the city of the Bourbons' Royal Palace, with the silk colony of San Leucio, the San Silvestro Wood and the medieval village of Casertavecchia on the hill
Caserta is the city that a king had built for himself. In the middle of the eighteenth century Charles of Bourbon chose the plain at the foot of the Tifatini mountains for his royal palace, and Luigi Vanvitelli designed him a palace with a park that climbs for three kilometres up to a waterfall, and an aqueduct thirty-eight kilometres long to bring the water there. The city of today had been born a few centuries earlier, from the hamlet of Torre on the plain, where people had come down, leaving the medieval village of Casertavecchia on the hill. The Royal Palace is the reason people come, and it has its own page; this one tells the rest, which is usually skipped. San Leucio, where Ferdinand of Bourbon founded a colony of silk weavers with laws of its own, and where hand looms still weave; the San Silvestro Wood, the king's hunting reserve, which today is a WWF oasis and the place where the Royal Palace sends people arriving by motorhome to sleep; Casertavecchia, with its twelfth century cathedral and the tower of its castle; and further off, in the valley of Maddaloni, the arches of the aqueduct. In winter the Park of the Royal Palace closes early, and the days are planned by the clock.
Sleeping
Stops and overnight stays
Caserta has no municipal area for motorhomes, and the Royal Palace has no car park: it is the Royal Palace itself, on its website, that sends people arriving by motorhome to the stopover inside the oasis of the San Silvestro Wood, on the hill behind the Park. For those who want to walk to the Royal Palace there is a private area near the station. People who have stayed there found both open in winter too, and neither publishes a price list. Campsites open in winter near the city are not to be found.
Sosta camper dell'Oasi WWF Bosco di San Silvestro
via dei Giardini Reali 78, 81100 Caserta
ten pitches on gravel inside the San Silvestro Wood, the Bourbons' holm oak wood enclosed by an old wall, next to the Casa Ecologica of the WWF oasis: electricity, water, emptying, toilet and shower, a lit yard and a path that climbs to a spot from which you can see the Royal Palace, Vesuvius and, on clear days, Capri. It is run by La Ghiandaia, which looks after the oasis, and the Royal Palace calls it part of its complex. Book by phone, also to get directions: people who have stayed there say that the satnav leads you astray, into the mountains, and that the last stretch to the gate is narrow. Entry is until 21:30, and at night the gate is closed. Motorhomes longer than 7.5 metres get in too. People who stayed there found it open in every month of the winter of 2025-2026, but the operator does not state the opening months. The operators take you with their shuttle to the Royal Palace, the station, San Leucio and Casertavecchia: you arrange it on WhatsApp, and in September 2026 people who took it to the Royal Palace paid 3 euros return, a quarter of an hour's drive. The Belvedere of San Leucio is half a kilometre away as the crow flies. Mobile reception is poor.
10 motorhome pitches
ElectricityWaterGrey waterToiletsShower
The operator does not publish a price list; in May and September 2026 people who stayed there paid 15 euros for 24 hours, plus 3 euros for electricity and 2 euros for a hot shower. Those who arrive late and call to have the gate opened pay 5 euros more, the booking form says · 329 1003808 · laghiandaia.info
a fenced private area with CCTV, inside a commuter car park with a section reserved for motorhomes, two hundred and fifty metres from the station. It is the stopover for those who want to walk to the Royal Palace: you go to the station, cross under the tracks through the underpass and come out on piazza Carlo di Borbone, in about ten minutes. The ground is earth, gravel and grass, and in the rain it turns to mud; there is little shade. Water is at the pitches, but the signs say that the water at the waste disposal point is not drinkable; the toilets are squat toilets and the shower is paid with a card. The gate closes at 19:00 or 19:30: anyone arriving later phones the number written at the entrance and pays a supplement. People who stayed there found it open in December, January and March, but the operator does not state the opening months; at weekends it is best to book. A supermarket is two hundred metres away. It is more a car park than an area, but everyone says it is safe.
about forty motorhome pitches
ElectricityWaterGrey waterToiletsShower
The operator does not publish a price list; in December 2025 and in January and March 2026 people who stayed there paid 30 euros a night, with electricity, water and emptying included, and the shower extra · 328 6583968
In Caserta the motorhome stays at the stopover: the Royal Palace is opposite the station, and San Leucio and Casertavecchia are reached by bus or with the shuttle from the San Silvestro oasis. In the centre and in the two villages a motorhome has nowhere to stop.
