RichardJ

We will be staying Positano June 12-15. (I sure hope if won't be unbearably hot!) Would it be best to drive to the train station in Sorrento then take the train or should we drive to Pompeii and park? I worry about the safety of the parked car during the tour. Is it advisable to hire a guide to see the highlights? Is there food available or do we need to take lunch in a backpack? Is it ok to wear shorts and tennis shoes? Thanks for your advice.

ira

Hi Richard,

I would leave the car in the parking lot and bus to Sorrento and train to Pompeii.

Join a group surrounding a guide.

Bring your own lunch and plenty of WATER.

I suggest that you wear shirts and hats as well as shorts and tennis shoes.

Have a great trip.

Tuni01

We were in Pompeii in early May and it was very hot. I recommend a hat and bring bottled water. There is a restaurant but Pompeii is large and you may be a ways away from it when you want a drink or snack. Yes, wear shorts and tennis shoes. It is very dusty. I loved Positano. take the boat to Amalfi and Ravello for teh day.

Tries2PakLite

I haven't been to Pompeii, but I did just read the novel Pompeii, by Robert Harris. The book was fascinating and I will make it a point to get there the next time I'm in Italy. Now I want to see what remains of the once thriving city.

sundowner

Definitely hire a guide. And I wouldn't get in a group larger than 8 or 10. If the groups are too large, try to hire one just for yourself. It's worth it.

As for the food, I had read several places that the food is horrible in Pompeii. We didn't think so.

yk

Hi richardJ-

When I was in Pompeii in Nov 03, there was a cafeteria inside the Pompeii ruins. The food wasn't horrible, definitely edible (I had some pasta). So if you don't want to bring food, you can eat there. But like everybody else says, bring plenty of water.

As far as hiring a guide, if $ is not a big issue, then go for it. I rented the audioguide and thought it was great and very detailed.

Sauce

I just got back Friday, visited pompeii last week. My suggestion would be to drive there, there are many safe parking lots, and not too expensive. My guess is that you got a car to avoid buses, so you should use it.

Pompeii is a very exciting thing to see, but also very tiring and the excitement can wear quickly. My wife tired of it quickly. in part due to the reconstructions near the form with large plaques with the year of reconstruction. Also, it gets to be a lot of the same thing, that doesn't help the tiring effect. As others mentioned, there is a cafeteriaand maybe a restaraunt? I didn't eat there so can't comment further.

I would have liked to spend more time, but wasn't exactly broken up by leaving at lunchtime to make my wife happy.

Jason

kybourbon

I was there last June about the same time you are planning to go and it was very hot. There isn't much shade but I took my travel umbrella in and used it for shade.

The cafeteria in Pompeii is not that far that you couldn't make a detour to get something to eat. I know people have complained about the food but being a cafeteria you had a selection of pastas, fresh fruit, salads, and many other things. I wouldn't want to carry around a picnic all day but you should bring some water. There is also a open-air restaurant by the Villa Misteri. It seems to be outside the grounds but we were allowed to go out to get a drink and come back in.

If you don't want to hire a guide they have excellent hand-held audioguides with numbered maps. All the sites are numbered and when you stop you just enter that number in the audio guide and it will play the information. This allows you to visit what interests you instead of just the highlights with a guide and take breaks when you want. You have to leave and ID where you rent the audio until you return it.

Cicerone

I just made by third trip to Pompeii two weeks ago and would offer the following advice:

1. Shorts and sneakers are fine, but long pants or capris might give you more sun protection. There is nary a tree in the entire site so a hat would be useful, and even an umbrella if it is as hot as the last two July's have been here in Europe. Bring wet ones or a hand towel. Bring a big bottle of water. There are several ancient but still working fountains in the ruins where you can refill with cold and pure water.

2. I think the audio guide is superior to a live guide as you can set your own pace and see what interests you. Others may like to have questions answered by a guide, it is somewhat of a personal choice. I have used the audio guide twice and am still learning things from it. Whichever you do, get one of their good free maps.

3. There is a small red plastic book which you can buy at the gift shop at the entrances which has drawings of the sites in their current condition and clear plastic overlays showing what they would have looked like moments before the volcano hit. I find them very useful for making sense of the ruins.

