Certosa di San Martino

The Carthusian monks who lived here for five centuries had the best view in Naples and they knew it. Perched on the Vomero hill with the entire bay spread out below — Vesuvius, Capri, the city tumbling down to the waterfront — the Certosa di San Martino was designed to be a place where silence and beauty would strip away everything worldly. The monks took a vow of solitude, spent most of their time alone in individual cells with private gardens, and were forbidden from speaking except during brief communal periods. They looked at that view every day and told no one how they felt about it.

The monastery was founded in 1325 by Charles of Anjou and completed under Queen Joan I in 1368, but the building you see today is mostly the work of architect Cosimo Fanzago, who spent the better part of the 17th century transforming it into one of the most extravagant Baroque complexes in southern Italy. The church interior drips with marble inlay, gilded stucco, and paintings by Jusepe de Ribera, Luca Giordano, and other masters who competed ferociously for monastic commissions.

After the suppression of religious orders in the 19th century, the Certosa became a state museum in 1866, and its collection of Neapolitan nativity scenes — the Sezione Presepiale — is considered the finest in the world. The star piece is the Cuciniello Presepe, a massive 18th-century scene with hundreds of figures set against a Neapolitan landscape.

But honestly, most people come for the terraced gardens and the view. Stand on the belvedere at sunset when Vesuvius turns pink and the city lights start flickering on below, and you'll understand why monks chose this spot to contemplate eternity.