Naples Underground: the Four Sites Beneath the Historic Centre
Four separate sites under the historic centre answer to the name “Naples Underground”. They have four different operators, four different tickets, four different depths and, in two cases, addresses on the same square. This is which is which.
Two of them share Piazza San Gaetano. Number 69 is Napoli Sotterranea; number 316 is San Lorenzo Maggiore and the Neapolis Sotterrata. People walk into the wrong one regularly — the doors and the walking times are on getting to the entrances.
Napoli Sotterranea, Piazza San Gaetano 69
Napoli Sotterranea
Where: Piazza San Gaetano 69, on via dei Tribunali, beside the Basilica of San Paolo Maggiore.
Run by: Napoli Sotterranea, which describes its route as the official and authorised one.
How deep: About 40 metres, down 136 steps with a handrail and no lift.
What is down there: Quarry chambers, the Greco-Roman aqueduct, cisterns that still hold water, an optional candlelit passage, the wartime shelter and the Roman theatre with its recently reopened Summa Cavea.
Entered by: The official entry ticket, and the guided city walks that build a descent into their route. The walk cannot be made alone: a guide always accompanies the group.
The LAES route under the Spanish Quarters
La Napoli Sotterranea — LAES
Where: Vico S. Anna di Palazzo 52, with visits departing from Piazza Trieste e Trento by Bar Gambrinus.
Run by: Associazione culturale LAES.
How deep: Not published by the operator; the descent is long and the passages are narrow in places.
What is down there: Tunnels cut for tuff and later widened into the Neapolitan aqueduct, cisterns, carved chambers and wall writing left by people who sheltered there in the Second World War.
Entered by: A one-hour guided tour, running in English, Spanish and Italian, at 10.00, 12.00 and 16.30 on weekdays with later slots at weekends.
The Neapolis Sotterrata under San Lorenzo Maggiore
Neapolis Sotterrata
Where: Piazza San Gaetano 316 — the entrance to the Complesso Monumentale di San Lorenzo Maggiore.
Run by: Complesso San Lorenzo Maggiore.
How deep: About 10 metres, and this is the one route here called wheelchair accessible.
What is down there: A Roman street with its shopfronts, the treasury where the city’s money was kept and the macellum — the covered market at the commercial heart of Greco-Roman Neapolis. Above it, the cloister, the Chapter Hall, the Sisto V Hall and the museum.
Entered by: An entry ticket, walkable alone with a free audio guide, with a live guide available for €2 at the desk. From 15 June to 30 September 2026 the complex runs guided visits only.
The catacombs of San Gennaro and San Gaudioso
Catacombe di Napoli
Where: San Gennaro: Via Capodimonte 13, beside the Basilica Madre del Buon Consiglio. San Gaudioso: Via Sanità 123, under Santa Maria della Sanità.
Run by: Catacombe di Napoli.
How deep: Rock-cut galleries in the hillside rather than quarry shafts — a different kind of underground entirely.
What is down there: Early Christian burial galleries, fifth- and sixth-century frescoes and mosaics, the tomb of the North African bishop Gaudiosus buried between 451 and 453, and seventeenth-century wall niches where skulls were displayed. Work by Giovanni Balducci, who took burial among the city’s aristocrats instead of a fee.
Entered by: A guided ticket, hourly, 10:00 to 17:00, closed Wednesdays. One ticket opens the second catacomb free for twelve months.
Two more you cannot book here
Two well-known Naples undergrounds carry no listing here, and it is worth saying so plainly rather than letting anybody assume otherwise.
The Bourbon Tunnel, or Galleria Borbonica, is not part of any tour listed here. It is a separate site with its own entrance and its own ticket — a nineteenth-century military passage cut under the Monte di Dio ridge, later used as a shelter and a vehicle pound, and it runs its own routes under names including Percorso Standard, Via delle Memorie, Percorso Avventura and Speleo Light. It is not a second entrance to the quarry and aqueduct system, and a traveller review on one of the walks here is titled with exactly that complaint.
The Fontanelle Cemetery is likewise not part of anything bookable here. It is a former tuff quarry in the Sanità used as an ossuary, it opens separately, and no listing on these pages goes near it.
Neither of those two is quoted here with hours or prices, because neither operator published figures that could be checked when these pages were written. Rather than copy a number from a third party and let it age, no figure is given — go to each site for its own timetable.
How the four compare
| Underground | Depth | Walk it alone? | Step-free? | Typical visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Napoli Sotterranea | About 40 m | No — guide always present | No, 136 steps, no lift | About 1 hour |
| LAES, Spanish Quarters | Not published | No — guided only | No | About 1 hour |
| Neapolis Sotterrata | About 10 m | Yes, with a free audio guide | Described as wheelchair accessible | 45–90 minutes |
| Catacombs | Hillside galleries | No — guided hourly | San Gennaro is described as barrier-free; motor access is currently suspended for structural work | 45 minutes each |
Depths and access as published by each operator, checked 26 August 2026.
Compare every Naples Underground tour
Which tours enter which
| Tour or ticket | Enters | Time below ground |
|---|---|---|
| Naples: Naples Underground Entry Ticket and Guided Tour | Napoli Sotterranea | 1.5 - 2 hours |
| Naples: Spanish Quarters Underground Guided Tour | Spanish Quarters route | 1 hour |
| Naples: San Lorenzo Maggiore & Underground Neapolis Ticket | Neapolis Sotterrata | Not stated |
| Naples: San Gaudioso Catacombs Guided Tour | San Gaudioso catacombs | 45 minutes |
| Naples Underground & Highlights Tour – Small Group Experience | Napoli Sotterranea | 1 hour |
| Naples Top Sights & Underground small group tour | Napoli Sotterranea | 1 hour |
| Naples: City Center Walking Tour with Underground Naples | Napoli Sotterranea | 1 hour 30 minutes |
| Naples Old Town & Underground Roman Ruins | Neapolis Sotterrata | 30 minutes |
| Naples Walking Tour and Underground Ruins | Underground ruins | 20 minutes |
| Walking Tour of the Neapolitan Superstition | Above ground only | Not stated |
Taken from each listing’s own stated inclusions.
Doing two in one day
Two is comfortable. Napoli Sotterranea and the Neapolis Sotterrata are on the same square, so the second costs you the width of a piazza; the Spanish Quarters route is about twenty minutes west; the catacombs about twenty-five minutes north. What stops people is not distance but timetable — three of the four run on fixed departures and they do not interlock neatly.
The order that works, hour by hour, is in the one-day itinerary.
Pick the underground, then the tour
Every listing here is labelled by the site it enters and the time it spends there.
Compare all of them on Naples Underground Tours.