Naples - Certosa Di San Martino

[Cruise Leprechaun]

First time in Naples on a cruise in a month. This will be our last stop after very adventurous agenda in Rome and others (with two teenagers btw). Rather than going all the way out to Pompei or Capri or Amalfi, I thought we'd stay close near the city. I thought we'd do Herculaneum, get Pizza somewhere for lunch and maybe visit the Certosa Di San Martino in the afternoon? I know very little about it but I've read a little and it sounds interesting and the views up there are supposedly great. So, there are plenty of topics about how to get to/fro Herculaneum but hardly anything about the Certosa.... So my questions are:

 

a) How to get there from dock (or from Pizzaria Da Michelle since we'll try to have lunch there before going up)?

 

b) Do you take a train or a cable car thing up (is funicular the right word)

 

c) Any idea what the costs involved are? cable car, entrance to the monastary thing?

 

Thanks.

[euro cruiser]

Happy to help, the Certosa is one of my favorite places in Naples.

 

If you download this map (http://unicocampania.it/files/mappe/zona_centro.pdf) you can follow along.

 

To get there from Da Michele (located in quadrant B7), you'd walk out to Corso Umberto and take the R2 bus to the Galleria stop (quadrant D5). From there you walk around the corner (or through the Gallieria, for that matter) to Funiculare Centrale and take that to the top (Fuga station, quadrant C3).

 

Exit the funiculare station and turn right, then right again and you'll see an outdoor escalator that will take you up the hill (Via Cimarosa). At Via Morghen you can either walk a block and a half to the bus stop and take the V1 bus the rest of the way, or just walk it. It's not far.

[euro cruiser]

The last time I was at the Certosa (March 2012) the entry fee was 6 Euro.

 

An hourly ticket for Naples mass transit (UnicoNapoli) is Euro 1,20. One ticket will take you from Da Michele to the Certosa (bus, funiculare, and bus again).

[Cruise Leprechaun]

Wow such detailed response. Thank you very much Euro. If I may throw a few follow ups out?:

 

a) This is a dumb American one I know but Euro 1,20 is like saying 1.2 Euros or about $1.60 or so - right? So for a family of 4 to get from Da Michelle to the top it'd be in the neighborhood of $6 or $7?

 

b) After Certosa Di San Martino, take furnicular back down to Galleria station (is there any other one to take accidentally or is this the only one)? From Galleria is it a walk or cab ride back to ship?

 

c) There are numerous posts on Herculaneum that I can re-read but taking some of the train advice to Herc, is this the same 1,20 Euro Public Transit cost to get out there? So to say it another way, public transit that day, for 4 of us, will be about $28 or so? ($7 to get to Herc, $7 to get to Da mich?), $7 to get to Certosa and $7 to get back down to Galleria? Seems fine, just want to make sure I am understanding the cost structure correctly?

 

d) Is there an all day public transit one that makes more sense?

 

e) Where to buy the public transit tix and do they go by any other name (like in Rome I want to get a BIRG ticket)?

 

f) Do I need to validate these like in Rome as well?

 

Sorry for so many but things keep popping into my head. Thanks again.

[euro cruiser]

None of your questions are dumb, trust me. I've made every mistake in the book, often because I didn't even know what questions to ask.

 

When you write an amount in Euros they put a comma where we would put a decimal point so, yes, your calculation is correct.

 

To get back to the cruise port you retrace your steps but leave out the R2 bus. The Galleria is only a short walk from the cruise port. You'd walk along Via San Carlo (the road where the R2 bus stops for the Galleria) past the opera house and Castel Nuovo. Due to the construction going on at Piazza Municipio (for a new subway stop) there is a temporary pedestrian bridge/pathway alongside the north side of the Castel; this will leave you across the street from the cruise port.

 

Let's work through all of the transit costs.

• From the cruise port to the Porta Nolana Circumvesuviana station; a UnicoNapoli hourly ticket costs Euro 1,20
  
• From the Porta Nolana station to Ercolano (Herculeneum); point-to-point UnicoCampania U2 ticket costs Euro 2,10
  
• From Ercolano back to Naples; another point-to-point U2, Euro 2,10
  
• From Da Michele to San Martino, a UnicoNapoli hourly ticket, Euro 1,20
  
• From San Martino to the cruise port, another UnicoNapoli hourly ticket, Euro 1,20
  

That's a total of Euro 7,80 as I count it.

 

There is an all-day UnicoCampania U2 ticket that would cover everything for Euro 6,30; however, odds are that you will not be able to purchase it until you get to the Porta Nolana station. Therefore, unless you walk the one and a quarter mile from the cruise port to the Porta Nolana station, you'll need to buy one UnicoNapoli ticket (Euro 1,20) plus the all day UnicoCampania U2 ticket (Euro 6,30), which makes it pretty much a wash. However, and this is a big however, there is the benefit of having one ticket for the entire day and not worrying about buying a bunch of individual ones.

 

I've heard cruisers tell of purchasing these all day tickets at the information booth at the cruise port (actually in the piazza in front of the cruise port, almost right at the street) but I have no personal experience with that.