MUSEO DI CAPODIMONTE

It is one of the most important museums in Naples and a visit is a must for lovers of Italian painting. The collections are exhibited in the Capodimonte Palace, another testimony to the reign of the Bourbon-Sicilian dynasty, which took the reins of power in Naples from 1739. The construction of the palace, under the impulse of King Charles of Bourbon, began in 1747 and was not completed until a century later in 1838. It remains one of the symbols of Neapolitan Baroque and Rococo. Surrounded by a vast wooded park (134 ha) laid out by Sanfelice, the palace naturally houses the royal apartments and magnificent collections of medieval and modern art.

First floor: it is divided between the Farnese Gallery and the Royal Apartments. The Farnese Gallery contains a collection of paintings, mainly by the powerful Farnese family, which Charles of Bourbon inherited from his mother Elisabeth Farnese. In the first room, there are several family portraits, including Titian's Portrait of Paul III Farnese and his grandsons, a work entirely constructed in shades of red that reveals the psychology of the characters and the climate at the papal court. There is also a Portrait of Alexander Farnese attributed to Raphael. In the next room, Masaccio's Crucifixion is a more recent acquisition. The works are then presented chronologically and by school: the Florentine painters of the 15th and 16th centuries (Masolino, Botticelli, Pontormo, Rosso Fiorentino), the Veneto in the Quattrocento (Giovanni Bellini, Mantegna), Umbria with Perugino and Luca Signorelli. Beautiful portraits of the painter El Greco. Several works by Titian, including Danae, which Michelangelo admired. The pictorial production of Emilia Romagna is well represented, with paintings by Parmesan and Correggio. There are also a few French and Flemish works, including two paintings by Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Then we move on to the Royal Apartments, which include an armoury and a porcelain gallery containing around 3,000 pieces, some of which were made by the most prestigious European factories of the 18th century: Capodimonte, Sèvres and Meissen

Second floor: it is dedicated for the most part to the artistic production in Naples from the 13th to the 18th century. Works by Roberto d'Oderisio, a major representative of the Giottesque movement in Naples. Saint Louis of Toulouse crowning Robert of Anjou by Simone Martini: the painting was commissioned to the Sienese painter by the King of Naples Robert of Anjou in the year of the canonization of his brother Louis, bishop of Toulouse (1317). The delicate, sinuous lines, shimmering colours and taste for detail characteristic of 14th-century Sienese painting are evident. The following rooms show the pictorial activity of the Angevin and Aragonese periods(Saint Jerome in his study by Colantonio, the master of Antonello of Messina). One of the museum's masterpieces is Caravaggio's Flagellation of Christ. Caravaggio visited Naples twice, in 1606-1607 and again in 1609. He painted several major works for Neapolitan high society, including this Flagellation of Christ commissioned by the Franchis family for the church of San Domenico Maggiore. The painting is representative of Caravaggio's style, with its violent chiaroscuro that brings out the figures from the darkness, and its contrasts of light that accentuate the dramatic and theatrical character of the scene. Caravaggio had a profound influence on painters working in Naples such as Jusepe de Ribera, Battistello Caracciolo and Artemisia Gentileschi. The next section is dedicated to the Baroque painters: the Calabrian Mattia Preti, Bernardo Cavallino, Jusepe de Ribera, Luca Giordano... Afterwards, we enter the first rooms dedicated to contemporary art, with an installation by Jannis Kounellis and monumental works by Alberto Burri and John Armleder.

Third floor: continuation of the contemporary art section with, among others, Andy Warhol's Vesuvius, which the pop artist created in 1985 on the occasion of an exhibition at Capodimonte

Park: of course, you can take advantage of the park of Capodimonte to enjoy the shade of its pines, cedars and eucalyptus trees. With its 134 hectares, it is the lung of the city but also the ideal place for the conservation of rare plants (there are about 400 plant species!). The Real Bosco di Capodimonte was built in 1734 by order of Charles of Bourbon and is enriched with a great variety of trees: cedars of Lebanon, cypresses, palms... It was designed by the architect Ferdinando Sanfelice and includes several gardens (baroque garden, Anglo-Chinese garden, landscape garden with a view of the Gulf of Naples, pastoral garden), fountains and historical buildings (Royal Porcelain Factory, Queen's Casino...). At the end of the park, the Giardino Torre was a fruit garden. It is dominated by a turret which was the scene of a great moment in Italian culinary history: it was in its old wood-fired oven that the pizzas were baked during a meal in honour of King Umberto I and his wife Queen Margaret of Savoy in 1889. The latter preferred the pizza with tomato, mozzarella and basil, which has since been called "pizza margherita" in honour of the sovereign