r/travel • u/guarrandongo • 2d ago

Question Naples - what’s going on?

First time here and I’d heard a million times that it was a bit run down & grubby etc., but I was shocked to see the state of large areas of the city centre. I’m Scottish and it reminded me of Edinburgh during the bin strikes 3 or so years ago - 8 foot high piles of rubbish everywhere. Even saw some decomposing rats lying around that had clearly been there for weeks. Was a full-time job trying to avoid standing on dog shit as well. Assuming it was dogs! One guy also definitely trying to get me to take my hands out of my pockets in an attempt to rob me, I’m in no doubt about that. It wasn’t happening, though.

I took plenty of advice from various people to find the ‘nice’ parts, but we wandered around those areas for a couple of hours and it was terrible.

Has it gone downhill recently, or has it always been like this?

Any further advice on some decent areas with nice bars etc. would be welcome. We only have tonight left and we’d like to try enjoy it as best we can. Had a great dinner last night so wasn’t a total write-off, but after it certainly was. I’d rather not go out than wander around these areas again.

What’s actually going on here?

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u/Blibberwock 2d ago

Well, outside of Garibaldi (during the daytime) and Bellini (at night) squares it’s mostly OK. Believe it or not, but the situation with dog shit improved a lot during the last 10 years, but you still need to watch for it.

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u/guarrandongo 2d ago

I’m staying near Garibaldi. It is ok, yeah, but 1 or 2 streets away, wow…

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u/mbrevitas 2d ago

Yeah, that’s the part of Naples where you shouldn’t stay.

Try via Toledo and Piazza del Plebiscito, the area just was of the royal palace, Santa Lucia, Chiaia, Vomero, Mergellina, Posillipo…

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u/guarrandongo 2d ago

I’m not at Garibaldi. I’m in the Historical Centre. It’s actually fine around our hotel (which is really nice and cheap for what we have). I think we just missed this whole area by a street or 2 but we’re enjoying it now.

The underground tour was shit, though! Tourist hell.