Former Confederate general and Kentucky U.S. Senator John Stuart Williams and his partner, Louisville businessman Walter N. Haldeman, the publisher of the Louisville Courier-Journal, founded Naples during the late 1880s.  The city got its name from developers who advertised it in the north as to have "a bay comparable to that of Naples (Italy)".  Today, Naples enjoyes unparalleled prosperity.  And the area's unrivaled sport fishing, hunting, boating, sun bathing and beach coming attract people today just as it did a century ago.

Naples is the home to several different preservation reserves, including the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge, and Picayune Strand State Forest.

Activities Abound


Naples is proud to boast the 5th Avenue South and 3rd Street South shopping districts, which feature a variety of antique shops. Gallery Row is a concentration among the numerous art galleries spread throughout the downtown area. The Village on Venetian Bay is an upscale open-air shopping district on the Gulf coast.