Visiting Pompeii. Eight top tips for visiting Pompeii

Eight top tips for visiting Pompeii.

1. How to buy tickets for Pompeii? For your trip to Pompeii you can either book your official Pompeii tickets online or go to the ticket offices at Porta Marina, Piazza Anfiteatro and Piazza Esedra.
2. How to get to Pompeii? Naples or Sorrento are brilliant bases for visiting the remains of the Roman city of Pompeii in southern Italy. Using public transport to get to Pompei is easy. Only 150 miles south of Rome and 15 miles from either Naples or Sorrento the best way to get to Pompeii is by the local train, called the Circumvesuviana. This railway line runs from Napoli Garibaldi station in Naples to Sorrento and the best station to stop for the ruins is Pompei Scavi – Villa Dei Misteri station. It is only a 30-minute ride from either Naples or Sorrento to Pompei. A word of caution, the train and has a reputation for pickpocketing. Keep your bag close and your wits about you and it’s perfectly safe and convenient.
3. Take a bottle of drinking water. You can refill your water bottle for free on site.  There are drinking water taps all the way along the main thoroughfare of the site. Take some sun protection too, the site is often very hot.
4. Pick up a free map of the Pompeii site at the entrance. The site is large and confusing. Streets are laid out on a grid system and the map is helpful for finding the ten best things to see at Pompeii.
5. Wear comfortable shoes. You will be doing a lot of walking and it can be very hot, wear loose clothing and comfortable shoes.
6. Don’t take a big bag into the ruins. It is best to assume that the staff won’t allow you to take large bags or luggage into the ruins. Anything above 30cm wide, 30cm tall and 15cm wide isn’t allowed. As well as being for security, it’s also to reduce damage to the ruins themselves from people rubbing against the walls with their bags. There are a small number of luggage lockers at the entrance.
7. There are plenty of places to buy food. There are cafes, ice cream/drinks stands and souvenir shops outside all three entrances to the site, but there’s also a reasonably priced cafeteria with a good variety of sandwiches, pizza slices, salads and snacks inside the ruins, just behind the Forum.
8. Don’t expect to see even the highlights of Pompeii in a couple of hours. With a 2 hour tour and 2-3 hours on your own you can get a taste for the city but Pompeii is easily worth a full day. If you are in a rush you can combine a visit to Pompeii with a walk up Mount Vesuvius or visiting the other rediscovered city Herculaneum.

Now read our blog on Ten best things to see at Pompeii.