Naples Museum?

[artsy-girl]

Has anyone been to the Naples National Archaeological Museum? I'd like to know how much time we need to devote to it.

[euro cruiser]

Anyone? Lots of us have.

 

How much time to devote to it depends on your level of interest in the subject matter. If you're not very into archeology, you could run through in an hour.

 

On the other hand, I know of one fellow CCer (who will likely make her voice heard) who could happily spend days there, I suspect.

 

I think it helps to think about things like this more abstractly. How much time would this subject matter keep your interest, regardless of the specific museum. If you can quantify that, you've probably got your answer.

[artsy-girl]

Anyone? Lots of us have.

 

How much time to devote to it depends on your level of interest in the subject matter. If you're not very into archeology, you could run through in an hour.

 

On the other hand, I know of one fellow CCer (who will likely make her voice heard) who could happily spend days there, I suspect.

 

I think it helps to think about things like this more abstractly. How much time would this subject matter keep your interest, regardless of the specific museum. If you can quantify that, you've probably got your answer.

 

The Farnese Collection alone could probably keep me there all day, but I don't even have a clue as to how large the museum itself is. Are we talking Louvre big?

[Hlitner]

We would fall between the extremes and find the place worthy of a few hours. Although they are open 6 days a week (closed on Tuesdays) they have a bad habit of closing-off some of their best collections with little or no notice. The Pompeii "Brothel" Collection is quite amazing if you get lucky and its open.

 

Hank

[euro cruiser]

The Farnese Collection alone could probably keep me there all day, but I don't even have a clue as to how large the museum itself is. Are we talking Louvre big?

Nope, and not Met big either. I'm trying to come up with a comparison ... maybe the National History museum on the mall in DC? (But not as user friendly, the archeology museum in Naples has not been Disneyfied, if you know what I mean ... it probably looked the same 30 years ago).

 

As to Hank's point, that's unfortunately true of pretty much every museum I visit these days. No one has the funding to fully staff, so rooms/collections have to be closed off. I was royally annoyed a couple of weeks ago when I found that the Klee exhibit at the Met in New York was closed "for a few hours" ... we didn't have time to hang around waiting until the unknown hour when the staff would rotate in that direction.

[cruisemom42]

I know of one fellow CCer (who will likely make her voice heard) who could happily spend days there, I suspect.

 

 

 

I have no idea who you could be talking about....! :o Yes, I could spend days there, but probably not all at once. Even I get "museum fatigue" after about 3 hours!

 

 

For the OP: The museum is a good size but not unmanageable. If you plan to spend a good 3-4 hours there, you will not feel rushed and can take time to appreciate some items in more depth.

 

As to closures, the mosaics section and the "Secret Cabinet" (the erotic art) sections, which were being heavily renovated for a couple of years are now reopened. There shouldn't be any more blanket closures in these areas, at least not for renovation reasons.

 

There is a notice on the official museum website (in Italian) that due to summer staffing issues, a few rooms may be closed in various areas, including a couple of rooms each for the frescoes, the Villa Papyri, and the Farnesina collections (but in each case some of the rooms will still be open).

[artsy-girl]

Wonderful! It looks like it will be a great half day visit. I'm hoping there are no closures. I'm a mosaic artist and would hate to miss the ancient mosaics. Thanks for all the information, I'll be sure to look for the Pompeii Brothel Exhibit!

[euro cruiser]

Wonderful! It looks like it will be a great half day visit. I'm hoping there are no closures. I'm a mosaic artist and would hate to miss the ancient mosaics. Thanks for all the information, I'll be sure to look for the Pompeii Brothel Exhibit!

There are great mosaics in the rooms just before the secret cabinet. As for the secret cabinet, I don't know ... there's lost of outsized penises, but not much that qualifies as erotica, as I recall (unless the aforementioned peni are your definition of erotica).

[MeHeartCruising]

Wonderful! It looks like it will be a great half day visit. I'm hoping there are no closures. I'm a mosaic artist and would hate to miss the ancient mosaics. Thanks for all the information, I'll be sure to look for the Pompeii Brothel Exhibit!

 

It's a perfect half-day destination. I went to Herculaneum in the morning and then spent the afternoon at the museum. It was a perfect match up.

[Hlitner]

Unexpected closures are just becoming too darn common and quite annoying. Probably the classic "Italian" closing tale happened to us when we were spending a couple of days in Tivoli. We walked over to the famous Villa d'este one morning (on a day when the place is open) only to find the gates locked and lots of angry tourists. We walked less then a block to the local tourist office where they insisted the museum was open (it was not). Later that day we came back and the place had opened (4 hours late). One of the employees told us that when they had come to work that morning the management had decided to have an unscheduled lengthy staff meeting. So they did not open as scheduled...and did not even bother to notify the tourist office. My only comment is "Its Italy!"

 

Hank