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Pompeii, Italy

Ruins of Pompeii from above, with Vesuvius in the background. Pompeii, Italy. Photo: ElfQrin/Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Pompeii was an ancient Roman town-city near modern Naples, in the Campania region of Italy, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area, was mostly destroyed and buried under 4 to 6 m (13 to 20 ft) of volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

Researchers believe that the town was founded in the seventh or sixth century BC by the Osci or Oscans. It came under the domination of Rome in the 4th century BC, and was conquered and became a Roman colony in 80 BC after it joined an unsuccessful rebellion against the Roman Republic. By the time of its destruction, 160 years later, its population was estimated at 11,000 people, and the city had a complex water system, an amphitheatre, gymnasium, and a port.

The eruption destroyed the city, killing its inhabitants and burying it under tons of ash. Evidence for the destruction originally came from a surviving letter by Pliny the Younger, who saw the eruption from a distance and described the death of his uncle Pliny the Elder, an admiral of the Roman fleet, who tried to rescue citizens.

The site was lost for about 1,500 years until its initial rediscovery in 1599 and broader rediscovery almost 150 years later by Spanish engineer Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre in 1748. The objects that lay beneath the city have been preserved for more than a millennium because of the lack of air and moisture.

These artefacts provide an extraordinarily detailed insight into the life of a city during the Pax Romana. During the excavation, plaster was used to fill in the voids in the ash layers that once held human bodies. This allowed archaeologists to see the exact position the person was in when he or she died.

Pompeii has been a tourist destination for over 250 years. Today it has UNESCO World Heritage Site status and is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Italy, with approximately 2.5 million visitors every year.

Tourism

Pompeii has been a popular tourist destination for over 250 years; it was on the Grand Tour. By 2008, it was attracting almost 2.6 million visitors per year, making it one of the most popular tourist sites in Italy. It is part of a larger Vesuvius National Park and was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1997.

To combat problems associated with tourism, the governing body for Pompeii, the Soprintendenza Archaeological di Pompei have begun issuing new tickets that allow for tourists to also visit cities such as Herculaneum and Stabiae as well as the Villa Poppaea, to encourage visitors to see these sites and reduce pressure on Pompeii.

A paved street. Pedestrians used the blocks in the road to cross the street without having to step onto the road, which doubled up as Pompeii's drainage and sewage disposal system. The spaces between the blocks let vehicles pass along the road.

Pompeii is also a driving force behind the economy of the nearby town of Pompei. Many residents are employed in the tourism and hospitality business, serving as taxi or bus drivers, waiters or hotel operators. The ruins can be easily reached on foot from the Circumvesuviana train stop called Pompei Scavi, directly at the ancient site. There are also car parks nearby.

Excavations in the site have generally ceased due to the moratorium imposed by the superintendent of the site, Professor Pietro Giovanni Guzzo. Additionally, the site is generally less accessible to tourists, with less than a third of all buildings open in the 1960s being available for public viewing today. Nevertheless, the sections of the ancient city open to the public are extensive, and tourists can spend several days exploring the whole site.

Tickets

One-day tickets are €13 per adult; €6,50 for EU citizens between 18 - 24 and school teachers; EU citizens below 18 get in for free (valid proving age document needed - a photo of the document is usually acceptable - but most travellers will have photos of the group they are travelling with). A five-site pass costs €22. This includes Herculaneum and is valid for 3 days.

As entrance to Herculaneum is also €11, buying this ticket saves you €2 even if you visit Pompeii and only Herculaneum and none of the other sites. However Pomeii is a huge place, if you want to discover it with the audio guide it can easily take one full day. The "Campania ArteCard", which costs €30 offers free admission to numerous sites in the region if you are planning to be in Campania for several days.

The site is open daily from 8:30 to 19:30 (November to March from 8:30 to 17:00) and the last ticket is sold 90 minutes before closing. It is closed on 1st January, 1st May, and 25th December. The first Sunday of the month, Entrance is Free (started in August 2014). Telephone: 081-857-5347.

Audioguides are available only at the official entrance for €8, €13 for two (as of January 2017), ID is required. You have to return them by 17:00 to the same place you got them from. They are not available at the secondary Eastern entrance by the Ampitheatre - which is the entrance nearest the modern day town centre if you are walking.

Unofficial audio guides are on offer at one of the market stalls near this entrance (or at the train station InfoPoint). They will be offering a free map, which upon accepting, draws you into an opportunity to sell you the €5 audioguide. The standard sell will be that there are minimal markings, numbers, and signs of explanation inside. These are all false.

However, as stated in the previous paragraph, there are no official audioguides in the nearby ampitheatre entrance, so this traveler suggests getting an unofficial one from the stalls if you do not want to walk all the way around to the other entrance. There are ample signs and numbers inside the site however, and many guides leading groups around that you can eavesdrop onto.

