Magma House couldn't be more central. It is just on the edge of the historic centre of Naples, next to the Archaeological Museum and the Museo metro station. We spent happy days exploring the city from here, and also easily made a day trip to Pompeii.
The apartment itself is stylishly decorated but also extremely comfortable. It was such a treat to live in such thoughtfully furnished spaces. We especially loved the copper bath in our room – in the mornings it was bathed in sunlight.
There are five bedrooms in total (our party of two families of four had three of them during our stay), plus shared kitchen, loft sitting room and roof terrace. The terrace offers superb views of the city – we were lucky enough to be there on New Year's Eve so had a 360-view of the city going bonkers letting off fireworks!
Someone came to clean the apartment and make the beds each day. There was also fresh coffee, fresh bread, hand-squeezed orange juice, plenty of yoghurt, jam, cereal, ham, cheese and little cakes, plus the offer of anything extra if we wanted it. Best of all, Chiara sent a homemade cake for us every afternoon. Our favourites were the delicious pastiera (Neapolitan speciality with ricotta and orange-flower water) and chocolate caprese.
We took Livio up on his kind offer to arrange taxis from and to the airport. On arrival, we were greeted by another Chiara, who showed us around and helpfully provided a couple of street maps, which she marked with places of interest. The day before New Year’s Eve we suddenly realised that it might be tricky to find a good place to eat (there were the eight of us, plus three friends staying elsewhere in the city). Chiara rang around several of her favourite places before finding a brilliant option for us – L’etto – where we were able to secure a big enough table.
This really was a most lovely place to stay. We had the best New Year we’ve ever had, in no small part because of the fantastic setting and Livio and Chiara’s great attention to detail. I can’t recommend Magma House highly enough.