What do you know about Naples ?

I want to visit Napoli and I want to know the best places , restaurants , shops , events there ?
NAPLES - is Italy's most controversial city: You'll either love it or hate it. Is it paradiso or the inferno? It's louder, more intense, more unnerving, but perhaps ultimately more satisfying than almost anywhere else in Italy. Naples has made world headlines for its cultural renaissance and its fight against crime. Despite Mafia-directed crime, political corruption, prostitution, street hoodlums, chaotic traffic, and pervasive unemployment... etc.

The capital of the region and, indeed, of the whole Italian south. Maybe you will have the feeling that you're somewhere unique makes it possible to endure the noise and harassment, Maybe it's the feeling that in less than three hours you've travelled from an ordinary part of Europe to somewhere akin to an Arab bazaar. Perhaps the feeling that you're somewhere unique makes it possible to endure the noise and harassment, perhaps it's the feeling that in less than three hours you've travelled from an ordinary part of Europe to somewhere akin to an Arab bazaar. Football, too, is a religion here.

??usic, also, has played a key part in the city's identity: there's long been a Naples style, bound up with the city's strange, harsh dialect - and, to some extent, the long-established presence of the US military: American jazz lent a flavour to Neapolitan traditional songs in the Fifties; and the Seventies saw one of Italy's most concentrated musical movements in the urban blues scene of Pino Daniele ( MY FAVE NEAPOLITAN SINGER and HIS SONGS ARE THE BOMB!) and the music around the radical Alfa Romeo factory out at Pomigliano. New rock groups are also born in Naples every month, and interest in traditional Neapolitan music is also increasing.

??eapolitan cuisine consists of simple dishes cooked with fresh, healthy ingredients . Also, as Naples is not primarily a tourist-geared city, most restaurants are family-run places used by locals and as such generally serve good food at very reasonable prices. There's no better place in Italy to eat pizza (especially PIZZA MARGHERITA), at a solid core of almost obsessively unchanging places that still serve only the (very few) traditional varieties. You're never far from a food stall for delectable snacks on the move, or you can always pick something up from the city's street markets in La Forcella or the fish market at Porta Nolana.

??ightlife:
A sunset walk through Santa Lucia and along the waterfront is one of the lasting pleasures in Naples. You can stroll by the glass-enclosed Galleria Umberto I, off Via Roma across from the Teatro San Carlo. The 19th-century gallery is still standing today, although it's a little the worse for wear. It's a kind of social center for Naples, with lots of shopping and dining possibilities. On its nightclub/cabaret circuit, Naples offers more sucker joints than any other Mediterranean port. If you're starved for action, you'll find plenty of it -- and you're likely to end up paying for it dearly.

??hopping
The shopping in Naples can't compare to that in Milan, Venice, Florence, and Rome. Nevertheless, there are some good buys for those willing to seek them out. The finest shopping area lies around Piazza dei Martiri and along such streets as Via dei Mille, Via Calabritto, and Via Chiaia. There's more commercial shopping between Piazza Trieste e Trento and Piazza Dante along Via Toledo/Via Roma.

??pecial Events

Maggio dei Monumenti (May of Monuments) is sponsored by the Council of Naples, with events occurring every weekend during the month. Each year the theme is slightly different. One of the most interesting parts of this event is a series of guided walks through the historic district, even through the city's underground passages. May is also the month for a variety of exhibits and fairs. Chamber music recitals, concerts, operettas, performances of classic Neapolitan songs, and even soccer matches and horse races add to the celebration. If you're in Naples in May, consult the tourist office for a full program of events, some of which are free.

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