Rome and Naples are two of the most popular and known cities in Rome for some really good reasons: the rich history and architecture, great food and vibrant, incredible people are the magnet to millions of tourists coming to visit those places every season. That’s also one of the reasons you’re here, but before we start, I want to mention that this is the second article of this project, and If you missed the first article about Melbourne, you should definitely check it out!

About the Project: Be Our Guest

As you probably know, I love traveling as well as writing and sharing my travels experiences with you. 
 In the past year, I created a series of travel posts called “Travel Diaries”.  I’ve been lucky enough to travel to Prague, Berlin, and Rome and created a dedicated, full guide to each of those amazing places (check them out if you haven’t already).

Since I cannot travel everywhere in the world (as much as I want to! haha), I came up with the idea of creating travel guides to places all around the world with the help of… you, residents of the world. I believe that no one can really explain and write about a place better than a local– so those guides will for sure be both informative and unique.

The goal of this project is to make travel much more fun and easy for people all around the world. The guides will include tips & tricks, must-see places, favorite local spots that tourists don’t know about, vegan food places & shopping – all in one place so you won’t need to look for information elsewhere!

Our second amazing participant is Liliana (that some of you might remember from my Rome Travel Diaries), an Italian sweetheart who loves her country in every way possible. So without further ado, let’s start with Lily’s Local Travel Diaries!

Local’s Guide to Rome and Naples

Ciao people! My name is Liliana and as you can tell by the very beginning: I’m Italian, I live in Apulia which is a region located in the south of Italy.

A little about myself: I love learning more about different cultures and languages! Also, I like strolling around cities, and that’s the reason why decided to introduce you to two of my favorite cities. The first is Rome, which one of my favorite cities ever. The second is Naples.

Things to know before visiting Rome and Naples

+ Rome was built on seven hills: Aventino, Quirinale (where the Palazzo del Quirinale, which is one of the official residences of the President of the Italian Republic). Italy has been a parliamentary republic since 2nd June 1946: after the end of the Second World War, Italians had to decide between Monarchy and Republic. Every year we celebrate La Festa Della Repubblica or in English Festival of the Republic or Republic day. It’s a really important day and a holiday which is celebrated with military parades or the laying a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, inside the very famous Altar of the Fatherland.

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+There’s another important day, on 25th April: the Liberation day (La Festa Della Liberazione): It marks the actual end of Nazism and fascism in Italy: in that day in Italy all Partisans were standing together and created the Italian resistance movement against the Nazi-fascism. The popular song “Bella Ciao” is related to this situation, because a Partisan was not a soldier: it was a fighter that had to leave his family to fight against the dictatorship. Now, you can actually notice the meaning of the song. Others hills in Rome are Palatino (which is related to the myth of Romolo and Remo), Celio, Esquilino, Viminale, and Campidoglio.

-Whenever you feel thirsty in Rome, you have two choices: either go to a store and get a water bottle or drink water directly from a fountain. No, this probably isn’t the fountain you might be thinking of, those fountains are different: they are called Nasoni and you will probably come across them while you are walking. They are named Nasoni because the tap of the fountain reminds of the shape of a nose (The word ‘Naso’ in Italian means ‘Nose’ in English- pretty similar, isn’t it?).

So you may have already visited Rome or Naples, but here are some tips you should know before you actually visit those cities:

+First things first. As an Italian myself, I want you to know that we are always happy to see and meet new people and we would love to see people speaking Italian! So if you are going to visit Italy don’t be shy and try to speak in Italian (not only Ciao or Grazie or Prego) even if you make some mistakes, it’s ok, we understand how difficult it can be and we appreciate your effort! 

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+Rome is located in Lazio, while Naples is located in Campania. These two regions are not very far away from each other- the distance between Naples to Rome is about 191 kilometers.

+When you walk down the streets of Naples or Rome, it’s really important to keep an eye out while you are walking especially (for example) if you’re wearing some jewelry or your bag is opened, there could someone that could steal something! So keep your personal property closes to you. But- don’t you worry, not all people are like that, so you can always enjoy the beautiful view.

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+If you love football, you can watch the games at San Paolo Stadium, maybe on a Sunday when you will be able to enjoy the Italian Premier League.

-I think the thing that I’m going to share with you right now might be part of the things that you don’t necessarily need to know before coming to Italy, but it is part of the Italian culture and if you know this, I think, you will definitely surprise somebody! Or if you hear someone saying any of those words or dialects, you won’t think: “wait, what the hell did he/she just say? “

So I thought it would be fun to tell you some commonly used words and phrases from Rome and Naples! here are some examples:

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In Rome… you can hear:

-Ammàppete (even though I’m not from Rome, I do use it quite a lot :)) This is kind of the Italian version to ‘Oh my god!’: it is used when you’re surprised by something that you didn’t expect, but it really depends on the context. Another similar one is ‘Anvedi!’

-Daje! (which every Italian knows!) means ‘Come on!’ just like in English, it depends on the context.

-Avoja means ‘Of course!’

Some expressions in Romanesco:

-Ma che davvero davvero? Literally translated into ‘but what really really?’ It means, for example, “wait, are you joking?“

-Fa’ pace cor cervello: Literally, “make peace with a brain”. It means make up your mind.

-Nun t’accollà. Literally means “don’t glue yourself “: don’t badger/heckle yourself!

