Trip Report - Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Vesuvius - 4 days

NickK

NickK

NickK

Caporegime
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Intro
This was on my bucket list for a while, and before we get too old and unfit, it seemed a good idea to make a long weekend flying out early Friday and flying back Monday with the intent to see all three as the priority rather than beach time or glammed up. So we looked to sacrifice some of the comforts for ease of access but I'll put in some details around this whilst it's fresh in my mind.
I'll split this into two posts - one for the preamble and hotels, the other being in the tours and the sites themselves.

Foreword about weather
The temperatures were in the 28-30degC during the day at 87%+ humidity, 18degC at night with strong sun without clouds during the day. Factor 50 and 30 suntan lotion during the day as well as ensuring you have a water bottle (I took a metal canteen style). I can't stress the need to carry water and plan for a day and evening set of clothes as everything will be drenched in sweat. I found the tap water from the hotel safe to drink (I'm quite well travelled so perhaps less prone), also the public drinking water fountains in Pompeii site were fine for refilling (they replaced the lead pipes).

Hotels and locations to stay
We elected initially to stay at the Sanctury Rooms - simply a room with nothing else that's at the opposite end of the Pompeii highstreet (30mins from the ruins). However booking.com stated they had a manned reception, etc, as it progressed it we got an automated message direct from the room owner that they needed the time of our arrival so they could meet us. We gave the time in the afternoon - idea being we arrive, cache our luggage at a local hotel using RadicalStorage (at the Zeus hotel right next to the rail station), do Pompeii, retrieve the luggage, then checkin. We arrived hot and exhausted, no sign of the owner or even a sign on the door. It's an apartment block and we got let in by a resident coming out who knew nothing about sanctuary rooms. We got to the 4th floor and sure enough there's a locked door, a video door bell and number lock plus a sign on the wall. No people. Rang the bell no answer, repeatedly, no answer, banged on the door no answer. Looked for a phone number in the communications - no phone number. Looked on Booking.com and a phone number - called that twice but both time someone at the other end cancelled the call without picking up. The wife had no reception and my phone's battery was at 7%.
So we had no way of communicating with the owner. The information on the booking.com site is wrong, the communications leading up to that contradict. Only option is to then leave this to the insurance and book somewhere else in the last 7%. So we decided to book at the Vittoria just on the piazza square. Expensive but a fully featured hotel. We arrived looking like a sorry state but the lady at the desk upgraded us to one of their rooftop suites.
Let me introduce you to the rooftop suite
* bathroom - full sized rain shower, loo, bedet, massive mirror and sink.
* bay one - daybed/pull out bed, cupboards and a little library
* bay two - full jumbo king sized bed, fully digital aircon that's quiet and very effective.
* outdoor private terrace facing the ruins, with outdoor shower and jacuzzi, sun loungers, flowers and lemons growing.
The hotel has a two communal roof terraces too, and the Cerrini Cameo gallery (posh jewellery shop) underneath owned by the same owner as the hotel to which you can get 20% off for being a hotel guest. For us this seemed a great spot - the hotel is located very close to the trip starting points we had planned. Once booked in .. we found that the scantuary rooms sent a communication at 1600 about checking in.. too late.. we'll leave that to the insurance.
Word of warning - Pompeii is a commuter town driven by the Ruins, a bustle between 0800-1730 but after that virtually all the restaurants and shops close up - this is the same for the highstreet which was bustling on the Sunday morning with locals. That was fine for us as we'd have a large breakfast at the hotel and we'd grab something at one of the local restaurants that was open. The front desk advised a couple of restaurants - Mati further into town, or Shaval across the street. There's a weird thing that the restaurants make their money in parking at the same time.. so they look like an NCP carpark with a restaurant attached. Turns out the Shaval was decent and included the option for 800-900g steaks at €60-80 but also dishes around €20. Food generally ok, but it's not in the same league perhaps as by the coast such as Sorrento. If you're wanting a lunch - The Suisse is a decent spot to eat in the piazza, and the pizzas are great (they even do lactose intolerant/gluten free).

If you want a trip where you see the sites, it's possible to stay in Sorrento and then day tour. You can see those tours as they get frog marched around the piazza. If we were doing a longer trip we would look at Sorrento and then bus/train in. It will give you more todo/eat options outside of the core ruins hours.

