Every design for Napoli

Naples curves around the innermost part of its own gulf, with the Campi Flegrei rising to the west and the slopes of Vesuvius to the south-east; few cities sit so openly between a volcano and the sea. Greek settlers founded Parthenope on the Pizzofalcone hill and later refounded it as Neápolis, and it has been lived in ever since, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.

Ask anyone who grew up here what they miss and the answers come fast: the view across the bay from Posillipo, the noise of the old centre, a proper Neapolitan pizza, the songs everyone seems to know. Beneath the streets lies a second city, carved out of yellow tuff, which you can walk through at Napoli Sotterranea and the Galleria Borbonica. Back in the daylight, the Catacombe di San Gennaro and the Cappella Sansevero keep centuries of faith and art, and the Galleria Umberto I shelters the city's comings and goings.

Naples was the capital of a kingdom for centuries and still calls itself the capital of the Mediterranean. For Neapolitans who have moved away, the first glimpse of the gulf on the way back is the moment they know they are home.