over centuries, so you would definitely want an English-speaking guide if you don't speak Italian. It is like walking through a huge, mostly dark, many-roomed basement, with soaring ceilings. This picture pretty much captures what you see, with some other rooms being aqueducts or WW2 bomb shelters

http://static.fanpage.it/travelfanpa...otterranea.jpg

Thank you zeppole!
I read that part of the Sotterranea tour goes to an old Greek theater?

This enthusiastic report on the underground tour might be helpful:

http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blo...9549/tpod.html

Has anyone experience any situations with pickpockets or other thefts while in Naples?
Obviously you need to be careful, but does one need to take extra precautions?

Great info!

Must admit that I was just a little disappointed that we didn't see any crime during a week in Naples, despite taking trains and standing in crowds waiting for a miracle.
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-and-paris.cfm

Naples is safer than most US cities. So, take the same precautions you would here in the US and you'll be just fine.

Thank you both Marija and bardo1.