Archeological Tours Archivi

Pompeii Tour

Everybody in the world knows Pompeii.Videos, films, articles tell all details of the day that the eruption of Volcano Vesuvio took away thousand of people’s life away.

Today the ghostly ruins of ancient Pompeii (Pompei in Italian) make for one of the world’s most engrossing archaeological experiences.

Much of the site’s value lies in the fact that the town wasn’t simply blown away by Vesuvius in AD 79 but buried under a layer of lapilli (burning fragments of pumice stone). The result is a remarkably well-preserved slice of ancient life, where we can walk down Roman streets and snoop around millennia-old houses, temples, shops, cafes, amphitheatres, and even a brothel.

Tour Lenght:2/3 hours

You can visit Pompeii while staying on the Amalfi Coast. I can arrange a transfer with a minivan that picks you up at your hotel. If you are staying in Sorrento, you can catch a train that will take you there. The good thing is that the train station lets you off right in front of the entrance to the archeological park.

If you are in Rome, we can catch the train to Naples (1 hour) then we can either transfer to a local train that will take us to Pompeii or rent a minivan with driver to take us there.

If you are in Rome and you are going to the Amalfi Coast, I can arrange for a minivan with driver to pick you up at the hotel or apartment in Rome, take you to Pompeii and wait while you visit, then take you to your final destination on the Amalfi Coast

Alago, Polycarbon, Patricio Lorente, Loris Silvio Zecchinato, Wolfgang Rieger, Pompejanischer Maler um 60 v. Chr., Marcus Cyron, Wikimedia Commons

The most important of the Roman roads, it was built in 312 b.c. by Appius Claudius.

Running from Rome to southern Italy, the road is still paved with big blocks of basalt (grey volcanic stone) and in use today. It has also been used for the first few miles as pagan and christian burial grounds. The early Christians, for example, built along it their underground cemeteries (catacombs).

The tour starts near the San Sebastiano gate, one of the 18gates of the Roman city walls and still well preserved. Then, we visit the Saint Callistus Catacombs, which were an object of pilgrimage from the Middle Ages to modern times. Here the bones of Saint Peter and Saint Paul were kept during 3rd century persecution. The catacombs are a complicated network of galleries flanked by hundreds of tombs.

Returning to Via Appia, a little farther along the road, we find the Circus of Emperor Maxentius and the temple of Romulus (his son), both built in the 4th century a.c. Beyond them is one of the famous landmarks of the Roman Countryside, the Mausoleum of Cecilia Metella. It is a magnificent tomb of a patrician lady who died in the first century a.c. Then, we continue on foot (only pedestrians or bikes allowed). For the next mile the road is lined with cypresses and flanked by the ruins of ancient Roman tombs.

The landscape is wonderful… Don’t come to Rome and miss the views that you will find here along this road… Come and discover it.