A city of glorious but tattered beauty, known for its vibrancy and, yes, a frisson of menace, Naples is now humming with visitors. In this Mediterranean capital watched over by the still-kicking Vesuvius volcano, tourist numbers have more than doubled since 2010, crime has dropped (notably, the murder rate is down 44 percent in 2018 over the previous year, according to the Ministry of the Interior), and the intransigent piles of trash are far fewer. Elena Ferrante’s beloved Neapolitan Novels (and the ongoing HBO adaptation of them) — along with the gritty “Gomorrah” books, movie and TV series — has roused curiosity about a destination long considered little more than a steppingstone to Capri, Ischia and Amalfi.

And while the Museo Archeologico, with its extraordinary collection of antiquities, remains a bit neglected, most of the city’s art, culture and social scene are on an optimistic bender, and the charms of Naples — the Baroque excess, the indulgent cuisine, the mesmerizing fugue state of it all — beckon as they did in the city’s Grand Tour glory days.