Important point - there is an uphill walk between the piazza and the Porta Marina ruin entrance/train station/some meeting points, however there's other entrances too. Many of the coaches/tour busses drop in the piazza. Consider this if you find walking difficult.

Travel
Taxis are hideously expensive - so too are the private transfers. We didn't decide on the taxi angle but instead looked at the train and bus which are both cheap, plentiful and (for italy) on time from experience.
There's a main travel conduit of road and rail between Naples and all the way down the coast to Sorento:
* We arranged a bus from the airpot bus terminal (just outside the terminal gates to the left) where a number of major companies operate coaches. They don't drop you at your hotel but at the bus stop near the piazza square. Those coaches go through into Sorrento too. The nice thing is they're a little more relaxing than the train.
* Options here is to get the cheap Alibus from the airport to Naples "Central" train station, then drop down two levers to get the commuter train "Circumvesuviana", or the faster direct train "Campania Express". This train links Naples, Pompeii (stops outside of the ruins entrance) and Sorento. Herculaneum stops are infrequent after the immediate commuter with 3-4 hours between and the stop for Herculaneum is on the top of a hill with a 10 minute walk. In short you can get back and forth with just the train, missing the traffic jams but from Sorrento you have about 1h-1h20 trip time.

For our tours we based our start/end points from the piazza:
* by foot to the porta marina entrance for pompeii tour
* by foot in the piazza for the Herculaneum transfer bus (as part of the tour)
* by foot to the porta marina entrance for meeting up for the Vesuvius tour.

Tours and tour operators

We pre-booked with Asktours for the Pompeii Archeologist 2 hour tour, Friday afternoon
We pre-booked with Asktours for the Vesuvius trek with tour guide 3 hour tour (transfer bus then trek), Sunday afternoon.
We pre-booked with InStazione for the Herculaneum tour with a transfer bus between Pompeii, Saturday.

I'm impressed with Asktours as there always an Asktours representative there to help. If you arrived at the meet location there was always an organiser or assistance in working out any issue. InStazione has a box on the piazza but we found arriving in herculaneum that it was a little disorganised/disjunct. What happed is Instazione contacted to suggest upgrading to a (person) guided tour. We did but the original meeting point was 1330, transfer dropped us off at Herculaneum just before 1400 but failed to mention we'd be waiting around till 1430 outside for the start of the tour.. which confused no end, and without the representative waiting.. it was sending the French sensitivities of the wife up the wall.. especially with the Herculaneum-site hospitality woman rolling her eyes and literally wandering off whilst she was talking to her. Not all bad - we had a look around the site shop before the tour.

So I would recommend Asktours who were both organised and very approachable/communicative. Whereas InStazione is a little more disorganised and distant.

Can you do Pompeii and Herculaneum (and possibly vesuvius) in one day?
Overall you can spend as much or as little time as you want. However those trips are usually fast with about an hour in each location. It took 20mins between pompeii and herculaneum, and about 40mins between Pompeii and Vesuvius. So don't underestimate the amount of time travelling. Some of the tour group did Pompeii in the morning before arriving at herculaneum in the afternoon. That's a long day in the heat. You'll want some food between so if you have a quick lunch in the itinerary that's going to take a period too.. I personally would opt for doing two days if you want to fully explore. Pompeii extended over a day with time to see everything (including the external villas), then herculaneum morning and Vesuvius in the pm of the second day.
 
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Just a note about hiking poles - you will refused entry and asked to leave your poles if they have metal spikes without the rubber pads on at the entrance. I saw people with crutches, and one x-country wheelchair user having difficulty in Pompeii - in both places there can be over a foot (more a foreleg) distance between the stone path and the cobbled road surface. People helped the wheelchair user :)

I'm not going to spoil it for anyone going..

Tour - Pompeii
The Pompeii site is large, with lots of little places that you either know about or can miss. So it's worth taking guide then doing some solo wandering. It's on a hill side so expect up and down.. especially from the porta Marina entrance (ie the old sea level) where you have to walk up a slippy path to enter and leave. Alternative entrances are there and you don't have this problem - the amphitheatre is near another entrance and there's one in the piazza too that gets lots of lines early in the morning..

