We are visiting Pompeii soon and I'd like to see a couple of the exhibits that require advance reservations. According to www.arethusa.net, the only exhibits that you can reserve are the Suburban Baths and the Principe di Napoli. If I reserve these tickets, I'm not sure how much time I should give myself. If I book the first exhibit at, say 1:00, what time should I book the other one? I understand that Pompeii is huge and I have no idea how to budget my time.

Also, I read that the Villa of the Mysteries is outside the walls of Pompeii. Do I need to make advance reservations for this as well?

I think the reservations are free (at least that is what I can ascertain without being able to read Italian on the arethusa.net site), so all I need to do is print out the confirmation and show it to the person at the door at the site?

Thank you for any help in figuring this out.

I'm curious about the same things, Judy.

I've read folks budget about an hour for each closed house -- to give you time to get to your next one. But I've also read that the guards will let you in earlier if you're there. But this is all hearsay, hopefully the experts will chime in!

The website for Pompeii is pompeiisites.org.
http://www.pompeiisites.org/

Here's a map. Villa dei Misteri is in the upper left corner while the entrance to Pompeii is at the bottom of the map (#1). You will have to zoom in a bit to see the numbers.
http://www.pompeiisites.org/allegati/mappa_pompei.pdf

Hi, Judy and Nan. I was at Pompeii last September, and at that time, no reservations were necessary for the Villa of the Mysteries.

I did see the Suburban Baths and la Casa del Principe di Napoli by making reservations on arethusa, just as you describe, by choosing times and printing confirmation forms. I missed my second appointment because I misjudged the distances, but the attendant let me in anyway. (I would imagine that this kind of outcome depends on the guard and his/her mood; our guy spoke no English, which forced me to use my weak Italian, and whaddaya know, we understood each other very well.)

Perhaps this map will help: http://www.eesi.psu.edu/~hoaglund/Po...PompeiiMap.jpg
You'll have to view it at 400% to make it legible. The Suburban Baths are #1; they're near the Porta Marina, which is the Circumvesuviana stop, so if you're taking the train and can time your visit to the baths with your arrival, that could be convenient.

Just to complicate matters, il Principe isn't on the map! As I recall, it's near #33.

Obviously, how long you linger is up to you and your level of interest, and naturally, the baths are bigger than the house and take more time to see. I spent maybe 45 minutes at the baths and 15 in the house. Allow maybe 30 minutes to get from here to there. As you can see, the Villa of the Mysteries is at the very top of the map, #30, so you might want to hit it on the way out. If you have the time and energy, do see the amphitheater (#60)--it's a long walk, but well worth it.

The reservations are free, so do take advantage. The attendant will have a clipboard with your name and the time of your reservation. Have a wonderful time!

Fan

Great info. Thanks, Fan!

Thank you Fan. That really cleared up all of my questions. I felt like I was running into informational dead-ends trying to Google my way to the answers!