4. If you don't want to go to one of the restaurants, you can bring a picnic lunch and picnic among the ruins. The best places for this are in the green areas outside the Teatro Grande/Odeum theatres and near the amphitheatre. The latter is generally very uncrowded, but there is also adequate lawn and shade near the Teatro Grande/Odeum theatres. You can buy lunch the day before from one of the little alimentaries in Positano or your hotel may able to put together a box lunch. A sandwich and some fruit in a backpack is not really heavy to carry. It is more fun and less crowded than the restaurants at the site.

5. The Villa of Mysteries (Villa dei Misteri) has some of the best preserved ancient frescos I have seen and the house itself is interesting. This is definitely worth the walk out to it (see more below). The walk out has some shade and green, and passes several tombs which are also interesting. This is a very uncrowned part of the ruins. As noted above, you can stop just outside the villa where there is a small restaurant with a nice outdoor terrace (can't comment on the food itself). You have to exit the ruins to eat here, and I am not totally sure they will let you re-enter after the meal, but I have done so to use the bathroom just outside this exit, so I suspect you can. If you have a problem, bring over the restaurant manager to do some convincing.

6. July will be peak season on the roads. I am not a fan of having a car on the Amalfi coast, as it is more of a hindrance than a help, IMO. If this were my trip, I would either (i) hire a car and driver for the day, or (ii) take the train to Pompeii, and take the ferry back. As you seem committed to the car, I wouldn?t suggest you go to the expense of hiring a car and driver. I would suggest you take the train. You can walk from the train station to the either of the entrances (see below). When you are ready to leave, take a taxi from whatever exit your choose (see below) to the ferry pier in Naples. The ferry will give you a chance to see the beautiful coast from a different perspective, and would be faster than driving. A taxi to the ferry pier would take about 20 minutes, can't speak for the cost, but it has got to be cheaper than parking for the day, not to mention the price of gas (US$4.50 a gallon right now) and the hassle of driving. (I think you could also take a train or bus to Naples and then a very short taxi ride to the pier.) You could also of course do the whole thing by train which is probably the fastest, but a late afternoon boat ride down the coast back to Positano would be a very nice way to end the day, IMO.

7. There are two entrances/exits gates to the ruins, and one purely exit gate. The site is a rough triangle with the entrances/exits at the corners. There is the main entrance/exit called the Porta Marina, the amphitheatre entrance/exit called the Piazza Anfiteatro, and the Villa dei Misteri exit. There is public parking at both entrances. (You cannot buy entry tickets at the Villa de Misteri gate, you can only exit the ruins.) Having been to Pompeii three times, I think the best way to see it is to enter at one place and exit at another. This will save you A LOT of backtrack walking. It is about a 15-20 minute walk from the Porta Marina entrance to Villa Mystere, and about 3o minutes from the Porto Marina entrance to the amphitheatre and the Piazza Anfiteatro entrance. It is about 45 minutes from the amphitheatre to the Villa Misteri. The amphitheatre seats 20,000 and is remarkably well preserved. However, unless you want to spend 6-8 hours at the site, you don't have time, IMO to see both the Villa Misteri and the amphitheatre in one trip, you have to decide which interests you more. Most people are exhausted after 3-4 hours, and if it is hot you will be even more tired.

Once you are done seeing as much as you want, you can head out the nearest exit, and just walk or hop in a taxi back to the train station or the ferry. (One slight flaw in the plan is that if you have rented audiphones, you will have to stop by the entrance at which you rented it to return it, but this takes a minute and does not require paying another entry fee. Taxi fare between the entrances/exits should be less than 5 Euros.)

If you do bring you own car, I would still recommend going in one entrance and out another, and taking a taxi back to your car. Would be cheap and would save those precious feet. . . .

If you want to use the train to get to the Piazza Anfiteatro entrance, the stop you need is Pompei Santuario which is either one before or one after Pompei Scavi (the stop for the Porta Marina entrance). Bear in mind that Pompeii with two iis is the ruins, and Pompei with one i is the town. Many people (and guidebooks) confuse the two.