tengohambre

The train really did seem very easy, though we drove. There is also parking at the far end of Pompeiim next to the great ampitheatre. That was easy and cheap. The small booklet you get with your admission tkt is very good and informative and easy to follow.

wekewoody

Wow Nikki. I did a quick look at the videos and they look really interesting. Thank you!

ParadiseLost

I'm glad that Maiuri reconstructed much of Herculaneum years ago.
I love ruins even if they are just at groundlevel but Herculaneum gives you the feel of walking thru an ancient town as it was 2000yrs ago.

But to choose one over the other for me it would be Pompeii hands down.


From a past post.

Herculaneum looks alot better preserved than Pompeii because much of it has been reconstructed in the Late 1920's-Early 1940's with the tourist in mind.
[Although Herculaneum did maintain many 2nd floors (forget the roofs though) and any wood was carbonized which preserved it.]

Andrew Wallace-Hadrill who if you watch any of the History Channels you have most likely seen has a new book out about Herculaneum. http://tinyurl.com/6zrl9rq (read this for more info on the reconstruction vs a preserved site)
He was also the director of the 'Herculaneum Conservation Project' for 10yrs.

(His quote) "what we see is not an ancient town as preserved by an eruption, but fragments painstakingly pieced together, stabilized, reinforced and 'restored' by Maiuri".

He also writes about some Houses requiring 50% reconstruction and some scenes were staged for the visitor (like 'the shop' http://tinyurl.com/69yp2k7). Regards, Walter

caroline_edinburgh

Hi Nikki - yes, after making excuses not to visit the sites during numerous longer summer holidays in Campania (including a week in Naples itself), we finally had a long weekend in Naples *just* to go to Pompeii & Herculaneum. Having read how much walking can be involved at Pompeii, I started thinking I'd better not put if off any longer as one never knows what's going to happen healthwise & decided I had to do it while I still could! It was well worth the dedicated trip. We stayed in Naples again as we'd liked it so much the first time.

judilie

We ended up going to the Archeology Museum and Pompei and not Herculaneum. We got the audioguides at both of those, and they were very helpful. We spent nearly an entire day at Pompei and still didn't see everything; I can't imagine trying to see it and Herculaneum in the same day. We took the train from Sorrento to Pompei and that worked well. We packed a lunch, which was a good idea since eating options at the site are limited. We hope to get back to the area some time to visit Herculaneum.

I'll try to make some postings about our entire trip to Italy soon.

palmers78

The National Archaeological Museum in Naples is definately worth a visit

Rostra

A couple of recent articles on Pompeii, the 2nd one gives a nice description of the eruption timeline and its effects.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20407286
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/...peii-perished/ (If link breaks) http://tinyurl.com/c3v8p3b