We took a 2 hour archaeologist trip, and meeting up at the entrance a number of tour representatives were around - we even managed to shift our booked tour forwards. Overall our asktours guide was really good - very humous (avoiding the obvious traps of jokes) but had detail in the historic information. Worth opting for that addition.

A key point about Pompeii is you'll be wandering around some very uneven stone that's both slippery due to wear polishing and uneven due to the blocks and even earthquake movement so a minimum of trainers would be recommended. I saw people wandering around in roman sandals, and crocs.. I've also seen people with a lot of blister plasters. The heat and humidity makes for sweaty feet so any rubbing is going to get worse quickly. Trainers with mesh top were fine.
I would highly recommend taking a water bottle, you can refill at the public fountains that are scattered around (in the original fountains but the lead pipe is replaced with modern pipe). If you take a map the start or print one out from the site - you can see they're marked.
The guide took us around for about 2 hours, including through the history of the eruption and Pompeii itself, and through the ruins and houses etc. The three hour tour covered the two villas outside of the Pompeii walls that have yet more frescos etc. We visited temples, the forum, bakers, meet markets, fast food shops etc including the notable dodgy house (that's the one with the penises) and one that had a hidden brothel room (rather than the brothel itself). What you see is a hive of activity, one that's different to herculaneum, that feels dirtier, more raw and busy. The guides attempt to install a little respect for the site - not sitting on the seats in the bathhouses, and not standing on the marble of the of fountains in the houses etc but you'll see people standing in the old fountain taking pictures.. completely oblivious and not respecting the site. There's portions of the city that they have left buried to prevent damage, and there's enough there for everyone to get a good feel. They even have cart potholes! You start seeing the very formulaic layout of roman houses and understand why. We didn't cover the two outside villas, the necropolis, the theatres or amphitheatre with the guide.
So after that we wandered off - we wanted to see the amphitheatre which is a 20 minute walk from the forum, and along the way look at the theatres etc. Pompeii is quite easy laid out with a main street that's both easy to find and use to navigate. It's does become more bumpy and the further away from the forum, we look in on the two theatres - the larger was setup for a show so wasn't open to the public but you could see the theatre, it's big, and the second smaller theatre you could see and get to. It's not immediately obvious but you can walk down the ramp of the amphitheatre into the centre and get a feeling for the gladiators.. "for those about to die, we salute you".. was heard more than once :D

I'd probably recommend 3 hours with the tour of the villas that are walking distance outside of the Pompeii walls, you can then wander back and spend an hour or two simply looking around but it's worth making researching what you want to see and putting that on the map before you go. There's a number of tickets - the "Pompeii plus" option covers those two villas at pomeii outside of the walls you can walk to. The standard ticket simply covers the main Pompeii. There's also tickets for going to the other villa sites around Pompeii that include a transfer mini-bus service between the sites.
Hence working out times, transfer times etc, are good ahead of time.

Tour - Herculaneum

So the obvious question - if you've seen Pompeii, should I see Herculaneum? Yes. Pompeii is like the gritty, dirty, seedy city, whereas Herculaneum is the coastal retreat for the Rome Elite and rich, smaller and more exclusive with less seediness. Even now it has a different feel.. same point about accessibility/water etc apply.

The Herculaneum site is smaller, however unlike Pompeii that was covered by 5+ meters of pumice and pyroclastic flows, the Herculaneum site was repeatedly hit by small amounts of pumice (20-30cm) then massive mud sides and pyroclastic flows repeatedly. The result is the site was hermetically sealed in 25 meters of mud - you descend into the site from the present day surface which is on top of the eruption mud. That means better preservation - including wood!

The guide was excellent (they're independent from the tour operators) and for two hours took us around the place. The skeletons in the boat sheds meet you immediately.. the roads feel like a seaside town, the eruption extended the shoreline in addition to burying everything including other towns. So now the sea front sits quite far away. You'll start seeing some familiar house layout .. but supersized with original wood interiors and even dividing doors and beds! I think the "beware of the dog" mosaic and to remind people to tie up their dogs outside. The frescos are higher quality and better preserved.

There's a small museum that's worth seeing for the wooden objects, jewellery, frescos, and statues etc. It doesn't take long to look around but it's worth it.

