Galleria Principe di Napoli

Where you meet

The booking gives the meeting point as Piazza Museo Nazionale 10/11, under the arcades of the Galleria Principe di Napoli. That is the covered arcade that runs between the Art Academy and the National Archaeological Museum. The Naples destination site gives the gallery's own address as Via Broggia 7 and says it lies between the museum and the Academy of Fine Arts, near Via Bellini. Guests are asked to arrive 15 minutes before the start, so plan to be standing under the arcades by then, not just walking up to them. Your confirmation carries any detail specific to your date. The arcade is easy to recognise by its glass roof, which you can see from the entrance.

Before it was an arcade

The site was once the city's grain depot, known as the fosse del grano, the grain pits. Italian Wikipedia says a depot stood here in the late 16th century and was expanded in 1587. After the grain monopoly was abolished in 1804 the pits declined, and the structure served as a prison, a storehouse and military barracks. In the 19th century the area was reworked to link the museum with the city centre, and the road beside the arcade, now Via Enrico Pessina, was renamed Via Museo Nazionale in 1863. The grain trade is the oldest layer of the building's story. Via Bellini was opened in the same 1860s redevelopment, and the street plan around the arcade largely dates from then.

How the arcade took shape

Breglia and De Novellis presented a new plan in 1868 that largely defines the street layout between the museum and Piazza Dante today. A planned portico was converted into an iron-and-glass gallery, and the work paused, resumed and halted again before its completion in 1883. The Naples destination site dates the building to between 1873 and 1883, and sources differ on the start. The architects were Nicola Breglia and Giovanni De Novellis, and the result has three arms, each ending in an exit. A fourth was planned but never built, because the church of Santa Maria di Costantinopoli stood in the way.

• Completed in 1883
• Architects Nicola Breglia and Giovanni De Novellis
• Three arms under a glass-and-iron roof
• The planned fourth arm was never built

Collapse and restoration

The arcade has had a rough history. Italian Wikipedia records that its north facade, the entrance on Piazza Museo, collapsed in August 1965 after years of neglect, and that major restoration began in mid-1969. A radical restoration followed in 2007 and 2008, and the gallery reopened to the public in June 2009. The Naples destination site presents the restored gallery as a place to pause, so the arcade you see is the product of repeated repairs and a calm, covered place to meet. Whatever its past, the gallery is open again as a covered place to meet, which is all the concert needs of it.

Getting there

The Naples tourism site names two metro stops for the National Archaeological Museum: Museo and Piazza Cavour. It says both are reached from Piazza Garibaldi, where the central station is, and advises crossing that large square on foot because of the traffic. The museum itself stands at Piazza Museo 19, and the gallery is on the same square, so those stops serve the meeting point too. Check the transport operator's own information for the current service before you travel; the stops and the square are the stable part of the route, and your hotel can confirm the rest. Allow a little extra for crossing Piazza Garibaldi if you arrive by train. If you arrive by taxi, ask for Piazza Museo, the square that both the gallery and the museum face.

The museum next door

The National Archaeological Museum is one of Italy's important archaeological museums. Wikipedia lists the Alexander Mosaic, dating from around 100 BC and originally from the House of the Faun in Pompeii, and the Farnese Hercules and Farnese Bull among the notable works. Its Egyptian collection has 2,500 objects, and the Herculaneum papyri were carbonised by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The building was put up as a cavalry barracks in 1585, housed the University of Naples from 1616 to 1777, and was the Royal Bourbon Museum from 1816 to 1861. The concert ticket does not include admission, so book the museum separately and check its website for hours.

Read next: Neapolitan concert in Naples

While you wait

Because the arcade has a glass-and-iron roof, the space is covered, so the meeting point does not depend on the weather in the way an open square does. The Naples destination site calls the gallery a covered urban square and suggests it as a place to pause: have a coffee before visiting the museum, read, or watch the light on the ironwork. That is a useful way to spend the 15 minutes of early arrival. The three exits have staircases of different lengths because the streets around slope, which is worth remembering if steps are a concern. Italian Wikipedia notes that the arcade has long served as a throughway for visitors walking to and from the museum.

During the hour

The performers use no microphones or other amplification, so the room does the work. That makes quiet between songs a good habit: the voices carry because nothing competes with them. The hour finishes with a sing-along to 'O sole mio, and the audience joins in. You will get more from it if you know the melody, and the guide to the song's story is short enough to read on the way over. Silence your phone before the music begins. The early arrival is there so that everyone is settled before the first song.

Read next: 'O sole mio: the story

After the concert, and planning the day

The meeting point is in the historic centre of Naples, which UNESCO inscribed in 1995 and describes as one of the oldest cities in Europe, founded in the 9th century BC and re-established as Neapolis in 470 BC. UNESCO notes that the rectangular grid of the Greek foundation still guides the layout of the present city. Treat the concert as the fixed point and build the day around it, with the museum early, a meal in between and the music last, plus a margin for the early arrival. Check the booking calendar for the start time and keep the rest of the evening open.

Children and step-free access

The booking page is the place to check suitability for children and access needs, because it is the operator's own information and can change. What the arcade itself tells you is limited to its design: three exits with stairs of different lengths on sloping ground. If step-free access matters, ask before you reserve and remember that a GetYourGuide booking is refunded when cancelled a day or more before the start, which leaves room to change plans if the answer is not what you hoped. A short message to the operator through the booking page is the quickest way to get a clear answer.

Who this isn't for

If you want a guided walk through Naples, this is not it: the ticket is a one-hour concert with a fixed meeting point. If you want a seated dinner show, it is not that either. And if you want to turn up at the last minute without checking the calendar, remember the dates are likely to sell out. For people who want an easy, music-first hour in the middle of the old city, the arcade is a pleasant place to begin, and the museum next door is a good reason to arrive early. It also cannot stand in for the museum visit, which deserves a longer booking of its own. Check the booking page and your confirmation for the final details before you leave for the arcade.