Half the answers describe a city under curfew. The other half get offended and say it is perfectly safe. Neither helps.
It's the first question almost everyone asks, and it deserves a straight answer rather than a defensive one.
Naples has a petty crime problem: bag snatching, pickpocketing, theft from parked cars, phones taken from hands. On this the city does worse than the Italian average, and there's no point pretending otherwise.
The risk of violence against visitors is low. Attacks on tourists are rare, and organised crime — which is a genuine problem for the city — has no interest whatsoever in someone spending three days on holiday. That world hurts people inside that world.
In practice: you might lose your phone. You're unlikely to lose anything else.
Don't walk with your phone in your hand, especially near the kerb. This is the single most useful line on this page: most snatchings happen exactly like that, from a scooter, in one second.
Nothing visible in a parked car. Not a charger, not a jacket on the seat. The boot is not a safe place either. If you arrive by car, use a guarded garage.
Bags closed and in front of you on the Circumvesuviana train, crowded buses and in markets.
Split your cash: some on you, the rest at your accommodation.
Rucksack on your chest in packed trains. It looks ridiculous. It works.
The historic centre, Chiaia, the Vomero and the seafront are busy and unproblematic. The Quartieri Spagnoli and the Sanità are fine on the main streets, including at night; in the empty upper lanes, apply the same caution you would in any large city.
The area around Napoli Centrale station at night needs more attention, as station districts do almost everywhere in Europe.
The genuinely deprived areas are on the outskirts, and there is no reason a visitor would ever find themselves there.
They exist, it's illegal, and it's a real nuisance: someone asks you for money to park in a public space. They have no right to do this.
In practice most people hand over a euro or two to avoid an argument. If you'd rather not, then don't leave the car there — which is precisely why a guarded garage is worth the money.
The biggest hazard in Naples isn't crime. It's the scooters. Cross at the crossings but look anyway, don't trust a red light, and remember that in the narrow streets a scooter will pass through a gap you'd swear wasn't there.
Visit Naples the way you'd visit Rome, Barcelona or Paris: aware of your pockets, without paranoia. Millions of people come every year and go home having lost, at worst, an hour in a queue.
The reputation is largely exaggerated. The precautions above, however, are not optional — and anyone who tells you they are is doing you a false favour.
This guide is written and maintained in Naples. The Italian version of the site has far more: hundreds of places, neighbourhood guides and long-form stories about the city. Read it in Italian.
