Napoli Sotterranea, Quartieri Spagnoli
- 
The Italian phrase “Napoli Sotterranea” translates into English as “underground Naples”, and indeed there are guided tours of parts of the vast network of tunnels and caverns underneath the city, several of which served as air-raid shelters during WWII.The tour described in this chapter is the one offered from the “Quartieri Spagnoli” or ‘Spanish Quarter’ to the west of the inner city core. This is not to be confused with the other, more touristy Napoli Sotterranea in the Centro Storico (‘historical centre’)! They are separate entities in different locations!
More background info: for the general historical background of the underground of Naples, its origins, purposes and so forth, please see the background section of the Napoli Sotterranea Centro Storico chapter.
This other Napoli Sotterranea in the Spanish Quarter is the less touristy one of the two. Whether they are related, or even the same outfit, is somewhat unclear. They are probably separate entities, as the association running the tours in the Spanish Quarter gives its name as LAES (short for “Libera Associazione Escursionisti Sottosuolo”), which does not feature anywhere on the other Napoli Sotterranea’s website.
According to their own website, LAES was founded in 1988, ca. nine years after the caverns and tunnels under the Spanish Quarter were rediscovered by accident – and quite literally by accident. In 1979 a fire in a cavern under a palace in this quarter broke out as sawdust and flammable materials were somehow ignited. The fire brigade had to evacuate the whole block of houses as they couldn’t get to the fire. A man, who later became the founder of LAES, remembered from his childhood the location of the entrance to a staircase down to the underground that had been bricked up after WWII. Opening up this entrance, the firefighters were then able to get to the fire and put it out.
That way an old, almost forgotten air-raid shelter from WWII was rediscovered. LAES decided to explore the system of tunnels and clear out wartime rubble and restore the caverns with a view to opening them up to the public. According to my guide, regular public guided tours have been running since sometime in the 2000s. It’s apparently still a work in progress, as more caverns are being made accessible and secure for visitors.
What there is to see: I arrived in good time before the start of the tour so that I could check in leisurely, take a seat on one of the sofas provided in the waiting area and change my camera’s lens (to my fast wide-angle zoom, perfect for enclosed dark places).
The group for the English-language tour had no more than 15 participants, which was a pleasant size (in contrast to the 40 or so on the more touristy tour in the Centro Storico). Our guide (Alex) was a wonderfully enthusiastic and lively guide who spoke very good English (well above average for Italy).
The tour starts with a descent down a stairwell that takes you down 40m underground; it must have been a good two dozen flights and maybe up to 300 steps (I forgot the exact number).
Before we got to the bottom, one cavern branched off the stairwell and contained a small chapel allegedly constructed during WWII, so that people seeking shelter in the underground caverns converted into air-raid shelters could still practise their Catholic faith.
At the bottom we were then led through a series of tunnels and caverns, stopping at various points where the guide delivered his informative and often entertaining narration. He explained the history of the underground system, its role in the water supply for Naples, bringing drinking water via underground aqueducts to cisterns from which people got their water by lowering buckets or amphorae down well holes at the surface. We saw some really high-ceilinged caverns with the well hole at the top only just about visible. These days there is no more water down here. The cisterns were converted for the use as air-raid shelters and new flooring put in. But the guide pointed out the lines that still showed how deep the water would once have been here.
He also relayed the role of workers of small build, called “pozzari”, having to see to the maintenance of the underground system (e.g. remove any potential contaminant like a dead animal). To get down here they had to use little steps cut into the sheer walls. How they managed that without falling remains a mystery to me (maybe they had safety ropes?). As they could travel from well hole to well hole they basically had access to all the houses in their service area. Apparently some used this to trade favours from certain house owners/residents in return for “borrowing” objects from neighbouring houses.
In this context, the guide also gleefully told us the legend of the “Monaciello” (meaning ‘little monk’) who also used this access to houses from the underground for other, more amorous ends … I won’t give away the details here. To find out go on the tour yourself ;-)
The more serious aspects of WWII and the underground system’s use as air-raid shelters was a topic too. We saw some relics like a bent metal bed frame and the remains of a pram as well as some other objects that had been found down here. Along all the tunnels you can also see the separators for electric cables installed during that time, as well as what’s left of a toilet block. Furthermore, the guide pointed out some graffiti – words/names as well as a range of doodles left by people in the air-raid shelters. Amongst them are female faces, a guitar and one shape that was supposed to be the “Duce” (i.e. Mussolini), though I wouldn’t have recognized him.
The guide took great pride in relaying the story of the Four Days of Naples, when the people rebelled against the Nazis and managed to kick them out just before the Allied forces arrived in the city (see background).
In one chamber a heap of rubble was left in place. Before such rubble was cleared away it would have been everywhere down here. Since Naples was the city in Italy most bombed by the Allies there was lots of debris to get rid of after the war, and much of it was simply dumped into these underground spaces that were no longer required.
