Take a look at what some famous authors have written about Naples!
The condition of Naples is such that you cannot wish anything better: since it is sure that the best and most fertile zone in Italy is the Campania , in whose center and in the best and finest position there is Naples. And if it is true -like some people said- that Europe is the best place in the world to live and that Italy is the best in Europe, we could conclude by saying that Naples is the best city in the world.
Nicolas Audebert (from "Voyage d'Italie")
From the dining-room we saw in front of us the sea and the island of Capri [...], on the right Posillipo and its rich residences; on the right the Vesuvius, Herculaneum, Pompeii and all the shore that goes towards the island of Capri. I have never seen such a beautiful view.
M. Du Boccage (from "Voyage en Angleterre, en Hollande et en Italie")
For me living peacefully in England will be difficult, since I have gazed every
day at the most beautiful ancient objects and I have felt the atmosphere
tinging with its light this calm sea and these impressive mountains.
Percy B. Shelley (from "The Letters of Percy Bisshe Shelley")
To extol the position of the city and the mildness
of the climate there are not sufficient words
Johann Wolfgang Goethe (from "Italienische Reise")
After a short while, we reached the top of a hill, where a magnificent picture stretched in front of us. Naples with all of its splendour [...], the headlands, the rock-faces, and the islands, and, in the background, the sea: the view was a real spell.
Johann Wolfgang Goethe (from "Italienische Reise")
You cannot say if [Naples] is more beautiful in the evening, when the sun
goes down, or in the morning, when the first sunbeams filter through
the smoke of the Vesuvius, or at night, wrapped in the moonlight.
Ljubomir Nenadovic (from "Pisma iz Italije")
The Garden of Eden is very similar to the headland of Sorrento.
An emerald-sea stretches in front of my window, and some groves of olives,
oranges and lemons reach my house. I begin to get used to this beauty.
Dmitrij Sergeevic (from "Novyja stichotvorenija")
[in Pompeii] you can read Pliny, Tacitus, Virgil and
personally check the Muses of History and Poetry
K. N. Batjuskov (from "Polnoe sobranie socinenij pod.red. L.N. Majkova")
[in Ischia] I have some bathes in mineral waters, I drink mineral waters,
I eat figs, I breathe volcanic air, I bake in the sun, I walk through small
roads under the vines [...], I enjoy the most beautiful view in the world.
K. N. Batjuskov (from "Polnoe sobranie socinenij pod.red. L.N. Majkova")
Seventeen years ago I have been in Italy, but, when you have been
there, particularly in Naples, how can you forget it?
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (from "Briefe und Aufzeichnungen")
Land of romance, enchanting shore
fair view
Anna Jameson (from "Diary of an Ennuyée")
The nicest town of all, but probably the most beautiful
George Sandys (from "A Relation of a Journey begun A.D. 1610")
From the window I have a magnificent view: the Vesuvius [...], the sea, the mountains, the harmonic disposition of the buildings, the continuous bustle of people walking and working, all of this seems to be the best place for a landscapist.
S. Scedrin (from "Pisma iz Italii")