Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli — Attraction in Naples

The museum's collection might be worth five stars, but for a €22 entry fee a lot more is expected.

The collections were highly disorganised and illogical (statues, mosaics, and frescoes collections, then Pompeii, Roman, Greek, Egyptian collections) with random millennia old marble statues interspersed with a photography exhibition of the world war. Rooms part of a collection requiring you to do multiple U-turns and double-backs.

But the real deal-breaker was the lack of climate control in the museum. In 33C summer heat, rooms had no working air conditioning, curtains wide open letting sun in, and inexplicably, tiny portable air conditioning units placed in front of giant, wide-open windows so that their hot air vents can vent... into the enclosed area downstairs? Rooms quickly filled with the stench of hundreds of sweaty tourists, my own sweat was dripping off my arms onto the floor so I unwillingly contributed there.

In the whole museum there isn't a single water point signed on the map and we didn't find any in the 5 hours we spent there. At least they allow you free re-entry so you're welcome to venture out to find one of Naples' working water fountains (good luck) or buy some.

And then the toilets... Again, in the whole giant three-story museum with a thousand visitors, you have four urinals and four cubicles, of which only one had a working lock. As you can imagine, this got foul very fast, I feel sorry for the ladies queueing for this nightmare. Plus, even if you were that desperate, the sinks did not have potable water.

Lastly, twice, upon trying to enter the museum, people accosting you, blocking your way into the museum, touting their official guide services. Really? Is that really the place to sell such a service? But then again the museum doesn't seem to even have maps on the wall so perhaps it really is necessary to buy this add-on.

Poor artefacts of Pompeii, locked behind this horrendous paywall that doesn't even climate control the rooms of the frescos, leaving them open to sun...

Given the fact that me along my family have visited many museums around the world, while being Greek we thought it would be a good idea to visit this particular museum as well. Note it was around 35+ degrees outside. The really friendly staff at the entrance explained to us that the already purchased ArteCard that we had includes a free entrance to the museum. After that we proceeded to enter the main hall. At first it was unclear where to start, but by checking the map we figured out that we should take the rooms by the arithmetic order of the exhibits. Soon, we started feeling the heat and humidity kicking in, since there wasn’t any kind of cooling system in the building or at least some fans. This alone while everyone was sweating around us, including us was a really unpleasant way to the experience itself. Passing the rooms one by one we didn’t find anything in particular too interesting except from the main hall of the first floor that was really impressive. We went to the mosaics , where unfortunately the main attraction of Alexander the Great, was under restoration, but this of course happens. After that we moved on to the Magna Grecia hall. Soon we were informed that we couldn’t enter it, because there was an extra fee for this particular room, which wasn’t something that the staff at the entrance had mentioned. So imagine the frustration… either way, all the above comments refer to things that we can easily compare with museums even in Greece. First the maintenance of this beautiful building was poor, secondly it’s unacceptable in this typical Mediterranean climate to avoid using an A/C system etc. , both these facts made us wonder of how this exhibitions themselves are being preserved under these conditions …, and last but not least it’s unbelievable the price their charging while in Greece we don’t even charge half of it, but that of course it’s a...

There is no air conditioning or climate control for the artifacts (people get some in the cafe). The collection is exposed to high humidity and on the day we went, with an extreme heat warning, it was well over 90° (~36 Celsius) in there. The wind blew through from open windows but the sun was mercifully & competently blocked with curtains where needed to protect the exhibits. Truly brutal temperatures for the people and the collection. I was shocked to see such carelessness with genuinely irreplaceable relics, but many of them are clearly fine like the extensive statuary collection which is amazing and is extremely exciting. The paintings from the 1800s look like they have suffered more damage than the older artifacts which are likely studier. An amazing collection, and well worth a trip to the city on it's own The cafe is of course climate controlled?!? They are friendly in there and might even give you water on a day like I went on, but it is for sale if they don't take pity on you like they did me. Strangely the museum gives no thought to water fountains but there are restrooms. The permanent collection and exhibits are really amazing, I heard later that a visiting exhibit did have some climate control but I poked my head in and didn't see doors or feel any. You'll probably want more than a day but you could do it in one if you rushed. The admission is a bargain, there is a book store (what they call the museum store) on-site and it's got some nice stuff in it too. The building itself is a work of art and designed centuries before climate control or modern ideas for protecting collections.

I give this place a big recommendation, with this weird reservation about the collections safety. Also go in a cool...