Destinations · Italy · Naples
Archaeological site
Pompeii Archaeological Park
A whole Roman city with its streets intact — a full day out of the port, never a stop on the way to one.
Pompeii is not a ruin, it is a town: you walk blocks, not a monument, and no photograph prepares you for the distances. Three and a half hours buys the essentials — Forum, baths, the House of the Faun, the theatres — but only with a route decided before the gate.
The second honest thing is that Pompeii’s best objects are not at Pompeii. The mosaics, bronzes and frescoes are in Naples at the MANN, and the site and the museum are two halves of one visit. Bring water and a hat; the basalt is unforgiving and there is little shade.