Tour Description

Theories on the foundation of Naples are obscure and controversial. With a wonderful climate, luxuriant nature and an enchanting views of one of the most beautiful gulfs in the world, in Roman times Naples began to expand and acquire the fame it would maintain unchanged over the centuries, centuries of a complex and tormented history consisting of brief periods of prosperous independence and hundreds of years of foreign domination, both benevolent and illuminated and otherwise. Byzantines, Goths, Normans, Swabians, Angevins, Aragons and Bourbons: the city retains at least traces of them all, and in many cases much more.

Nearly all of them gave the city grandiose monuments and tyranny, sumptuous churches and battles, useful public works and burdensome taxes! Naples never gave up one fundamental aspect: its independence!! Naples is an art city in the true sense of the word, a city where art seems to spring up spontaneously from the fertile earth, producing wonders in every area, from painting to music, poetry to architecture, theater to dance. Its roads are strewn with splendid and grandiose monuments, and with the people that daily “make” Naples, perpetuating its culture and its inimitable way of life, always admired in at least one of its innumerable form. In Naples one can still breathe its ancient and deep culture and feel the genuineness of its people, unchanged over the centuries.

The second stop of our tour is the Caserta Royal Palace which represents a former royal residence in Caserta constructed for the Bourbon kings of Naples in the 18th century. The construction of the palace was begun in 1752 for Charles VII of Naples, who worked closely with his architect, Luigi Vanvitelli and with its 5 floors, 1200 rooms including two dozen state apartments and a large library is one of the largest palaces erected in Europe. The park starts from the back façade of the palace, flanking a long alley with artificial fountains and cascades. The most interesting is a botanical garden, called "The English Garden". The residence is an explosion of art, marble statues, paintings, stuccoes and furniture that all speak of an immense fortune and good taste that one of the greatest and oldest European aristocratic families expressed.