National Archaeological Museum, Naples

Listen for a moment. Out on the street, scooters rattle over the dark volcanic paving stones, and a horn sounds somewhere down the hill. Then you pass through the doors, and the noise drops away. The air inside is cooler. Your footsteps echo on stone. Ahead of you, pale marble figures stand in long rows, watching the entrance as they have for generations. This is the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, and it holds one of the great collections of the ancient world.

Before we look at a single statue, look at the building itself. Its long red facade did not begin as a museum. It was first built in the late sixteenth century as a cavalry barracks. Later it became the home of the university of Naples. Only in the late eighteenth century did the Bourbon kings, who ruled southern Italy at the time, turn it into a home for their growing treasures. So these galleries have held soldiers, students, and gods.

Why did so much come here? The answer is a family inheritance. Charles of Bourbon, who became king of Naples in the eighteenth century, was the son of Elisabetta Farnese. Through her, he inherited the Farnese Collection — the art gathered over generations by one of the most powerful families of Renaissance Rome. Crates of marble travelled south from Rome to Naples. The city that received them became, almost overnight, a capital of ancient sculpture.

The ground floor holds the heart of that collection. Find the Farnese Hercules. He is enormous, a hero at rest after his labours, leaning on his club. Walk around behind him. In his hand, hidden at his back, he holds the golden apples from one of his final tasks. Many visitors photograph him from the front and never see them. The statue carries a signature from an Athenian sculptor named Glykon, who copied an earlier Greek work.

Nearby stands the Farnese Bull. It is carved from what was once a single great block of marble. Two young men struggle to tie a woman to a wild bull, and the whole scene twists upward like a spiral. It tells a Greek myth of punishment and revenge. Both this group and the Hercules were found in Rome, in the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla, a vast public bathhouse of the Roman Empire.

Now, a surprise. The figures here are not all original Greek works. Many are Roman copies of Greek bronzes that have been lost. The Romans admired Greek art so much that workshops produced marble versions for wealthy homes and public baths. In many cases, the Roman copy is the only reason we know the Greek original ever existed. So these statues are both art and evidence — a memory of masterpieces that have vanished.

The second great story of this museum begins with Mount Vesuvius. On a clear day you can see its shape from the streets of Naples. In the year 79, the volcano erupted and buried Pompeii, Herculaneum, and the towns around the bay. When excavations began under the Bourbons in the eighteenth century, the finds came here. Paintings, mosaics, bronzes, tableware, and even carbonised food moved from the ash into these rooms.

On the mezzanine level, look for the mosaics from Pompeii. The most famous is the Alexander Mosaic, from a grand home called the House of the Faun. It shows Alexander the Great charging into battle against the Persian king Darius. It is made of more than a million tiny pieces of stone. The mosaic has been through a long and careful restoration in recent years, so how you see it may depend on the day you visit.

Look closely at the smaller mosaics too. There are fish and octopus, cats catching birds, and a skull used as a reminder that life is short. These were floors and walls in real houses. People walked across them, ate beside them, and argued in front of them. The detail is remarkable. You can see the shading on a fish scale, built from stones the size of a fingernail.

Upstairs, the wall paintings bring colour into the story. Pompeii had a deep red that many people still associate with the town. Here you can see it up close, alongside soft greens, ochre yellows, and painted gardens full of birds. Some panels show gods and heroes. Others show ordinary scenes, like a baker handing out bread. These walls are a record of how Romans decorated the rooms where they lived.

From Herculaneum came another treasure. A rich villa there, known today as the Villa of the Papyri, held a library of burned scrolls and a fine collection of bronze statues. Look for the dark bronze figures of young runners, caught at the start of a race, and the resting figure of the god Hermes. Their eyes, inlaid with other materials, give them a strangely alive expression. Stand in front of them and you may feel watched.

The museum also has a room that was once locked away. It is called the Secret Cabinet. It holds erotic paintings and objects from Pompeii and Herculaneum. For a long time, access was restricted, and only certain visitors could enter. Today it is open, though families may want to know about it in advance. It is a reminder that the Romans saw these images differently than later centuries did.

Before you leave, find the great hall on the upper floor, known as the Hall of the Meridian. It is a long, high room built to hold a library. Look down at the floor. A line runs across it — a meridian, used like a giant sundial. When the sun is high, a small opening in the wall lets in a ray of light that falls on the line, marking midday. Few visitors notice it.

When you step back outside, the noise of Naples will return all at once. The scooters, the voices, the smell of coffee from a nearby bar. Think about the people whose homes you have just walked through... the floors they crossed and the walls they painted. Then look south, toward the bay, where the volcano still stands. Everything in these rooms survived because of it.