The ampitheatre entrance also provides a map with each ticket, which the other entrance may not provide (on account of tourists that entered through the other entrance asking where my Red map came from).

Take note that audioguide maps are not the same and the official audioguide comes with more audio points of interest. It's a good idea to check out both options before deciding. Pompeii may take several hours to explore so make sure to ask about the audioguide battery life before your purchase.

Tour guides also cluster near the entrance and offer their services. It's a good idea to talk to one for a couple of minutes before deciding, to make sure you can understand their accent when they speak English. You can join a tour group with the train station InfoPoint for €12 (not including entrance fee) or €10 at the official entrance.

See

• Amphitheatre (Anfiteatro). This is in the most easterly corner of the excavated area, near the Sarno Gate entrance. It was completed in 80 BC, measures 135 x 104 metres and could hold about 20,000 people. It is the earliest surviving permanent amphitheatre in Italy and one of the best preserved anywhere. It was used for gladiator battles, other sports and spectacles involving wild animals.

• Great Palaestra (Gymnasium). This occupies a large area opposite the Amphitheatre. The central area was used for sporting activities and there was a pool in the middle. On three sides are lengthy internal porticos or colonnades.

• House of the Vettii (Casa dei Vettii). This is believed to have been the home of two brothers who were freed slaves and became very affluent. It contains many frescoes. In the vestibule there is a striking fresco of a well-endowed Priapus, God of Fertility and among the frescos in other parts of the building are illustrations of couples making love, of cupids and of mythological characters.

• House of the Faun (Casa del Fauno). This is named after a statue of a dancing faun found on the site. It is considered to be an excellent example of the fusion of Italian and Greek architectural styles, and occupies an entire block.

• Forum. This was the center of public life, although it is now in the southwestern part of the excavated area. It was surrounded by many of the important government, religious and business buildings.

• Temple of Apollo. This is to the north of the Basilica on the western side of the Forum. It has the oldest remains discovered, with some, including Etruscan items, dating back to 575BC, although the layout we see now was later than that.

• Theatre. Theatre built in the hollow of a hill for acoustic advantage; it seated 5,000.

• Via dei Sepolcri (Street of Tombs). A long street with worn ruts from carts.

• Lupanar. An ancient brothel with pornographic frescoes over the entrance to each room, presumably indicating the services on offer. Even allowing for the smaller size of ancient Romans the beds seem rather small.

• House of the Ancient Hunt. Attractive, open-style house with many frescoes of hunting scenes.

• Basilica. This is to the west of the Forum. It was the most important public building of the city where both justice was administered and trade was carried on.

• Forum Granary. Artifacts like amphorae (storage jars) and plaster casts of people who did not escape the eruption are stored in this building, which was designed to be the public market but may not have been finished before the eruption.

• Baths. There are several baths to be inspected. The Forum Baths are just north of the forum and close to the restaurant. They are well-preserved and roofed. Be careful not to miss them as the entranceway is a long passage with no indication of the delights inside. The Central Baths occupy a much larger area but are less well-preserved. Close to these are the Stabian baths which have some interesting decorations and give a good idea of how baths used to function in Roman times.

• House of the Tragic Poet (Casa del Poeta Tragico). This small atrium house is best known for the mosaic at the entrance depicting a chained dog, with the words Cave Canem or "Beware of the Dog".

Other things to look for when walking around are:

• The Ground surface You will see in the ground there are small tiles called cat's eyes. The moon’s light or candle light reflects off these tiles and gave light, so people could see where they were walking at night.

• Bars and Bakeries You will walk past where their bars and bakeries once existed. The bars had counters with three to four holes in them. They had water or other beverages available in the holes. The bakeries’ ovens look similar to the old brick stone oven. The House of the Baker has a garden area with millstones of lava stone used for grinding the wheat.

• Street There are tracks for the carriages in the street for a smoother ride. There are also stone blocks in the street for pedestrians to step onto to cross the street. The sidewalks are higher than the modern sidewalk because the streets had water and waste flowing through them. The stone blocks in the street were also as high as the sidewalk, so people did not walk in the waste and water.

• Plaster Casts The majority of the inhabitants of the ancient Pompeii died during the eruption and their corpses were entirely buried by hot ashes raining from the sky. In 1870, Giuseppe Fiorelli used a technique based on filling the empty spaces where the corpses had decomposed with liquid plaster in order to produce perfect casts of the victims of the eruption. Once the plaster had hardened, the surrounding soil was removed and the mould was brought to light.

This technique was used to produce a number of casts of human bodies, animals and objects. At the Antiquarium of Boscopreale is also exposed the cast in epoxy resin made in 1984 of one of the victims found in the Villa di Lucius Crassius Tertius at Oplontis. The transparent cast allows viewers to spot jewels and objects that the victims brought with them.