By motorway you leave at Caserta Nord on the A1 or at Caserta Sud on the A30, as the Royal Palace indicates
The station is opposite the Royal Palace: you leave on the piazza Carlo di Borbone side and cross the square. Regional trains for Naples and for Rome stop here, and so do the Frecce and Italo
The city buses are run by AIR Campania and all leave from the terminus in front of the station. Line 04-UC, Linea Seta, passes through piazza Vanvitelli and reaches San Leucio, in piazza della Seta, in about twenty minutes: Monday to Saturday, with the timetable in force from 15 September 2026, it leaves the station every hour at a quarter past, from 9:15 to 21:15, and comes back from San Leucio every hour at 48 minutes past, from 9:48 to 20:48
For Casertavecchia there is line 05-UC, Linea Borgo, which Monday to Saturday leaves the station roughly every hour and reaches the terminus in via Tiglio in three quarters of an hour. On Sundays and public holidays the same line becomes a tourist circuit: four runs from the station, at 11:00, 14:15, 16:00 and 18:20, which pass by the Royal Palace, in piazza Gramsci, and by San Leucio before climbing to the village; from Casertavecchia you come back at 13:00, 16:00, 17:20 and 21:10. AIR states that the runs also operate at Christmas, at New Year and at Easter
Trenitalia's Caserta Link puts the train and the bus for San Leucio or for Casertavecchia on the same ticket, on weekdays, with runs connecting with the trains: the bus part costs 1.30 euros. You buy it by choosing San Leucio or Casertavecchia as your destination
The limited traffic zones: the historic centre has a ZTL with cameras, and the village of Casertavecchia, the Comune writes, is entirely pedestrian. The Comune does not publish the ZTL hours on a page that can be read: with a motorhome you do not drive into the centre, and there is no need to
The San Silvestro oasis shuttle takes those staying there to the Royal Palace, the station, San Leucio and Casertavecchia: ask the operators
Seeing
Sights
Two days. The first belongs to the Royal Palace, which has its own page: in winter you do the Park in the morning and the palace in the afternoon, and in the evening you stroll through the centre, from piazza Vanvitelli to piazza Dante and along corso Trieste. The second climbs to San Leucio, for the morning guided tour, and ends at Casertavecchia, worth seeing in the evening too, when the bell tower and the cathedral square are lit up. There are three days to watch: on Tuesday the Royal Palace is closed, on Wednesday afternoon the Belvedere of San Leucio is closed, and the San Silvestro oasis can be visited only on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. Tap a marker on the map to open its entry below.
1
Piazza Carlo di Borbone
Square · free entry · 41.07076, 14.32688
piazza Carlo di Borbone, 81100 Caserta
the square in front of the Royal Palace, between the palace and the station, which people arriving by train cross from end to end. It is a great lawn with tree-lined avenues, closed at the sides by two hemicycle buildings built for the servants, and it is among the largest squares in Italy; it used to be called piazza Carlo III, and it was restored and closed to traffic at the end of 2009. In winter the trees are bare and from the avenue you can see the whole façade of the Royal Palace.
Luigi Vanvitelli's palace for Charles of Bourbon, with the Royal Apartments, the Park that climbs up to the waterfall and the English Garden. It has its own page, with the tickets, the winter opening hours month by month and the right order for the visit.
