Corso Umberto I, the rettifilo (straight line), runs southwest from the ugly (but pretty much unavoidable) transport hub of piazza Garibaldi to piazza Giovanni Bovio, and is a soulless thoroughfare, almost always busy with traffic. To the north is the university, with small but interesting museums; to the south the Mercato district, stretching down to via Nuova Marina and the industrial port area, is a claustrophobic residential area, punctuated by shops selling mattresses and toilet rolls, though it has an extraordinarily lively market at Porta Nolana. The Fontana Medina, in piazza Bovio, complete with Neptune and satyrs (and sea-monsters courtesy of Pietro Bernini) at the end of the 16th century, was, at the time of writing, hidden behind hoardings as the construction of a new metro station continues. SightsMercato di Porta Nolana Just to the west of the Circumvesuviana Terminal this extraordinary piece of Neapolitan theatre spills out every morning around Porta Nolana onto via Cesare Carmignano and via Sopramuro. It’s a heady mix of shellfish (under arcs of constantly spraying water), fruit and veg, pirated CDs, DVDs and software, bread, olives, enormous live octopuses (still writhing as they are chopped up), contraband cigarettes, every kind of fish imaginable, extraordinarily cheap beer, toy helicopters and fishing rods, overlaid with bellowed Neapolitan dialect, and loud Italian pop music. Not to be missed. Piazza Mercato Despite its contemporary use as a car park, piazza Mercato has previously been the stage for some of Naples’ most dramatic history. Site for public executions, including those at the end of the failed Parthenopean Republic, it was also the point where Masaniello’s 1647 uprising started, the fish vendor leading a violent revolt against a Spanish fruit tax. Naples’ plague also began here in 1656, killing as much as three-quarters of the city’s population. The piazza has one of the area’s few landmarks, the ancient church of Santa Maria del Carmine, restructured at the end of the 13th century, with an imposing façade and a 75-metre bell-tower decorated at the top with majolica tiles, added in the 17th century. Annually on 16th July a popular firework display from the campanile marks the feast of the Madonna del Carmine. Santa Maria del Carmine has a crucifix which supposedly ducked to avoid a cannonball in Alfonso of Aragon's 1439 attack on the city. I Musei dell’Università Anthropology, Mineralogy, Zoology, via Mezzocannone 8, Paleontology, largo San Marcellino 10, http://www.musei.unina.it, T 081-2535162. Mon-Fri 0900-1330, Sat-Sun 0900-1300. Ticket covers all museums, and is valid on different days, €1.50 Comprising the museums of zoology, anthropology, palaeontology and mineralogy, this collection (officially, the “Naples University Interdepartmental Museums”) is very effectively hidden deep in the depths of the university, though there are signs from the via Mezzocannone entrance. Also, the museums are rather old- fashioned, and not especially pertinent to the city itself. There are some fascinating exhibits though, and, if you can find them, they’re worth a wander round. Information is given, but generally in Italian. If you’re lucky you’ll find a guide willing to do a tour in English. The Mineralogy Museum is particularly grand, and has an interesting room with an amazing variety of different pieces of lava. The Zoology Museum is pretty much as you would imagine it was 100 years ago: lots of stuffed animals, a life-size model of a hippo, and skeletons of an elephant and a couple of whales. The Anthropology Museum is small but has some unusual exhibits, including a beautiful carved bone, and a skeleton from Pompeii. The Palaeontology Museum is in a recently restored convent.
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Naples - £5.99
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