Once I visited Naples nearly a decade in the past, guidebooks, hoteliers, and well-meaning locals all warned me of the foolhardiness of being a lone international lady within the metropolis.
Most adamantly, they urged me to not set foot within the Quartieri Spagnoli, a neighbourhood then infamous for crime and violence.
Quick ahead to 2025, the two,five hundredth anniversary of the town’s founding, and Naples’ metamorphosis is difficult to maintain up with. Once I requested my taxi driver for suggestions for the place to eat that night, his first suggestion was “anyplace within the Quartieri Spagnoli”.
Over the past decade, the endeavours of vacationers to find ‘genuine’ areas and the entrepreneurship of residents have aided the opening up of the quarter. It’s consultant of what’s taking place everywhere in the metropolis, with each constructive and adverse knock-on results.
2,500 years after its delivery, Naples is revelling in a tourism increase whereas concurrently experiencing accelerated downsides that the majority cities be taught many years later.
Naples celebrates its 2,five hundredth anniversary
Naples’ second within the highlight is lengthy deserved. As the town is justly celebrating, it’s a palimpsest of two,500 years of historical past that comes collectively in a heady, alluring, theatrical concoction.
Throughout the grid plan centro storico – the town’s historic centre – alone, 2nd-century catacombs lie beneath your ft as you stroll shaded alleys lined with decadent Sixteenth-century palazzos. Heavy stone-carved church buildings conceal 4th-century mosaics and Seventeenth-century Caravaggio work.
All year long, there are numerous occasions to rejoice the anniversary. The lavishly gilded 18th-century Teatro San Carlo has a wealthy programme of performances.
A brand new part of the celebrated Archaeological Museum of Naples (MANN) opens in early June, and the Museo di Capodimonte will inaugurate a brand new exhibition house devoted to porcelain in November.
Italy’s wild youngster will get a clean-up
Guidebook descriptions of Naples have condemned the town to be endlessly related to the adjective ‘gritty’.
It’s true that, the place locations just like the Tuscany countryside, the Amalfi Coast and Cinque Terre are curated to the purpose of turning into spurious, Naples delivers authenticity in droves.
However ‘gritty’ has additionally been a euphemistic option to nod to Naples’ long-standing issues with waste administration and crime.
The town is now working exhausting to deal with these issues. Final 12 months, the council introduced new methods for maintaining the streets clear.
“We announce the arrival of essential information for the advance of assortment providers,” the director of Naples’ waste administration providers ASIA Napoli stated.
“Amongst these are a brand new web site, the updating of communication providers with residents, and the progressive set up of technological infrastructures for waste disposal and assortment monitoring within the metropolis.”
Crime charges are additionally lowering, with thefts down 6 per cent in 2024 in comparison with 2023 and robberies down 17.75 per cent.
Luxurious lodges and cruise ships come to Naples
Coupled with the town’s clear up is a change within the type of tourism it is welcoming.
From the Krug-branded rooftop terrace of the five-star Romeo Lodge Napoli, champagne-sipping company have a sweeping view of the bay of Naples, shadowy Mount Vesuvius, and the day’s cruise ship arrivals.
In summer season, a mean of three liners dock within the metropolis a day, disgorging tens of 1000’s of vacationers into its streets.
However not like Venice or Santorini, Naples’ measurement can extra simply digest the inflow, and even profit from it. In line with my taxi driver, cruise passengers are a giant earner for personal transport firms, tour teams and memento outlets.
One other comparatively new marketplace for Naples is the luxurious traveller. At present, there are solely a handful of five-star lodges within the metropolis, in comparison with over 50 in Rome and practically the identical quantity in Florence.
However a number of extra large chain openings are within the pipeline, together with a Radisson, a Roccoforte and a Marriott.
Romeo Lodge appears to have foreseen this rising market. Opened in 2008, its cutting-edge glass and metal construction, full of avant-garde artworks from the proprietor’s assortment, nonetheless feels very on development.