Opening hours closed on Tuesdays, 25 December and 1 January; the Apartments 8:30-19:15, last entry at 18:15; in winter the Park closes early, and in December the last entry is at 14:30 · 18 euros with the Park, 2 euros from 18 to 25 for EU citizens, free under 18 · 0823 448084 · reggiadicaserta.cultura.gov.it · re-ce@cultura.gov.it
the city's main square, with the Town Hall, Palazzo Acquaviva, from the sixteenth century, which today houses the prefecture and the police headquarters, and the Bank of Italy; until two centuries ago it was the market square. In the middle there is a garden with the fountain and the monument to Luigi Vanvitelli, by Onofrio Buccini, from 1879: the architect holds out his right hand towards the palace he built. Corso Trieste and the shopping streets start here, and the bus for San Leucio passes through.
Cathedral of San Michele Arcangelo and piazza Duomo
Church · free entry · 41.07392, 14.33372
piazza Duomo, 81100 Caserta
the cathedral of the city on the plain, a stone's throw from piazza Vanvitelli: a church with a nave and two aisles, between late Baroque and Neoclassical, with seventeenth century canvases. On the same square are the little church of San Giovanni, with a seventeenth century altar of Carrara marble, and the early twentieth century Post Office building. In 2026 the Comune's winter season opened here, with a concert on 5 January. The cathedral's opening hours are not published: you go in during the day, outside Mass times.
one of the oldest squares, enclosed by four identical buildings with porticoes, which gave it the name of piazza dei Quattro Canti before it became piazza Margherita and then piazza Dante. Under the porticoes there are a historic café and two clubs, and the square is three hundred metres from the Royal Palace, on the road between the palace and corso Trieste. At Christmas the tree is put up in the middle of the porticoes.
the street for shopping and for the evening stroll, which runs east from piazza Dante for less than a kilometre to piazza IV Novembre, where the War Memorial stands, a white marble arch with the inscription "Caserta ai suoi eroi", Caserta to its heroes.
Charles of Bourbon bought these lands in 1750, his son Ferdinand came here to hunt, and in 1778 he set up a silk factory here: so the Royal Colony of San Leucio was born, with houses for the workers, the school and, in 1789, a code of laws of its own, which made men and women equal, dressed everyone in the same way and abolished the dowry. It was meant to become a city with a circular plan, Ferdinandopoli, which the arrival of the French left on paper. The Belvedere can only be visited with a guide, in turns: the factory with nine hand looms that still weave brocades and damasks, the great silk throwing machines and the water wheel that drove them, the apartment with Queen Maria Carolina's bathroom and the terraced gardens above the plain, closed in bad weather. An hour, an hour and a half with the Casa del Tessitore, the Weaver's House. Two kilometres away, in the hamlet of the Vaccheria, the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie has a Neo-Gothic façade from the early nineteenth century. From the station there is bus 04-UC.
Opening hours only with the guided tour, every day at 9:30, 10:45 and 12:00, and in the afternoon at 15:00 and 16:30 in winter time, at 15:30 and 17:00 in summer time; closed on Wednesday afternoons · 7 euros; 4 euros from 6 to 18, over 60, for university students and for residents; those without a guide of their own pay 2 euros per person at the ticket office for the museum's guide; for children under 6 the website says nothing; the Casa del Tessitore 1 euro. On 1 November and on the morning of 24 December everyone pays 4 euros. The Belvedere's website does not give the year of the price list · 0823 273152 · belvederedisanleucio.it · belvedere@comune.caserta.it
the Real Tenuta di San Silvestro, the Bourbons' reserve on the hills of Montemaiulo and Montebriano, behind the Park of the Royal Palace: seventy-six hectares of holm oaks and downy oaks on the hills from which the waterfall comes down. At the end of the eighteenth century Francesco Collecini built the hunting lodge here, and Ferdinand had a vineyard of Pallagrello, his wine, planted here, sixteen moggi in size, the old measure of fields; the vineyard started producing grapes again in 2021. Since 1993 it has been a WWF oasis, with paths, a small natural history museum and the jay as its symbol. You cannot get in from the Park of the Royal Palace: the entrance is a different one, at San Leucio, the same as the motorhome stopover.
