Foto: Caravaggio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Capodimonte is two things, and the second is the one nobody expects.
The first is the museum: one of the most important art collections in Italy, inside the palace Charles of Bourbon built in the eighteenth century to house the Farnese collection. Inside are Caravaggio’s Flagellation, Raphael’s portrait of Paul III, Titian, Botticelli. And the porcelain of the Real Fabbrica di Capodimonte, which was born here.
The second is the Real Bosco: one hundred and thirty-four hectares of park around the museum, originally a royal hunting reserve. Above Naples, quiet, with the bay and Vesuvius in front of you. Neapolitans come here to run and to sit, and they are right.
Take half a day and do both: two hours of paintings and then the wood, which is the proper way to digest them.