ParadiseLost

Anyone visiting Herculaneum on a weekend *only* might be interested in this special free off-site tour of the 'Villa of the Papyri'.
I've booked it for next month and I'm certain it's in Italian only. But you do get to visit the Villa .
For info about the Villa and the papyrus scrolls do a google search on "Villa of the Papyri" and 'Villa dei Papriri'.
It's on Saturday & Sundays hourly from 0900-1200, 4 tours with 25 people and must be booked online or so it seems.
You must go to the Herculaneum ticket booth at least 20 mins before the tour begins and purchase a Herculaneum entrance ticket(s) and pick-up you free Villa ticket(s).
Go to
http://www.arethusa.net/w2d3/v3/view...o&struttura=VP (in Italian)   At the bottom of the page it will show a future date
which I believe shows that they are fully booked up until that date.   Ok now pick your Sat or Sun date after that date if possible. If you get a pop-up (I'm not sure what they are actually called) in Italian just click-on "OK" and continue. The next page will show the times and how many openings there are for each tour.  Choose your time & # of persons (a limit of 3 possibly) and click-on the "+" sign.   
  On the next page choose the number of tickets (only 1, 2 or 3 are the available choices). Now on the right click-on "Clicca qui...". Fill-in the info on the next page, in Italian but easy to follow nome/name, via/address, CAP/zip-postal code, citta/city, provincia/state or county, pull-down your country and then telephone, fax & *EMAIL*.   
  Click-on the Conferma (Confirm) button and you should get an email response in seconds with your confirmation.
Regards, Walter
p.s. And for the Search Engine
Pompeii Naples Ercolano

ParadiseLost

I took the tour on Saturday March 13.
It is a bit disappointing and you see very little but if you plan to be in Herculaneum on a weekend, book it.
It only takes a half-hour and it's entrance gate is only a stone's throw from inside the Herculaneum site.
You basically walk down into a long deep pit and then up a ramp.
You see a single room on the Villa's 2nd floor and then up a ramp to view some rooms on the 3rd floor. Nothing special, some partial walls with floor mosaics although 1 is rather unique.
You then walk back to the bottom of the pit and over to a small intact therme/bath. Which is nice because it actually has water in it , ground water seeping in. The site has pumps and large hoses pumping out the groundwater continuously.
Then a walk over to another small group of outdoor rooms (mosaic floors) and a horse (skeleton) killed by the pyroclastic blast.
They want you there 20mins before the tour. So just enter Herculaneum with everyone else thru the front entrance/ticket booth and walk down the long ramp. At the bottom is a small but long bldg with a circular audioguide rental booth in front. You meet at the left end of this bldg, in the middle of the bldg is a bookstore and a snackbar at right end.
The Villa entrance is only ~50m from the meeting point.
The tour is in Italian only and it is nice that the Italian gov't allows free access to this site. But what you see is very limited and all outdoors. Regards, Walter

ParadiseLost

I just came across this article and thought I'd add it on.
Regards, Walter
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...17/ixhome.html

ParadiseLost

Just wanted to add this http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...482342,00.html Funding is now available if they do decide to search for other libraries in the Villa. Regards, Walter