Tour - Versuvius

Why would I go up 1200m to the near top of a vulcano? Well you get a little more knowledge with a guide and a 10 minute vulcanologist, you will learn more about the effect out that the different eruptions had. Learning more about how the volcano erupted and how that effected out into area. Pompeii is 10+km away.. and it got covered in 5+meters of rock.
The volcano today is 1/2 the vertical size, and also its base is narrower (the cone you see today has the old outer edge 'somma' and the new cone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Vesuvius) . The explosive eruptions sent the material up into the 21+ miles up into air, which then return to earth creating the pyroclastic flows. The blasts took the majority of the mountain cone with it, with the side collapsing and mud from the pyroclastic flows flowing out to Herculaneum. The wind carried the plume towards Pompeii, along with the pyroclastic flows. It wasn't one but a number of blasts
Additionally the emptying of magma chambers under Napoli's bay created great movement of the sea floor creating massive waves preventing people from leaving by boat..

You get a lift in the bus up to the base camp however you then have to hike the remaining 140m in elevation up 14% gradient paths for around 4km. Without cover, although it cools due to altitude a little. Porta loos exist at the base camp but there's a shop at the end of the ascent and along the rim. Ground is loose pumice so wear at minimum trainers and hiking sticks if you need more stability. The ground does give way as you descend making slips a danger.
You'll be miffed at this point if you witness the park staff drive past you in their 4x4 panda..

You can see Pompeii from one side and from the other you can see Herculaneum, you can see the bays and all the way to Sorrento, Capri, and across the Naples bay to the other volcanos (which sit above the magma chamber). You can even try the wine that they grow on the slopes (I did).

The rough idea of volume of ash and pumice ejected was 9 cubic km (of that 4 cubic km was rock and magma blasted out). Today's central cone is just 2-3 cubic km. Just to put that ejected mass in a visual form, I asked AI what that would representative of:
  • A Blanket Over London: If you spread all 9 cubic kilometers evenly across the entire Greater London area, the entire city would be buried under 5.7 meters (18.7 feet) of debris.
  • A Blanket Over Manhattan: If you dropped this material onto Manhattan island, it would create a solid skyscraper of ash 150 meters (492 feet) tall—roughly the height of a 40-storey building covering every single street and block.
 
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Pompeii was a great visit. I went back in around 2010. It's surreal standing on a street corner with the worn stones from where the carts went around the corner.

My stand out memory randomly is whilst stood ourside a row of shops (probably) waiting for other members of my party I watched 4 different tour groups come past and talk about what I was stood next to. No stories told were the same and each guide had their own interpretaion of what signs were for and what might have gone down on the premises. I found that quite amusing.

Versuvius was great as well. We got the public bus up and at the time it made a (forced) stop part way up at a shop which was at the location of the old cable car which got destroyed in a previous eruption. There was an older owner dude there telling his story. Don't know if that is still a thing.
 
The cable car kept getting destroyed so they've not bothered to rebuild it even now. However there is supposedly an electric bike track up - from what I thought this goes up to the top via a different route to the foot trek but then arrives at the top - I didn't see any bikes when I was there so I'm not sure if you bike all the way up to the crater rim or walk part way.

It wouldn't surprise me there's some variation. Even now how people died is being rewritten by university research.
 
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We did this trip about 11 yrs ago with a5yr old and a 3yr old.
We loved it, we stayed in napoli, ischia and amalfi. We got around everywhere by public transport (trains) foot and boat.
If you like roman history the amphitheatre flavio nerionio in pozzuouli is really cool. We had the whole place to ourselves. Catacombs under napoli were also cool.
 
We stayed in Sorrento in 2012 and caught the train to Vesuvius, Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Also went to Napoli and Rome on the train.
We also stopped at a Station where there was a very steep cable car going up the side of a mountain - Funivia Del Faito.
 
I'd agree the train, bus and foot is relatively easy. Just remember not every train stops at Herculaneum and it can be quite a long time (4 hours) between them. Plan ahead for that.

I did Rome many moons ago on a company sales kick off. One of the group used to live there so too everyone around. I remember having Octopus and lemon - delicious!
 
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I'm going in October but on a cruise excursion so it's going to be pitifully short. We opted for a guided tour at both but what can you expect from 7h. :(

At least it will wet the whistle to go back properly.
 
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