Italy · Campania · Naples
Arenella, Naples — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Arenella is a quarter of Naples on the Vomero hill, set above the city near the Policlinico hospitals and the road up to Camaldoli.
About Arenella
Where to stay in Arenella
Not every neighbourhood fits every trip — here's what each one is good for.
Arenella trades the centre for height. Rooms up here sit on the Vomero hill above Naples, quieter than the streets below and within reach of the Policlinico for anyone whose visit turns on the hospitals rather than on sightseeing. The climb is the trade-off.
Guests who want the city's older quarters at their door book lower down, leaving Arenella to those content with a ride down each morning and back up at night.
About Arenella
What are the main landmarks in Arenella?
Most of Arenella's monuments are churches. Santa Maria Antesaecula, the Cappella Cangiani, the chiesa di Santa Croce ad Orsolone and the monastero di Maria Santissima Assunta stand within the quarter, and the workshop of Giambattista della Porta supplies the one point of historic interest the record singles out. The Torre del II Policlinico is the tall one.
Beyond it the ground keeps rising toward the Hermitage of Camaldoli, which is where the way out of Naples runs from here.
What is the history of Arenella?
Giambattista della Porta worked on this hill. His workshop is the point of historic interest the quarter is best known for, and it sits among churches whose dedications, Santa Maria Antesaecula, Santa Croce ad Orsolone, Maria Santissima Assunta, carry the older religious life of the Vomero. Escape was the later appeal.
Arenella was long treated as somewhere to get away from it all, high enough above Naples for the noise to drop off, and the hospitals around the Torre del II Policlinico have since given it a different kind of traffic.
Where is Arenella?
Arenella sits on the Vomero hill some 300 metres above Naples, higher than the hospital quarter and on the way up toward the Hermitage of Camaldoli.
Good for
More areas in Naples
Updated September 2026