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Some expression or words from Naples:

– Ca’ which means ‘Here’

– Aggia Capit means I understand/ I got it.

– A Maronn t’accumpagn which I honestly don’t know how I can actually render it in English but it means Have a good day!

– Nun’t capisc means I can’t understand you/ I don’t understand.

– Buongior means Good Morning.

– Grazie Assai, of course, means Thank you!

Here are some proverbs:

– Nun se fa niente pe’ essenza niente which literally means “you can’t do nothing without nothing”: doing nothing for nothing.

– Tutto ‘o lassato è perduto. It means literally “everything left, it is lost”. What is gone, it is gone and you can’t do anything.

Places To Visit in Rome

+In Rome there are a lot of places to see like Colosseum, Piazza Navona, Piazza del Popolo, Altare Della Patria or Vittoriano, Villa Borghese, Terrazza del Pincio, Chiesa Della Trinità Dei Monti, Trevi’s Fountain, Castel Sant’Angelo, Piazza San Pietro… Noa wrote a full guide about those places, you can read it here! Personally, I can’t choose among these places but I do love Villa Borghese because it’s so relaxing and you can enjoy being surrounded by nature. It’s a perfect atmosphere. I also love Piazza Navona, it’s my fav one! 

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+In Naples there is also Piazza del Plebiscito where usually there are some events like concerts and where the Basilica di San Francesco di Paola is located, it’s like a smaller Piazza del Popolo, but in Naples!

+There is a Studio in Rome which is a place that was used to shoot films! It is located in Via di Castel Romano!

As I’m not vegan (unfortunately!), I don’t know much about it but if you want to read more about the restaurants there, check out Noa’s Rome Vegan Restaurants guide here.

For more information about Rome check out Noa’s Travel Diaries: Here (Part 1), Here (Part 2), and here (Part 3).

Places to Visit in Naples

+Naples is amazing. Favorite thing to do there is to eat Pizza! I like to walk down the street called Via San Gregorio Armeno, which is famous for its artisan workshops.

+Via Toledo is another street that starts from Piazza Dante and it “makes” the so-called Quartieri Spagnoli. 

+In Naples you can also visit Basilica di San Lorenzo Maggiore, Galleria Umberto I, Chiesa di San Gregorio Armeno and more. 

–In Galleria Umberto, there are some shops to get some souvenirs and other shops, like Sephora, for example.

–While in Via Toledo you can find some great retailer shops and beauty stores like Kiko Milano, Lush and more.

—Via San Gregorio Armeno is full of all the Christmas stuff during Christmas time, especially nativity scene. All the things are handcrafted.

Another thing to know about Naples is the tradition: every place in Italy has its own different tradition and for this reason, each place maintains magical things.

-The figure of Pulcinella was born in 1500 circa and now is still the Neapolitan comic tradition. It is a mask (I don’t know if now this whole thing becomes long-winded but I’m telling you the history anyway ), in Italy and in another part of Europe, the theatre was characterized by the use of the mask at least till the 1800s. In Italy, the change was made by Carlo Goldoni (who was born in Venezia and was a writer) who completely changed the whole structure by deleting the use of masks and suggesting to refer to a written text rather than something improvised on stage so that the ‘actors’ could have a marked role without improvising.

Pulcinella is described as “the voice of the people, as the direct expression of a people as lively and spirited as the Neapolitans is never questioned.”

– if we talk about Naples, we talk about food. Naples is full of delicacy, and you can find everything in a vegan version, too!

Typical food is based on:

–Pizza fritta. It is made with dough used to prepare pizza but it is fried.

–Pasta and potatoes with provolone cheese.

–Sfogliatella is typical of the Neapolitan bakery. There two versions of it: it is called Riccia if it is made with puff pastry or Frolla if it is made with shortcrust pastry.

–Babà. It is a sweet dough with nutritional yeast and rum.

–Pastiera. It is made during Easter time and it is made of pastry, ricotta*, and wheat.

–Zucchine alla scapece which is made of fried zucchini with olive oil, and vinegar and mint on the top.

SOME VEGAN FOOD IN ROME: CLICK HERE TO READ

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*I know I’m writing to people who are vegan or vegetarian and the stuff I’ve mentioned is not – But I’m sure you will be able to find all of them in vegan-friendly version, just and read before arrival and prepare ahead!

There are a lot of songs about Rome. Here are some of them.

–Roma nun fa’ la stupida stasera –  Lando Fiorini which is my favorite. I love this song so much!

-Roma Capoccia – Antonello Venditti

-Roma sei sempre tu – Claudio Villa

-Fiori trasteverini – Alvaro Amici

On the other hand, songs in Napoletano are:

– Tu si’ ‘na cosa grande – Domenico Modugno

– ‘A Pizza — Aurelio Fierro

-Tu Vuò fa’ l’Americano — Renato Carosone (THIS ONE IS VERY KNOWN!)

This is what I know about. Hope you find it really interesting and you enjoy it as much as I did writing it for you. It is so amazing to let people discover more about my country.

So a special thank goes to Noa, who gave me this wonderful opportunity. 🙂

CIAO! xx

Liliana

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Huge GRAZIE MILLE to Lily for writing this fun, informative guide about Rome and Naples. You can find Lily on Instagram and feel free to leave any questions you might have in the comments below!

want to learn how to plan the best trip ever? >> click here

For my ultimate packing guide (+packing list) click here

See you soon!

Noa

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*This is not a sponsored post.