Things to do in Naples this weekend: 9-11 October 2026

The weekend of 9-11 October in Naples has two big dates: on Saturday and Sunday the FAI Autumn Days open palazzi and churches that stay shut the rest of the year, and for four days there’s Artecinema, free art documentaries at the Augusteo. In between there are two new walking tours, in the Quartieri Spagnoli and the Sanità, a free concert at Capodimonte and, out of town, the first chestnut festivals. The page that updates every morning is this weekend.

All weekend: Artecinema and the exhibitions closing soon

From Thursday 8 to Sunday 11, Artecinema is back: the main screenings are at the Teatro Augusteo, for free, while the opening night at the San Carlo needs a ticket on Vivaticket. It’s also the last chance to see the Maria Lai retrospective at the Madre, sixty years of stitched canvases and artist’s books: it closes on 12 October. The museum’s other two exhibitions, Gli anni and Living Collapse, stay open, same €8 ticket, closed on Tuesdays. In Piazza Municipio, by the metro exit, the three eight-metre wooden boats of Ibrahim Mahama’s Voyageur installation are still there, free until 18 November.

Friday 9: live music and the last night at Pompeii

At 6pm the brass quintet of the US Navy band plays at the Sala Scarlatti of the San Pietro a Majella Conservatory, free entry. At 9pm Villa di Donato in Piazza Sannazaro opens the No Border Tones world music season, €5, and at the Teatro Acacia È stata la musica by Daniele Sorrentino and Matt Russo has its debut. Anyone near Vesuvius gets the last of the Serate nella Grande Pompei: the ruins stay open until 11.30pm, €7 per site, with the final dates on Friday and Saturday.

Saturday 10: FAI Autumn Days, Quartieri Spagnoli and Capodimonte

Saturday brings the start of the FAI Autumn Days: on a free-contribution basis, palazzi, churches and courtyards across Naples and the province open up, usually closed, often with volunteer guides who are students. The list of places comes out close to the weekend on the FAI website: it’s worth giving priority to the lesser-known ones, where the queues are shorter. At 10am the Insolitaguida walk around the Quartieri Spagnoli also sets off, two hours of murals, street shrines, a cuoppo and a glass of wine for €15: the same neighbourhood can also be seen from below, forty metres down.

Destinazione Donna takes you, for free, to the places of Naples’ women, from the Purgatorio ad Arco to the Suor Orsola Benincasa, with departures between 10am and 4pm depending on the route. At 5pm, in the Ballroom of the royal palace, there’s one of the free concerts of Note d’autunno at Capodimonte, included in the museum ticket; at the same time the Pedamentina sets off with Insolitaguida, 414 steps down from the Vomero to Montesanto, €12. In the evening Galleria Toledo opens its 35th anniversary season with Basso napoletano by Marco Sgrosso, voice and double bass on Neapolitan texts, at 8.30pm. Early in the morning, the Campagna Amica farmers’ markets are in Piazza Mercadante and Posillipo, 8.30am-1.30pm.

Sunday 11: Rione Sanità, markets and morning music

The FAI Autumn Days carry on, same times at each place. At 10am Insolitaguida takes you round the Rione Sanità: street art, baroque and the Fontanelle, €15, a walk that pairs well with a longer visit through the alleys and catacombs on the Sanità’s sacred mile. Early risers can head to the Agnano antiques market, more than two hundred stalls from 6am to 2pm, free: the best pieces are gone by 9am.

The morning is for music too: at 10.30am at Villa Campolieto in Herculaneum there’s Note in Pellicola, free cinema and jazz; at 11am at Villa Pignatelli Il Sosia tells the short life of Schubert, €10; at 11.30am the Filangieri Museum hosts Convivio Armonico, baroque music included in the ticket. Galleria Toledo repeats Basso napoletano at 6pm, and in Piazza Bovio there’s the Sunday farmers’ market.

With children

Saturday morning is the turn of Giro Giro Napoli, free visits and workshops in the civic museums, every Saturday until 19 December. Saturday and Sunday, at 11am, the Botanical Garden hosts Fiabe d’Autunno, theatre that moves between the trees for €9: booking required, 80 children at most per show, cancelled if it rains. At 5pm the Teatro dei Piccoli at the Mostra d’Oltremare opens È grande essere piccoli, soap bubbles and circus, €5. Also at the Mostra d’Oltremare there’s Giochi di Zucca around the Fasilides lake, 10am-9pm at weekends, €17, better booked online to skip the queue.

Out of town: chestnuts between Avellino and the Coast

In Serino, in the province of Avellino, the Sagra della Castagna reaches its 49th edition from Friday to Sunday, with the local IGP chestnut and free shuttles from the valley floor: just over an hour from Naples. On the Coast, above Ravello, the village of Scala opens its Festa della Castagna on Saturday and Sunday, and repeats it on 17-18 October, with sweets and mountain dishes with a sea view. Towards the Matese, in the lanes of the medieval village, the Sagra dei Funghi of Cusano Mutri stays open until 18 October.

With so many places spread between the centre, Capodimonte and Herculaneum, the map of Naples helps you fit the stops together without crossing the city three times. The rest of the month is in Things to do in Naples in November 2026, and for any other date Things to do in Naples shows events and bookable experiences day by day.