What is the Naples outdoor escape game?
The Naples outdoor escape game turns the old centre into the escape room: at each of the 10 landmarks on the route a puzzle is waiting, and your smartphone is the only equipment you need. Count on roughly 2 hours, of which 64 minutes go on walking 3.7 km, mostly downhill towards the sea, on the day you pick yourself.
The puzzles sit on things carved into the city: the diamond-pointed stones of Gesù Nuovo with their small cut marks, the apse that San Domenico Maggiore turns towards its square, the triumphal arch wedged between the towers of Castel Nuovo and the zodiac set into the floor of Galleria Umberto I. None of them depends on another, so a puzzle that resists can be left to up to three levels of hints.
- Durationabout 2 hours
- Walkingabout 64 min · 3.7 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch
What you do on the escape game
Decode
Each landmark holds one puzzle, and the surroundings contain everything needed to solve it. Observation and logic do the work.
Look up and down
Clues hide in façade stones, spires, inscriptions and the marble and glass of the arcade.
Walk downhill
Google Maps links the landmarks: 64 minutes on foot over 3.7 km, from the museum quarter to the bay.
No clock
Time runs with you, not against you. Pause for a sfogliatella, then pick the game up again later or on another day.
See the route and attractions →
How it works
- Book online Choose the number of players. Your booking reference arrives by email straight away.
- Get the app Download the World City Trail app from the App Store or Google Play and enter your booking reference.
- Play when you like Start whenever you are ready, walk at your own pace and pause any time. No guide, no fixed schedule.
Who it suits
Friends
Arguing over a solution in a Neapolitan square is half the fun, and no one needs to have read up on the city.
Couples
A puzzle to share while the route carries you from the old streets down to the royal quarter, at whatever pace you like.
Team building
Teams of up to 5 play on their own phones, so colleagues can start together and compare notes at the end.
Good to know
- Bring a charged smartphone with mobile data; a power bank helps.
- Best started in daylight, so you can see the details the puzzles ask about.
- No entry tickets needed: everything happens outside the buildings. Going inside is optional and paid separately.
- Family friendly; children must be accompanied by an adult.
- Not suitable for wheelchair users and difficult with strollers.
- Teams of up to 5 work best; bigger groups split into several teams, one ticket per player.
- Every purchase helps support stray cats and dogs in Greece.
Puzzle route: from the Archaeological Museum to Piazza del Plebiscito
10 stops · about 64 min walking · start: National Archaeological Museum of Naples · finish: Piazza del Plebiscito
Puzzle one is at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, and the final one on Piazza del Plebiscito. Between them the route threads the old centre: the Sansevero Chapel, San Domenico Maggiore, the Santa Chiara complex and the Gesù Nuovo, then down Via Toledo past San Nicola alla Carità to the Fountain of Neptune on Piazza Municipio, Castel Nuovo and Galleria Umberto I. Set off in daylight, since the puzzles are read off the buildings themselves and rain makes that harder. Order can be changed in the app, and no entry tickets are needed anywhere.
Open the route map ↗
1National Archaeological Museum of NaplesStart
The museum fills a large palace built in the late 16th century as cavalry barracks and later used by the university. The Bourbon kings turned it into a museum for the Farnese collection of ancient sculpture and the finds from Pompeii and Herculaneum. It is one of the most important archaeological museums in the world.
2Sansevero Chapel
This family chapel of the princes of Sansevero was transformed in the 18th century by Raimondo di Sangro, a prince with a reputation as an alchemist and inventor. Its most famous work is the Veiled Christ, carved by Giuseppe Sanmartino in 1753, whose marble shroud seems transparent. Many legends grew up around the prince's experiments.
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3San Domenico Maggiore
Charles II of Anjou founded this Gothic church in 1283, and Thomas Aquinas lived and taught in the Dominican convent next door. The church turns its apse, not a façade, towards the square, so you first see it from behind. In the middle of Piazza San Domenico Maggiore rises a baroque spire raised after the plague of 1656.
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4Santa Chiara Monumental Complex
King Robert of Anjou and Queen Sancha of Majorca built this Gothic church and convent of the Poor Clares between 1310 and 1340. Bombs gutted the church in 1943, and it was rebuilt in its original Gothic form. Behind it lies the cloister, decorated in the 1740s with painted majolica tiles under the direction of Domenico Antonio Vaccaro.
5Gesù Nuovo Church
The church's façade of diamond-pointed stones belonged to a palace built in 1470 for Roberto Sanseverino, prince of Salerno, which the Jesuits turned into a church from the 1580s. Look closely at the stones for small carved marks, which some say form a hidden musical score. In the square in front rises the baroque Spire of the Immaculate.
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6San Nicola alla Carità
This baroque church stands on Via Toledo near Piazza della Carità and was built in the 17th and early 18th centuries. Via Toledo itself was laid out in 1536 by the Spanish viceroy Pedro de Toledo and is still one of the main shopping streets of Naples. Uphill to the west lie the narrow lanes of the Spanish Quarters.
7Fountain of Neptune
This fountain was designed around 1600 by Domenico Fontana, with sculptures by artists including Michelangelo Naccherino and Pietro Bernini, and has been moved several times around the city. It now stands in Piazza Municipio, between the town hall and the port. Look for the lions and sea creatures spouting water around the statue of Neptune.
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8Castel Nuovo
Known as the Maschio Angioino, the New Castle was begun in 1279 under Charles I of Anjou and rebuilt in the 15th century by Alfonso V of Aragon. Between two of its massive round towers stands a white marble triumphal arch celebrating Alfonso's entry into Naples in 1443.
9Galleria Umberto I
This shopping arcade was built between 1887 and 1890 and named after King Umberto I. Its four glass-and-iron wings meet under a dome about 57 metres high, with the signs of the zodiac set into the marble floor below. Across the street stands the Teatro di San Carlo, opened in 1737.
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10Piazza del PlebiscitoFinish
One of the largest squares in Naples, it takes its name from the 1860 plebiscite that joined the city to the Kingdom of Italy. The Royal Palace faces the church of San Francesco di Paola, inspired by the Pantheon in Rome, and two equestrian statues of Bourbon kings, partly by Antonio Canova. Legend says few people can walk blindfolded in a straight line between them.
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