Grocery shopping in Chiaia when you are staying in an apartment

Taking an apartment and then eating out three times a day means paying for a kitchen you never use. In Chiaia the neighbourhood makes the opposite easy, because it is residential and the people who live there shop there.

How to organise it

The supermarket. For the ordinary things: water, breakfast, packaged goods. Chiaia has several within walking distance, including small format shops on the inner streets.

The food shops. This is where the neighbourhood shows itself. Delicatessens, bakeries and greengrocers survive because the customers are local. The quality differs from supermarket produce, and so do the prices.

The fishmonger. In Naples this makes sense. With a kitchen, buying fresh fish in the morning and cooking it that evening is one of the things a hotel cannot offer.

The bakery. Bread and pizza by the slice, for quick lunches when you do not want another restaurant meal.

What is worth buying where

Small shops make sense for bread, cured meats, cheese, fruit and fish. For cleaning products, water and packaged goods the supermarket costs less.

Local products to take home are better bought in neighbourhood shops than in the tourist shops of the centre, where the mark-up is steep.

Why this matters at Vico Santa Maria a Cappella Vecchia

All five units have kitchens, and the location sits inside a neighbourhood built for people who live there rather than only for visitors. Supermarkets and food shops are minutes away on foot, and Piazza dei Martiri is seventy metres.

For groups taking several units, cooking for ten in one apartment and eating together is exactly what a hotel cannot provide.