Opening hours open to the public on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays: the guided tour at 10:30, the visit on your own with entry from 10:00 to 12:00, and in the afternoon in March from 15:00 to 16:00, in April from 15:00 to 17:00, from May to October from 16:00 to 18:00. From 15 November to the end of February entry is only by booking the day before, with at least four paying visitors · the guided tour 10 euros, the visit on your own with the map 8 euros; free under 6. The website does not give the year of the price list · 0823 361300 · laghiandaia.info · laghiandaia.wwf@libero.it
the Caserta of the Middle Ages, four hundred metres above sea level, on the hill north-east of the city. It probably originated in the eighth century, belonged to the Lombards, and under the Normans it gained a count and a bishop; its high point came under the Swabians. From the sixteenth century people moved down to the plain, and the village stayed as it was: the alleys paved with stone, the cathedral square and the church of the Annunziata, Gothic from the end of the fourteenth century, with its Baroque doorway. The village is entirely pedestrian. From the hill you can see the whole plain of Caserta. From the station there is bus 05-UC, in three quarters of an hour, and on Sundays the tourist circuit.
the cathedral of San Michele Arcangelo, built between 1113 and 1153, as the inscriptions on the doorways say. Above the crossing rises the tiburio, the lantern tower, with interlaced small arches of light and dark stone; inside, a nave and two aisles divided by eighteen ancient columns taken from Roman buildings, the mosaic floor, the pulpit and the altar made with ancient pieces, and the tomb of Francesco della Ratta, count of Caserta in the fourteenth century. The bell tower of 1234, more than thirty metres high, has at its foot a large pointed arch through which the road to the castle passes. The opening hours are not published by an official source.
the walls of the counts' castle, which dates from the eleventh century, at the far end of the village. What remains is the great cylindrical tower, the Swabian keep, more than nineteen metres wide and thirty high, which the Royal Palace's website counts among the largest in Europe. Whether it can be visited inside no source says: you look at it from outside, walking around the walls.
the aqueduct that Vanvitelli began in 1753 to bring water to the Royal Palace: thirty-eight kilometres from the springs of the Fizzo, at the foot of Mount Taburno, to the waterfall in the Park, almost all of it underground. Where it crosses the valley of Maddaloni it comes out into the open, on the Ponti della Valle: three tiers of arches, sixty metres high and about half a kilometre long, in the fields outside the city. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site together with the Royal Palace and San Leucio. There are no tours and no tickets: you look at it from outside, and you walk under the arches. Where to stop the motorhome near the bridges no source says.
Winter in Caserta is short and almost all at the Royal Palace: Christmas starts in mid-December and ends at Epiphany, and around it there is the living nativity scene of the Vaccheria, near San Leucio. In January the city celebrates its patron saint, and until March the Comune organises free concerts. In September there is the Casertavecchia festival. In mid-October almost no event has its dates for the coming year yet.
