Rione Sanità Revives as Naples Working-Class District with Rich History and Local Revival

Rione Sanità offers a striking entry by elevator from a bridge into cobblestoned streets alive with mopeds and lined by opulent yet decaying 18th-century palazzi. Grand doorways lead to courtyards where bakers, butchers, cobblers and occasional contraband cigarette sellers work.

Locals call it La Sanità, a bustling working-class district with deep history. Spanish viceroys in the 17th century favored its hilltop spot above the crowded old town. The name means "healthy district," thanks to cleaner conditions as rainfall carried debris downhill to the historic center. They erected grand homes in the 18th century, including Palazzo dello Spagnolo and Palazzo San Felice, as architects competed while the court traveled to Capodimonte, the royal summer residence. Trade thrived until Napoleon arrived in the early 19th century, deemed the route too slow and built an overpass that choked the area and left it struggling.

After deadly gang wars and a poor reputation, residents formed groups like Napoli in Vita several years ago to open the neighborhood, back local commerce and generate jobs. This community-driven revival has turned La Sanità into a model for Naples amid widespread tourism growth.

Local pizzerias demand a visit. Sophia Loren kneaded pizza dough here in Vittorio De Sica's film L’oro di Napoli, or Gold of Naples. Isabella De Cham operates the city's first all-female fried pizza spot with tiny montanare pizzas stuffed with cheese, vegetables and ham.

Pizzeria Oliva da Carla e Salvatore, a local favorite, overlooks the majolica-clad basilica. Concettina ai Tre Santi attracts global food fans for Ciro Oliva's deconstructed pizzas made with top local ingredients. Pair it with Vesuvian wine at Antica Cantina Sepe on Via Vergini, a generations-old spot that hosts community events and keeps prices low.

La Sanità matches its surface sights underground. In Hellenistic times, it served as a sacred burial ground amid soft tufo stone hiding tunnels and chambers now used for garages and workshops like Fonderia Mercogliano, which casts metal religious objects. The San Gennaro and San Gaudioso catacombs, managed by social cooperative La Paranza, employ neighborhood youth and provide tours on ancient death rituals. Standout is the Ipogeo dei Cristallini, a newly found Greco-Roman crypt under a 17th-century building with an intact Medusa relief sculpture.

Bakeries define shopping in La Sanità. Panificio Coppola Antonio sells taralli, crunchy savory biscuits with fennel seed and black pepper for beer. Pasticceria Mignone offers moist rum babà. Pasticceria Poppella specializes in fiocchi di neve, soft brioche with cream and ricotta filling.

Craftsmen and artists have long worked here in courtyards and stairways. Omega Guanti hand-stitches leather gloves since Bourbon times for brands like Dior. Sculptor Michele Iodice creates and shows work from his tufo-stone studio. Atelier Alifuoco houses emerging city artists.