Naples: Art, Antiquities & Opera - With a performance at the Teatro San Carlo

• Selects the best of the art, architecture and antiquities in Naples.
• Performance of Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot at the glorious Teatro San Carlo.
• Led by Dr Luca Leoncini, art historian specialising in 15th- to 17th-century Italian painting.
• Also visits the palaces and gardens at Caserta.

INTRO

ITINERARY

DETAILS

GALLERY

PRE & POST

INTRODUCTION

Naples, Palazzo Maddalone, etching by Tim Anstey c. 1990.

Naples is one of those rare places whose very name kindles a kaleidoscope of conflicting images. A highlight of the eighteenth-century Grand Tour, it is now all but ignored by mainstream tourism. Royal capital of the largest of the Italian kingdoms, in the twentieth century it became a byword for poverty and decline. Once it basked in a reputation for supreme beauty – ‘see Naples and die’; now it enjoys notoriety as a pit of urban ills – chaos, congestion, corruption and Camorra.

Until recently there was some truth in all of these images of modern Naples. But the city has changed – not entirely, but it is one of the most heartening examples of inner-city regeneration of the last decade or so. Traffic is still appalling, but much of the historic centre is now pedestrianised. A burst of prosperity has transformed the ancient shopping and artisan districts. Restoration of buildings and works of art has further increased the beauty of the city, and more churches and museums are more often open and accessible.

Its museums display some of the finest art and antiquities to be found in Italy, and major architectural and archaeological sites are located nearby. The Teatro San Carlo is one of the most important in operatic history, with many premières to its credit. One of the
oldest and largest in Europe, it was built
in 1737, restored after a fire in 1818, and emerged just a few years ago in all its glory from major refurbishment.

Naples is a city of the south. In many ways it has more in common with Seville or Cairo than with Florence or Milan. It is a city of swaggering palaces and stupendous churches, of cacophonous street life and infectious vitality. Exciting, exhausting, energising.

ITINERARY

DAY 1

Fly at c. 2.30pm from London Gatwick to Naples (British Airways).

DAY 2

A first walk through the teeming old city centre includes the Cappella San Severo, a masterpiece of Baroque art and craft with multi-coloured marbles and virtuoso sculptures, and Santa Chiara, an austere Gothic church with a delightful Rococo tile-encrusted cloister. The afternoon is spent at the National Archeological Museum, one of the world’s greatest collections of Greek and Roman antiquities. Many items come from the excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum.

DAY 3

High on a hill which provides stunning views over the city and the Bay of Naples, the monastery of San Martino has a church of extraordinary lavishness of art and decoration and a museum of fine and decorative arts. The afternoon is free before the evening performance at the Teatro San Carlo, the oldest major working theatre in Europe and renowned for its acoustic despite its 3000-seat capacity. Turandot (Puccini), Juraj Valčuha (conductor), Roberto De Simone (director).

DAY 4

Among the treasures seen on the second walk in the centre of Naples are the cathedral of San Gennaro which has an interior of astounding richness and major paintings by Domenichino and Lanfranco. Also seen are two works by Caravaggio, his Martyrdom of St Ursula in a bank and his Seven Acts of Mercy in the chapel for which it was commissioned.

DAY 5

Visit the Royal Palace, a majestic pile in the heart of the city overlooking the harbour. Begun at the beginning of the 17th century, it was extended and refurbished in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the afternoon drive into the hilly suburbs to visit the palace of Capodimonte, originally a giant hunting lodge. Here is located one of Italy’s greatest art galleries, with a magnificent range of art from the Middle Ages onwards.

DAY 6

Situated a few miles outside Naples, the royal palace at Caserta, begun 1751, is Italy’s most magnificent and accomplished emulation of Versailles. An awesome absolutist statement, the apartments are superbly decorated and furnished and it is set within parkland and gardens equally magnificent in scale. In Caserta there is also a visit to the 18th-century gardens at the Casale dei Duchi di Bovino, a cross between the formal Italian and the landscaped English style. Lunch is at a private villa. Fly from Naples to London Gatwick, arriving at c. 10.00pm.