The lodge is now upgrading its facilities to cater for the growing luxurious market, with an unlimited Sisley Paris spa, a cigar room, an infinity pool with glass sides, and a haute-cuisine Alain Ducasse-inspired restaurant.
The enhancements have proved widespread. The property now sees many extra worldwide company and just lately hosted footballer Scott McTominay and household throughout his championship remaining (and win) for the town’s Serie A membership Napoli.
Vacationers are staying longer and diving deeper into the town
Vacationer arrivals have been rising in Naples (up 15 per cent from 2023 to 2024), and the guests have gotten extra numerous.
“We’ve undoubtedly seen a wider mixture of nationalities,” says Inès Sellami, proprietor of the artwork gallery-cum-guesthouse Atelier Inès.
“Just a few years in the past, it was largely Italians, Germans, and possibly the occasional French couple. Now we get Individuals, Brits, Koreans, Australians, even solo travellers from South America or India.”
Guests are additionally taking extra time to see the town. “Folks used to come back for only one or two nights. Now they’re staying 4 or 5 nights, utilizing Naples as a base but in addition diving deeper into the town itself,” says Sellami.
“Extra company are thinking about native artwork, cooking experiences, and the tales behind issues, not simply ticking off monuments.”
The darkish facet of a tourism increase
The tourism increase has been a boon in some methods. “It’s introduced a whole lot of vitality and alternatives. Some areas that had been run-down have new life now, new cafés, artwork areas, boutique lodges, younger folks opening companies,” explains Sellami.
“It’s created work, particularly for youthful generations who needed to remain in Naples however didn’t see a future right here. And there’s a brand new sense of satisfaction, locals see that guests respect our traditions, our meals, our creativity.”
Nonetheless, the town council must get a agency grip on the scenario to halt the already pervasive adversarial results the tourism inflow is having.
Rising customer numbers are fuelling development within the short-term rental market, which in flip has sparked a housing disaster much like these skilled by hotspot locations just like the Canary Islands and Barcelona.
A examine from 2023 discovered that platform-mediated short-term leases are displacing low-income inhabitants from the historic centre of Naples.
It stated that Airbnb listings between 2015 and 2019 in Naples elevated by 553 per cent, and they’re concentrated within the neighbourhoods struggling the very best financial hardship.
In line with Tourism Overview, renting an condo within the historic centre price between €550 and €600 ten years in the past. Right now, these costs vary from €1,200 to €1,400, successfully doubling in a decade.
It is a significantly worrying development as a result of, regardless of elevated job alternatives from tourism, wages aren’t seeing a considerable enhance. The town has one of many highest charges of youth unemployment in Italy at 43 per cent.
Naples wants a complete tourism technique
For Sellami, an important technique for relieving the pressure of tourism is to unfold it out extra and encourage guests to discover past the standard spots.
Instagram and TikTok’s tunnel imaginative and prescient view of the town – Diego Maradona murals, pizzerie and seaview spritz – means guests crowd the centro storico and waterside Lungomare.
“There are wonderful neighbourhoods that also don’t see many vacationers,” she says.
She additionally means that higher transport connections and clearer signage would assist, too, particularly in English.
“Most of all, I believe we should always concentrate on high quality tourism, individuals who include curiosity and respect,” she provides. “If we welcome them correctly and share the true Naples, everybody advantages.”
The onus is on the vacationers themselves, too. Sellami says it’s not uncommon to search out guests who deal with the town like a theme park, making loud noise at evening and disrespecting church buildings or monuments. A standard theme in overtourism complaints throughout Europe.
However usually, she is optimistic concerning the metropolis’s growth.
“It’s been fairly a metamorphosis,” she says. “Now individuals are coming for Naples, they’re discovering the meals, the artwork, the uncooked great thing about the town. It’s nonetheless not a cultured metropolis, however I believe that’s a part of the attraction.”