Next: Feast of San Sebastiano · 20 Jan
20Jan
Feast of San Sebastiano
on 20 January
the city's patron saint. In 2026, on the evening of 19 January, the Comune put on a free concert in the church of San Sebastiano, in largo San Sebastiano, the Augustinians' church rebuilt by Vanvitelli. The 2027 programme has not come out; in 2027 20 January is a Wednesday
This year's dates are not out yet
Christmas at the Royal Palace
from mid-December to Epiphany
the festive season at the Royal Palace: in 2025 the Ministry scheduled it from 14 December to 6 January, with the winter exhibition in the Great Gallery, the Gran Ballo a Corte, the court ball, on the evening of 20 December in the upper vestibule, at the top of the grand staircase, and concerts in the Palatine Chapel on 26 and 28 December. From 19 to 23 December, from 18:00 to 22:00, the Chamber of Commerce lit up the Enchanted Wood in the Giardini della Flora, with candlelight concerts in the first courtyard. The royal nativity scene, in the Apartments, can be seen all year. On 25 December and 1 January the Royal Palace is normally closed, but in recent years it has opened only the Apartments in the afternoon, with the Park closed. The 2026 programme had not come out by mid-October, and the 2025 one was published in December
Living nativity scene of the Vaccheria
between Christmas and Epiphany
the living nativity scene in the style of eighteenth century Naples, in the Bourbon hamlet of the Vaccheria, near San Leucio: a route of about two kilometres through the streets and the nearby wood, with the nativity scenes, costumes sewn with San Leucio fabrics and old looms that work. It starts from piazza Madonna delle Grazie, and it is organised by the Pro Loco Antico Borgo di Vaccheria in the late afternoon, usually on one weekend between Christmas and New Year and on one at Epiphany. The 2026 dates have not come out yet
Comunalia
from January to March
the Comune's winter season: free concerts, shows and talks in the city's churches, theatres and palazzi. In 2026 it ran from 5 January to 31 March, opening with a concert in the Cathedral. The 2027 programme has not come out yet
Settembre al Borgo
in September
the Casertavecchia festival, founded in 1971: theatre, cinema, music and art in piazza Vescovado, in the streets of the village, in the church of the Annunziata and in the gardens of the cathedral, almost all of it free. In 2026 it ran from 19 to 27 September; the dates change every year
Remember
Useful tips
The motorhome stays at the San Silvestro oasis, which the Royal Palace itself recommends: phone first, to book and to have the way explained, because the satnav gets it wrong. Those who want to walk to the Royal Palace sleep at Feudo San Martino, near the station
On Tuesdays the Royal Palace is closed: if you arrive on Monday evening you visit it on Wednesday. In winter you do the Park early in the morning, because in December the last entry is at 14:30, and the Apartments in the afternoon, without going out: with the same ticket you cannot go back in. Everything else is on the Royal Palace page
On the first Sunday of the month the Royal Palace is free, but the English Garden, the Court Theatre, the Great Gallery and the Vanvitelli and Amelio rooms stay closed and entry is by time slots: travellers do better to choose another day
Dogs are not allowed into the Royal Palace, except assistance dogs: if you travel with a dog, leave it in the motorhome
You do not drive up to Casertavecchia in the motorhome: the village is pedestrian, and a car park for motorhomes below the village is not shown anywhere. Go up on bus 05-UC from the station, on Sundays with the tourist circuit, or with the oasis shuttle
San Leucio in the morning: the Belvedere can only be visited in turns with the guide, and on Wednesday afternoons it is closed. The oasis stopover is half a kilometre away as the crow flies, and the shuttle takes you there
The motorhome area of Santa Maria Capua Vetere, near the Campanian Amphitheatre, has been closed for works since 3 June 2026, and the Comune has not said when it will reopen
Naples is a train ride away: regional trains leave from the same station opposite the Royal Palace, and Naples has its own page
The stuffed tomatoes in winter are made with greenhouse oxheart tomatoes, while the annurca apple is in season in winter; if you have no blender in the motorhome, chop the basil with a knife together with the oil. Mozzarella can be bought at any dairy shop, and instead of mozzarella the chef suggests buffalo ricotta, which is creamier
Caserta · part two
and then?
What to do, what to taste, and where to go tomorrow.
Experiences from here
What we did starting from here, ordered by driving time.
Caserta is the land of buffalo mozzarella: the consortium that protects the PDO has its seat in the stables of the Royal Palace, and it was the Bourbons, on the nearby estate of Carditello, who opened a dairy with a buffalo herd. Around the city, in the villages of the Terra di Lavoro, the annurca apple is grown: it is picked by hand and finishes reddening on the ground, in the melai, until mid-December, so in winter it is in season. The wines are Casavecchia, the red of Pontelatone, and Pallagrello, white and black, the wine that Ferdinand of Bourbon had served at court banquets and gave to his guests, which has gone back to growing in the San Silvestro Wood. At Christmas the pastry shops have the sweets of all Campania, mustaccioli, roccocò, susamielli and struffoli. In the motorhome you make tomatoes stuffed with mozzarella and annurca apple, in a frying pan.
