Naples 2026: the pizza, Pompeii and the most beautiful ordered chaos in Italy

Complete Naples 2026 guide: the best pizzerias in the Centro Storico, Pompeii and Vesuvius, the MANN and Spaccanapoli. Everything you need to eat well and see plenty.

Let me be clear about one thing from the start: the difference between Neapolitan pizza and Roman pizza is not a matter of personal preference. It is a matter of principle. Roman pizza is thin, crispy, almost like a cracker with toppings. Neapolitan pizza has dough, has cornicione, has moisture, has life. They are not competing. They are different categories that share a name by historical accident.

I arrived in Naples with one declared objective: to eat at Da Michele, Sorbillo and Di Matteo on the same day. I managed it. It was one of the most satisfying days of my adult life.

Da Michele (Via Cesare Sersale, 1) has been open since 1870 and only serves two pizzas: marinara (no cheese) and margherita. Nothing else. The queue is out the door by 11am. You arrive, take a number, wait. The pizza costs under €6 and is exactly as good as they say. The place is functional to the point of spartan: long tables, neon lighting, a lot of noise. Perfect.

Gino Sorbillo (Via dei Tribunali, 32) is larger and more internationally known, which means the queue is longer but you have more options. Sorbillo makes more contemporary variations — with nduja, with burrata, with Cantabrian anchovies — without losing the technical orthodoxy of the dough. I like it for different reasons to Da Michele.

Di Matteo (Via dei Tribunali, 94) has the best fried food on the street. Neapolitan fried pizza — pasta cresciuta, frittatine di pasta, cuoppo — is the other great gastronomic tradition the city doesn't export.

After all three, I walked 8km to find the sfogliatella riccia from Pasticceria Attanasio (Via Ferrovia, near the Central Station). Sfogliatella is the hardest hand-made pastry in Italy — layers of puff pastry as thin as paper enclosing a filling of ricotta, semolina and candied fruit. There is sfogliatella frolle (the easy version, shortcrust) and sfogliatella riccia (the correct one). I only accept the riccia.

Pompeii — a guide from someone who has been too many times

Pompeii is one of the most important archaeological sites in the world and also one of the most badly visited. Most people arrive at 11am with the cruise ship group, see the Forum, the plaster casts, the House of the Vettii, and leave in two hours. That is not seeing Pompeii.

To visit Pompeii properly you need: arrive when it opens (9am), at least 4 hours, comfortable shoes and a site map downloaded. The most impressive houses are far from the usual tourist circuit — the Villa of the Mysteries, at the far end of the site, has the best-preserved frescoes of Roman antiquity and is usually nearly empty first thing in the morning.

Vesuvius can be climbed from Pompeii by shared taxi (€10-12 per person) or organised tour. The drive to the crater base is 30 minutes, and from there 30 minutes on foot to the rim. The view over the Bay of Naples and the Mediterranean is the kind of view that makes everything before it make sense.

On safety — let's be adults about this

Naples has a reputation for being dangerous. That reputation is a historical inheritance that doesn't correspond to the reality of 2026 for a daytime visitor with basic awareness. I have been four times. I have never had an incident. What is true: don't have your iPhone out on the back of a scooter while walking down side streets, use a crossbody bag, don't leave backpacks on restaurant chair backs. That applies in any large southern European city.

The Centro Storico is UNESCO World Heritage and is full of people during the day. Spaccanapoli at 7pm with a cone of fritto misto in hand is one of the best urban experiences in Italy.

The train to Rome

Naples and Rome are 70 minutes apart on the Frecciarossa high-speed train. There are departures every hour from the Central Station. If your base is Rome, Naples is perfectly viable as a day trip — though it deserves more. For the flight in or any European connection, it is worth having an Italian eSIM already activated.