At one point the guide announced that we were in for a little “adventure” if we felt up to it. This consisted of navigating through some very narrow tunnels that were once used to force water through at high pressure. Now empty you can squeeze through yourself. And it is indeed a bit of a squeeze at some points, though I found the equivalent at the Napoli Sotterranea Centro Storico more challenging than these here. Here, too, you can opt out if you feel too claustrophobic for this exercise. But in contrast to quite a few of the large group in the historical centre equivalent who did opt out, on this tour nobody did.
Towards the end of the tour came a cavern with wartime photos on the walls, showing Allied bombing raids on Naples, the destruction caused by them and the arrival of US troops in the ruined city. For copyright reasons I cannot reproduce them in this chapter’s photo gallery.
Eventually we arrived at the stairs leading back up – thankfully there are far fewer steps to negotiate than there were at the beginning of the tour. These steps at the end led to an exit much lower down the hillside the Quartieri Spagnoli is built on – hence.
After the tour you can peruse the gift shop that you are deposited in. There are all manner of souvenirs, jewellery, little Monaciello figurines and much more.
All in all I found this tour more convincing than the one in the historical centre that I went on the next day. The tour at the Quartieri Spagnoli was less touristy with far fewer participants, the guide was livelier and never difficult to understand and there were more artefacts to be seen. On the other hand, this tour lacked the atmospheric water-filled cisterns that they have on the Napoli Sotterranea Centro Storico tours. But to get the best of both worlds and much more on top, opt for the Galleria Borbonica (‘Bourbon Tunnels’) tours, which in my view are the top of the pick of the underground tours in Naples.
Location: at 52 Vico S. Anna di Palazzo in the Spanish Quarter (“Quartieri Spagnoli”) of Naples, Italy, ca. 1.5 miles (2.3 km) from the other Napoli Sotterranea in the heart of the city centre.
Google Maps locator: [40.8373, 14.2455]
Access and costs: a bit out of the touristic heart of Naples, but walkable; fairly reasonably priced.
Details: When I visited this place it was with a ticket pre-booked online (it was an offer by the hotel-booking platform I used; the ticket went through Viator, as it then turned out). On the ticket the meeting point for the tour was given as the address stated above. When I checked the website, however, it said there that the meeting point would be on Piazza Trieste e Trento, near the Gran Caffe Gambrinus (a local institution, by the way). I wouldn’t rely on that, though. At the actual address there are the staff who check or sell tickets; and while I waited for my tour to commence there were several people just turning up spontaneously to buy their tickets on the spot. So that is possible here too.
If you do want to buy your ticket online directly from LAES use the booking engine on their website, which has this URL: lanapolisotterranea[dot]it (and not napolisotterranea[dot]org – that’s the website of the other Napoli Sotterranea tours in the historical centre! Do not get them confused!). Incidentally, once you get to the booking engine, the starting point for the tour is given as their address – so do go there rather than to the Piazza Trieste e Trento.
To get there you can walk it. Coming from the historical centre head west and then walk down Via Toledo almost to its southern end. Just before you come to Piazza Trieste e Trento turn right into Via Carlo de Cesare which after a while becomes Vico S. Anna di Palazzo (it’s a bit uphill but not too steep). The location is clearly marked.
The nearest public transport is either bus (line E6, stop Nicotera, just a short walk away) or metro – Chiaia (M2) is the closest station.
Tours are available in Italian, English or Spanish. English tours start daily at 10 a.m., 12 noon, 2 and 4:30 p.m.; the price is 15€.
The tours involve lots of steps, so it’s not wheelchair-accessible. People with other mobility issues or serious health conditions are discouraged from going on such a tour. The minimum age for participation is 7. Astonishingly, dogs are allowed (but I guess they wouldn’t be very happy in the narrow tunnels or negotiating all those stairs).
The temperature deep underground is ca. 15-18 degrees Celsius year round. So best wear suitable layers, and especially in summer better bring a jacket or at least an extra layer. Best wear closed comfortable shoes too.
Time required: the tours nominally last 60 minutes, though the one I went on ended up slightly longer than that. Add a bit of time before the tour for checking in.
Combinations with other dark destinations: If you can handle two underground tours in a day, then the best of the bunch is just a short walk away: the Bourbon Tunnels, whose regular tours start from a location just off Via Gennaro Serra a few steps from Piazza del Plebiscito, a good five minutes walk away. If you can handle three underground tours you might also want to consider the other Napoli Sotterranea in the Centro Storico (historical centre).
For more dark attractions further away see under Naples in general.
Combinations with non-dark destinations: Some of the top sights of Naples are only a short walk away from the exit of the Napoli Sotterranea Quartieri Spagnoli tour, for instance Piazza del Plebiscito, the city’s largest square, flanked on the one side by the Royal Palace and on the other by the multi-columned Basilica San Francesco di Paola. The impressive Galleria Umberto I and the Teatro di San Carlo are also nearby and it’s not far to the Castel Nuovo and the waterfront.
See also under Naples in general.