drain the mozzarella, cut it into cubes and leave it to take on flavour for about half an hour in a bowl with the small leaves of thyme, marjoram and parsley
sauté it for a few minutes in a non-stick frying pan and leave it to rest in a bowl
meanwhile cut the cherry tomatoes, the fennel, the apples, the celery and the red onion into even cubes, and add them to the mozzarella
season with a pinch of salt, a grinding of pepper and a couple of tablespoons of oil
wash the oxheart tomatoes and hollow them out with a spoon, keeping the pulp aside for a sauce
fill them with the cubes of vegetables, apple and mozzarella
blend the basil leaves with a couple of tablespoons of oil and make a few circles of this cream on the bottom of the plate; set the tomatoes on top, with a few basil leaves and the fennel fronds on top of them, and serve them with a slice of bread dressed with oil
Distances and times by road, measured with OSRM on OpenStreetMap data.
Looking
Caserta in photographs
27 shots from our visit. Tap one to see it large.
Piazza Dante with the Christmas tree among the arcaded buildingsPhoto: MOs810, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0the avenue of Piazza Carlo di Borbone with bare trees and the Royal Palace at the endPhoto: MOs810, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0the arch of the War Memorial with the words Caserta ai suoi eroiPhoto: Codas, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0an AIR Campania city bus in front of the arcades of Piazza DantePhoto: MOs810, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0the statue of Luigi Vanvitelli in Piazza Vanvitelli, with his arm outstretchedPhoto: Marcok, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.5the apse of the Cathedral of San Michele Arcangelo with its coffered vault and poinsettias on the altarPhoto: Marco Del Torchio 95, Wikimedia Commons, CC0the early twentieth-century Post Office buildingPhoto: Codas, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the Bourbon entrance arch of San Leucio with the Belvedere at the endPhoto: Mel22, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the Palazzo del Belvedere of San Leucio at the top of the steps, in the eveningPhoto: Lucamato, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the courtyard of the Belvedere with the clock above the chapel of San FerdinandoPhoto: Mel22, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the bath in the royal apartments of the Belvedere, with its painted wallsPhoto: Mel22, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the terraced gardens of San Leucio with Vesuvius in the backgroundPhoto: Mel22, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the steps between hedges and statues leading up to the Bourbon Farm, in the Bosco di San SilvestroPhoto: Gianmaria95, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0the plain of Caserta seen from the hill of CasertavecchiaPhoto: Miguel Hermoso Cuesta, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0Via Annunziata in Casertavecchia, paved with stone, with the cathedral bell tower at the endPhoto: Valerio2468, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the facade of the Casertavecchia cathedral and the bell tower with its arch over the streetPhoto: Velvet, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0the crossing tower of the Casertavecchia cathedral with its interlaced arches of two-coloured stonePhoto: Mongolo1984, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the nave of the Casertavecchia cathedral between the reused ancient columnsPhoto: Velvet, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0the pulpit of the Casertavecchia cathedral with its mosaic inlaysPhoto: Mentnafunangann, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the cathedral bell tower lit up in the evening, at the end of an alley of CasertavecchiaPhoto: McMatteo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the cathedral square of Casertavecchia lit up in the eveningPhoto: Kris De Curtis, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0the Gothic facade of the church of the Annunziata with its Baroque doorway, among the houses of CasertavecchiaPhoto: Mongolo1984, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the little church of San Rocco in Casertavecchia, with its bell gablePhoto: Marcok, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.5the walls of the castle of Casertavecchia with their mullioned windowsPhoto: Mentnafunangann, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the round keep of the castle of Casertavecchia and the eastern curtain wallPhoto: MuMiCaserta, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the three tiers of arches of the Ponti della Valle, Vanvitelli's aqueduct in the Maddaloni valleyPhoto: Kris De Curtis, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0the passage beneath the arches of the Ponti della Valle, one arch after anotherPhoto: Josephine Schneider, U.S. Navy, Wikimedia Commons, pubblico dominio
