I have my Mom to thank for my deep passion for all things Italian. As of a professor of art history with a focus in Italian Renaissance, my mom has been taking me and my brothers to Italy for as long as we can remember; acting as our own personal tour guide through countless museums, cathedrals, tomb sites, etc. So, naturally, when I brought up the trip that my best friends and I are planning on taking this coming spring (last mentioned here), she immediately suggested a visit to Italy. As we went through a list of potential towns and cities, I stopped at Naples, a city along the Tyrrhenian Sea.

While I’m automatically drawn to anything near the water (although I’m admittedly not much of a beach person – go figure), what drew me to Naples was its colorful buildings, must-see works of art, and its close proximity to Pompeii, a location I plan on featuring as a “Weekend Getaway” in the near future. Listed in my fantasy itinerary for my potential trip to Naples is a visit to the Museo Archaeologico Nazionale, a museum which houses remains from the Pompeii disaster, as well as the third largest Egyptian collection in Italy, and incredible Roman sculptures and mosaics. Also listed is the Acquario, Europe’s first public aquarium in the Villa Comunale, the Grotta di Seiano which is an artificial cave that you crawl through to look out onto the turquoise waters, the Sansevero Chapel which contains extraordinary veiled marble sculptures, and obviously a feast on Neapolitan Pizza which was created in Naples. And if by chance there is a day that I decide to venture out of this historical city, a thirty minute trip out to Parco Virgiliano gets me a view of the surrounding area as well as the magnificent Mount Vesuvius. What more could one need in a Weekend Getaway?

• Museo Archeologico Nazionale •

• Hercules Farnese (left); Alexander Mosaic (right) •

• Acquario Villa Comunale •

• view of Mount Vesuvius from Parco Virgiliano •

• Castel dell’Ovo at Porto Santa Lucia •

• Veiled Christ at Sansevero Chapel •

• entrance to the Grotta di Seiano •

Have you ever been to Naples?

–

photos via flickr