Outside of the city walls:

• Villa dei Misteri (Villa of the Mysteries). A house with curious frescoes, perhaps of women being initiated into the Cult of Dionysus. Contains one of the finest fresco cycles in Italy, as well as humorous ancient graffiti.

In the modern town of Pompei:

• Sanctuary. A church which is a place of pilgrimage for Roman Catholics. For others, it is not a must-see, but should you arrive or leave via the Pompei Santuario station on the Circumvesuviana, rather than Pompei Scavi, you may find it worth at least a brief look inside at this place of veneration of the Virgin Mary.

Do

• Plan your visit beforehand on Google Maps or Google Earth, or re-live it afterwards. Streetview coverage exists for part of the city and there are 3D models of many of the buildings. Bing Maps also provides fairly detailed oblique views of the city.

• Buy a guidebook. Get the official guide from the site bookshop next to the ticket office. Lots of guides and maps are available, but this one neatly combines the two.

• Also visit the National Museum in Naples where most of the best preserved mosaics and found items from Pompeii are kept.

• Also visit the sister site Herculaneum, which is only one Circumvesuviana stop apart and suffered a similar fate to Pompeii. Though it is a smaller site it was covered by a pyroclastic surge (instead of the ash and lapilli that covered Pompeii). This allowed some second storeys to survive.

• Have a look at random villas, as sometimes even small side rooms have amazing frescoes (wall paintings).

• Don't miss the "Garden of the Fugitives" at the south-east side where plaster casts of several victims (sadly, including children) are on display where they originally fell. The plants in this garden have been reconstructed to match ancient growth, based on the study of plaster casts of plant roots.

• Walk outside the City Gates to the Villa of the Mysteries, one of the greatest houses to come down to us from the ancient world. Even on a very hot day, it is worth the walk.

• Put a big memory card in your camera. There are many hundreds of photo opportunities in this site.

Eat and Drink

• On the way from the station to the official entrance loads of shops try to sell stuff for very expensive prices but the food is not outstanding. Drinks, especially the freshly pressed orange and lemon juices, however, are fantastic especially in the heat, though slightly pricey (€ 3.00 for a glass)

• You can get a very good panino (filled bread roll) from some of the stands. The one at the end near the Porta Marina has fantastic ones.

• There is a café and restaurant in the excavation area, just north of the Forum. Not surprisingly, this is rather expensive and not particularly good. Nonetheless, it is an OK place to take a break and recuperate, particularly with its air conditioning. If you don't have time for a rest you can grab a €3 ice cream from a service window that faces the street. The restaurant has toilets, seemingly the only ones on the site.

• Remember to take enough water to drink as it gets quite hot in the dusty streets. Keep your empty bottles for refilling as there are occasional water taps around the site dispensing rather odd-smelling water that, however, seems to be drinkable.

• Lemon and Orange granita bought from outside the site are a tasty way to cool down.

Stay safe

Mt. Vesuvius is an active volcano and can erupt at any time. Scientists have devised a system to detect impending eruptions, though, so feel free to browse Pompeii's ruins without fear of falling ash and lapilli (pumice)! It's more likely that you should be trying to protect yourself from pickpockets. The site attracts a huge array of international visitors every day, and this money attracts some thieves, so keep your valuables protected, particularly near the entrances and the train station.

If you come by car, be aware not to park at the parking place near the entrance to the archaeological site. It is a tourist trap! Though there is no price displayed at the entrance of the parking, you'll be surprised when finding out that it costs €2 per hour when trying to leave, and you cannot leave unless you pay.

This means that if your visit to Pompeii lasts a whole day (which a site like this certainly deserves) you may end up paying as much as €20 or more. There are much cheaper parking places just a few hundred meters down the hill in the town, and if you stay at one of Pompeii's hotels they normally offer free parking at one of these. (Wikipedia/Wikivoyage)

Go next

• Go by train to Naples.

• Visit the sister site of Herculaneum.

• Head over to the underwater Archaeological Park of Baiae.

• Take a trip to the Amalfi Coast.

• Take a boat from Naples or Sorrento to the island of Capri.

• Buses leave for Mt. Vesuvius from the site (8/day, every half hour 9:30-10:30 and every hour starting at 11:25, takes 1 hour).

• Go by Circumvesuviana local train to the Antiquarium of Boscoreale, a pretty museum displaying every day life objects discovered in the Vesuvian archaeological sites.

• Go by Circumvesuviana local train to Oplontis.

• Go by Circumvesuviana local train to Stabiae.

The Temple of Jupiter with Vesuvius in the distance. Pompeii, Italy.