Naples Underground (Napoli Sotterranea): operator and ticket review

Who runs Naples Underground

The Piazza San Gaetano route is run by the Associazione Napoli Sotterranea, a private association that says it operates under a concession from the State Property Agency and has been guiding visitors for more than thirty years. Regular tours under this name began in the late 1980s, led by its president, Enzo Albertini.

Watch the names: Naples has a second underground route that also calls itself “official”, in the Spanish Quarter, run by the LAES association from Vico Sant’Anna di Palazzo. We cover that one on our Spanish Quarter page.

What you see on the guided tour

Visits are guided only, in Italian or English, and last about an hour underground plus some twenty minutes for the theatre. The main stops:

• Greek tuff quarries from the 4th century BC, reused for around 23 centuries as cisterns for the city’s water supply.
• Second World War air-raid shelters, with furniture, graffiti and everyday objects, and a small War Museum at the end covering 1940 to 1943.
• The candlelit passage to a Roman cistern still full of water (optional).
• The Greco-Roman theatre of Neapolis, included in the price: you enter a ground-floor home, a bed is moved aside and a trapdoor opens onto the old seating.

Naples Underground tickets: prices and discounts

An adult ticket costs €18; ages 11–17 pay €15, ages 5–10 pay €10, and under-5s go free. Many guides online still quote €15 for adults, which is out of date. Because the site is privately run, the free state-museum Sundays do not apply.

Visitors with 100% invalidity go free and 75–99% pay €10; carers always pay €18. Bring your certificate and ID. Wheelchairs and walkers cannot go down.

How booking and refunds work

You have three options, and the right one depends on how much queueing you can accept and how much flexibility you need.

At the desk

The simplest route: go to Piazza San Gaetano 68 and join the line for the next departure. Tours leave every hour from 10am to 6pm, in both Italian and English. Early mornings and weekdays mean shorter waits.

Online with the association

The official channel sells only a skip-the-line ticket, which costs more than regular entry and cannot be refunded or changed. At times the online calendar shows sales as suspended; then your options are the desk or a reseller.

Through Tiqets or GetYourGuide

On Tiqets the skip-the-line guided tour starts at €18, the same as an adult ticket at the desk, and averages 4.5 from more than 7,000 reviews. You can only cancel if you choose the refundable fare at checkout, and rescheduling isn’t possible. On GetYourGuide the equivalent product (4.4 from around 25,000 reviews) is non-refundable. Both name Naples Underground SRL as provider: check the meeting point on your voucher. For times, trust your confirmation rather than the product page.

Getting to Piazza San Gaetano

The entrance is at Piazza San Gaetano 68 on Via dei Tribunali, beside the church of San Paolo Maggiore, marked by white-and-blue flags. The association warns that Google Maps sometimes sends people to the wrong spot. By metro, get off at Dante (Line 1) and walk via Port’Alba, Via San Pietro a Maiella and Piazza Miraglia to Via dei Tribunali. Car access to the old town is restricted, so don’t plan on driving.

On the same square is San Lorenzo Maggiore, with excavations of the Roman city; the Sansevero Chapel and the Cathedral are a short walk away.

Pros, cons and what visitors say

Reviews praise the guides and the range of the route, from ancient Greece to the Second World War. The complaints are mostly about queues and large groups.

• Pros: central location, hourly tours in two languages, Roman theatre included, photos allowed, fine for children.
• Cons: long waits without skip-the-line, big groups, no wheelchair access, official online tickets non-refundable.

Our verdict on Naples Underground

For a first taste of underground Naples, Napoli Sotterranea is the most complete option and the easiest to fit into a day in the old centre. In low season, or if you arrive for the first tour, a ticket at the desk is enough. At weekends and in August, skip-the-line makes sense: on Tiqets it costs the same as the adult ticket and, with the refundable fare, leaves you room if plans change. For something more adventurous, look at the Bourbon Tunnel; for early Christian art, the catacombs run by La Paranza. The full picture is in our guide to underground Naples.

We are an independent guide: if you book through the Tiqets or GetYourGuide links on this page we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.