Food Tours · Tour

A Bakery Open Since 1837, and Gelato Under the Guglia

Two and a half hours through the backstreets of the old centre, starting at Piazza Bellini beside the fourth-century BC Greek walls, which sit several metres below the pavement because the city has kept building upward on its own foundations. The square is a student one, loud in the evenings. Via dei Tribunali comes first, and the guide takes you off it into small delis that sell to the neighbourhood: fresh mozzarella, vegetables, local biscuits. Before San Gregorio Armeno, the street where nativity-scene workshops operate all year, you eat fried pizza and pizza a portafoglio, folded into quarters and handed over hot. On Spaccanapoli, the straight cut through the centre that reads as a dark line from any viewpoint above the city and forms part of the UNESCO-listed historic centre, there is frittatina, a shot of liqueur, and pastries from a bakery that has been making them on the same premises since 1837. The number is worth sitting with: that bakery opened when the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies still existed and Naples was its capital. Along the way the guide talks about the superstitions, which in Naples are not decorative, and the habits that go with them. The walk finishes with artisanal gelato at Piazza del Gesù Nuovo, where the Gesù Nuovo church with its diamond-cut stone facade, the monastery of Santa Chiara and the spire of the Immaculate Virgin all stand within sight of each other, then ends on Via Toledo. Up to fifteen travellers, guided in English, moderate walking. Drinks are not included.