Caserta is a city of about 75,000 some 30km north of Naples, and almost everyone who comes is here for one building. THE REGGIA DI CASERTA IS THE LARGEST ROYAL PALACE IN THE WORLD BY VOLUME, built for the Bourbon kings of Naples from 1752 to a design by Luigi Vanvitelli, and it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, Roman Trail earns a small commission at no extra cost to you.
What Is Here
The palace is enormous and the garden is the part that defeats people. The Reggia has 1,200 rooms and five floors, and the Royal Apartments are a long enfilade of them. Then you step out of the back and the garden runs away from you in a straight line for THREE KILOMETRES, rising as it goes, with fountains and sculptural groups set along the axis and the Great Waterfall at the far end. Walking up and back is six kilometres on gravel with almost no shade.
There is a shuttle bus and there are bicycles for hire, and taking one is not a defeat. The axis is designed to be seen from a distance, so the walk is the experience only if you want it to be.
THE SCULPTURAL GROUPS ARE THE POINT OF THE WALK, in the second image here: Diana and Actaeon at the top, below the waterfall, with Aeolus, Ceres and Venus and Adonis staged down the slope. They are late Baroque and they are meant to be read in sequence.
The English Garden is the quiet half and it is a separate world. Commissioned by Maria Carolina in 1786 and laid out by John Graefer, it is a romantic landscape garden with artificial ruins, a cryptoporticus, exotic planting and a bathing pool with a Venus. It sits off to one side near the top and most visitors never reach it, which is a shame and an opportunity.
CASERTAVECCHIA is the medieval town the modern city replaced, 10km up the hill at 400 metres, with a 12th century cathedral in Sicilian Norman style and a view back over the plain. It is a short drive or a bus and it is the best thing here after the palace.
SAN LEUCIO was an experiment in industrial utopia, a silk-weaving colony founded by Ferdinand IV with planned housing, a school and written statutes for its workers. The Belvedere and the old silk works can be visited and the looms are still there.
When to Go
April to June and September to October. The garden is the whole visit and it is unshaded, so a hot afternoon in July is punishing.
Summer is hot and humid on the Campanian plain, regularly above 33C, and the gravel holds the heat.
Winter is mild and often wet. The palace is indoors and fine, the garden less so, and the fountains are sometimes off.
The Reggia closes on Tuesdays, which catches people coming from Naples on a day trip. Check the current arrangements rather than trusting a figure in a guide, including whether the garden shuttle is running.
Getting There
By train, about 40 minutes from Naples Centrale on the regional service, and the station is a ten minute walk from the palace gates. From Rome it is roughly two hours.
By car, the A1 from Rome or the A30 from Salerno. Parking near the Reggia fills on weekends.
By air, Naples Capodichino is about 30 minutes away.
Caserta works as a day trip from Naples and as a quieter base for Campania than Naples itself, with Benevento, Capua and the coast all reachable.
Is Caserta Safe for Women?
Caserta is an ordinary working southern Italian city and the risks are petty theft and traffic rather than anything targeted. The FCDO publishes no advised-against areas anywhere in Italy. Its guidance concentrates on petty theft in crowded tourist areas and on the ZTL, the limited traffic zones in historic centres that catch drivers out with automatic fines months after the trip.
Italy has national emergency planning for the Phlegraean Fields, and the Naples conurbation sits inside it. The FCDO records that there are several active volcanoes in southern Italy and that national emergency planning is in place for the Campi Flegrei, "an area that remains active experiencing regular tremors". That is a stronger statement than the generic Italian earthquake paragraph: it is not a note about seismic risk in the abstract but a standing civil-protection plan for a specific caldera. Tremors are felt routinely. Read the FCDO guidance on what to do in a volcanic eruption before you come, and follow the instructions of the local authorities if anything happens while you are here.
Many parts of Italy lie on a major seismic fault line and the FCDO notes that minor tremors and earthquakes happen regularly. Learn what to do before, during and after one.
The garden is a six kilometre walk with no shade and limited water, which is the most likely thing to spoil a day here. Fill a bottle before you start.
The station area and the streets around it are scruffy after dark and worth a taxi rather than a walk, which is true of most Italian provincial station districts.
Driving in the historic centre risks a ZTL fine that arrives months later, which the FCDO names specifically for Italy.
The Caserta Packing List
A palace day is a walking day, and the garden decides the footwear.
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women is the layer that makes the shoulder seasons work here: the palace interiors are cool and cavernous even in June while the garden is in full sun, so you are moving between two climates all day and wool handles that without a change of clothes. A heavyweight merino base layer from December to February.
Over it, a a fleece mid layer for the cool months and a Marmot PreCip Eco rain jacket, since Campanian winters are wet.
Salomon X Ultra 4 GTX hiking shoes rather than boots. Six kilometres of gravel in city shoes is the classic Caserta mistake, and trainers with no support are not much better. Darn Tough merino socks with them.
