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Naples Transportation
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The only way to really get around Naples and stay sane is to
walk . Driving can be a nightmare, and to negotiate the narrow
streets, hectic squares and racetrack boulevards on a moped or
scooter takes years of training. In any case, not to walk would
mean you'd miss a lot - Naples is the kind of place best
appreciated from street level.
For longer journeys - and Naples is a big, spread-out city -
there are a number of alternatives, both for the city itself and
the bay as a whole. Public transport comes under the care of
Azienda Napoletana Mobilit?(ANM). Its city buses are efficient,
if crowded and slow, and are much the best way of making short
hops across the city centre. The bus system is supplemented by
the metropolitana , a small-scale underground network that
crosses the city centre, stopping at about four stops between
Piazza Garibaldi and Mergellina and runs eventually out to
Pozzuoli and Solfatara in about half an hour; a new metro
station at Piazza Dante will soon connect the city centre with
V?ero and the hills. In addition, three funiculars scale the
hill of the V?ero: one, the Funicolare di Chiaia, from Piazza
Amedeo; another, the Funicolare Centrale, from the station at
the bottom of Via Mattia, just off Via Toledo; and a third, the
Funicolare di Montesanto, from the station on Piazza Montesanto.
Another, the Funicolare di Mergellina, runs up the hill above
Mergellina from Via Mergellina. Tickets for all ANM modes of
transport cost a flat 0.77 and are available in advance from
tabacchi , stations, or the transport booth on Piazza Garibaldi;
an all-day ticket costs 2.32. Normal ANM tickets are valid for
ninety minutes and allow any combination of bus or tram rides,
plus unlimited trips within ninety minutes on an additional two
means of transport - for example the metro, funicular (one trip
only) or railway .
If you need to take a taxi - and you should realize that they
can be interminably slow - make sure the driver switches on the
meter when you start (they often don't); fares start at 2.07 for
the initial journey - minimum fare 3.10. Note that journeys to
and from the airport incur an extra charge of 2.58; trips after
10pm or before 7am cost an extra 2.07; and those on public
holidays an extra 1.55; all of which gives plenty of scope for
confusion, and even resident Neapolitans are wary of the stunts
taxi drivers pull to get a higher fare. There are taxi ranks at
the train station, on Piazza Dante and Piazza Trieste e Trento,
or phone 081.556.4444 or 081.556.0202.
For solely out-of-town trips - around the bay in either
direction - there are three more rail systems. The
Circumvesuviana runs from its station on Corso Garibaldi right
round the Bay of Naples about every thirty minutes, stopping
everywhere, as far south as Sorrento, which it reaches in about
an hour. The Ferrovia Cumana operates every ten minutes from its
terminus station in Piazza Montesanto west to Pozzuoli and B?a.
And the Circumflegrea line runs every twenty minutes, again from
Piazza Montesanto, west to Cuma. Tickets are available at the
stations, and are very reasonable.
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