A few weeks ago I went to visit Pompeii. I honestly wasn’t very prepared, but it helped me learn a lot. Now I’m able to tell you exactly everything you need to know when visiting Pompeii, so you can have a better experience than I did!
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First of all, what is Pompeii famous for?
Pompeii was a village close to Mount Vesuvius, an (to this day still) active volcano. In 79CE it erupted and covered the entire town with up to 6 meters of thick ash, killing over 10,000 people.
My first thought was, why would people live that close to an active volcano? The lava is very fertile, so crops thrived there. For them it was more useful than scary.
If you’ve ever seen a video of a volcano erupting, you know how fast things happen and how fast the lava can be. There was no chance for these people to run. Many people were found hugging each other. This honestly almost got me in tears.
Fun fact: there was a guy found who looked like he died while pleasuring himself. This is not a confirmed fact, but it’s a funny thought. Might as well when you know you’re going to die in a few moments, right?
Nowadays Pompeii is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with millions of visitors every year.
Where is Pompeii located?
Pompeii is located near Napels in the Campania region of Italy.
You can easily reach the Pompeii site by car, train, bus or metro from Napels or Sorrento. We stayed at a camping in the town Pompeii.
You can read about all the ways to get from Napels to Pompeii here.
Read more: 5 Things You Need To Know When Driving In Italy
Things you have to know before visiting pompeii
Something I didn’t know when I was visiting Pompeii was how big it really is. How long does visiting Pompeii take, you ask? Come to find out you need several days to really see everything, and they haven’t even dug up everything!
If you’re really want to visit everything that’s important, I recommend getting a guide. You can get an audio guide or an actual guide. Even though the audio guide is cheaper, I wouldn’t recommend this one, because you could get the information you wanted from the signs. An actual guide is a better investment. You get personalized stories and you’re able to ask questions during your tour.
If you’re visiting by yourself, I recommend you getting your tickets at least a day before.
Keep in mind, when you buy the ticket online, you still have to get in a line for online tickets to get your physical ticket, but this line is shorter than the line to buy the tickets.
The earlier you’re there, the better. We got there around 9am, when the site opened and there was only a very small queue. This was also beneficial when walking around. You can get much more ahead and stay ahead of most tourists. Perfect for better pictures and overall stress free walking.
Bring enough water and food. I wish I knew this before! We ended up running around, trying to find some water for over an hour in the hot sun, because the signs were very confusing and sometimes led to places that were closed due to maintenance or didn’t exist yet.
There is a small restaurant near the Forum, but expect it to be packed with tourists. There are some taps next to the paths where you can fill up your water bottle.
Where to park? There is no official parking site, but there is several parking spaces close to the site entrances. They are privately owned. Most of them are right next to each other, so I suggest you just pick one. Be prepared for some higher costs. As these parkings are all privately owned, they can charge whatever they want. To give you an idea, we paid 4 euro per hour.
Read more: How To Get From Napels To Pompeii? Tickets & Tours
Extra practical tips:
- Wear comfortable shoes and leave a stroller or wheelchair at home. The roads are very uneven. There is only a small part of the site that’s wheelchair friendly.
- Bring sunscreen as there isn’t much shade.
- Big bags and luggage isn’t allowed. You can store them in a free room on site, but it fills up quite quickly. If you came by train you can store your luggage in a storage at the upper level of the Pompeii Scavi train station for €8 per bag.
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I hope you’ll enjoy exploring Pompeii, whether it is by yourself or with a guide!
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