A wide brim sun hat from May to September, which the garden axis genuinely requires, and a RAYMYLO insulated water bottle, because the fountains are ornamental and the kiosks are at the ends.
Not linked and worth packing: MODEST SHOULDER COVER for the cathedral at Casertavecchia, which a merino long sleeve already solves; SUNGLASSES, since the axis faces you; and a SMALL CROSSBODY BAG you can close, for the station and the Naples train. Italy takes cards almost everywhere, though a small cafe may still prefer cash.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Caserta
Emergency numbers: 112 for police, ambulance and fire, free from any phone including a locked mobile, with operators who will find an English speaker. It is the single number across the whole European Union.
The garden is a six kilometre round trip on unshaded gravel and there is a shuttle bus and bicycle hire: use one if the day is hot. THE REGGIA CLOSES ON TUESDAYS. ITALY HAS NATIONAL EMERGENCY PLANNING FOR THE PHLEGRAEAN FIELDS and the Naples conurbation, including Caserta's plain, sits inside that planning area, with tremors felt routinely. Driving into the historic centre risks a ZTL fine arriving months later. The streets around the station are worth a taxi after dark.
US State Department travel advisory: the Italy advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/italy, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Main hospital: the Azienda Ospedaliera Sant'Anna e San Sebastiano in Caserta has a full emergency department, with the Naples teaching hospitals forty minutes away for anything complex. Dial 112 for an ambulance. A farmacia, marked with a green cross, posts the duty rota for nights and Sundays. Italy is in the EU, so a UK Global Health Insurance Card or an EU European Health Insurance Card gives you state-provided medically necessary care on the same terms as an Italian resident. That means the same ticket, the co-payment Italians make, rather than nothing, and it does not cover repatriation, so travel insurance sits on top of it. Italian public hospitals are good and the emergency department, the pronto soccorso, treats anyone who arrives. Pharmacies, farmacie, are marked with a green cross, are staffed by pharmacists who can advise and dispense for minor problems, and post a rota for nights and Sundays on the door. Tap water is drinkable across the country, including from the public fountains that are common in Italian towns.
Official health authority: the Ministero della Salute, the Italian health ministry. covers the Campania regional health service
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Rome.
Official tourism authority: ENIT, the Italian national tourist board. publishes the Reggia's opening days, the garden shuttle arrangements and the San Leucio site times
Takeaways
The garden is three kilometres each way. Decide before you start whether you are walking it.
Closed Tuesdays. Check before you book a train.
Find the English Garden. Almost nobody does.
Go up to Casertavecchia. The cathedral and the view are worth the bus.
Solo women safety assessment: Caserta is straightforward for a woman travelling alone and nothing here is a crime concern of the kind that changes plans. It is a working provincial city rather than a tourist town, so outside the palace you are simply in Italy: ordinary streets, ordinary bars, and a level of attention a woman alone will recognise from anywhere in the south, verbal rather than physical and best met with the same brevity that works at home. 112 REACHES POLICE, AMBULANCE AND FIRE and is free from any phone including a locked one; 113 reaches the Polizia di Stato directly. THE FCDO PUBLISHES NO ADVISED-AGAINST AREAS ANYWHERE IN ITALY and concentrates on petty theft in crowded places, which here means the palace entrance, the station and the Naples train rather than the garden. TWO THINGS ARE WORTH MORE ATTENTION THAN THE CRIME. THE FIRST IS THE GARDEN ITSELF, because a six kilometre walk on unshaded gravel in a Campanian summer is a real physical event and the fountains are ornamental rather than drinking water: carry a full bottle, use the shuttle or a bicycle without feeling you have cheated, and treat the middle of a July afternoon as time for the interiors. THE SECOND IS GEOLOGICAL AND IS THE thing a visitor is least likely to know: ITALY MAINTAINS NATIONAL EMERGENCY PLANNING FOR THE PHLEGRAEAN FIELDS, the active caldera west of Naples, and the FCDO says in terms that the area remains active and experiences regular tremors. Caserta's plain lies within the zone that planning covers. Nothing about that should stop a trip, and it is worth reading the official guidance on what to do in an eruption before you arrive rather than looking it up afterwards. Practically: the station district is scruffy after dark and a taxi costs little, and if you drive, stay out of the marked ZTL.
Reading On
Caserta is Campania, and Naples is the hinge of everything here. The Naples packing list covers the city forty minutes south, with the Pompeii packing list for the excavations and Vesuvius and the Amalfi Coast packing list, Sorrento packing list, Ravello packing list and Salerno packing list for the coast. Offshore, the Capri packing list, Ischia packing list and Procida packing list cover the islands, which sit in the same volcanic complex. North, the Rome packing list and Tivoli packing list cover Lazio, and Tivoli's villas are the other great garden day in central Italy. For the country the Italy travel guide for women and the Italy packing list carry the transport, the seasons and the practical material in full. For why wool handles a day that moves between a cold interior and full sun, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
