When I was planning on visiting Rome, I just knew I had to go on a day trip to Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius! As I’ve said in previous blogs, I am a massive history nerd and this was a trip I had to do.
I booked a fantastic day trip on Get Your Guide. It cost £120 for a full day trip to Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius with an included hike to the Vesuvius cone and guided tours of both Pompeii and Vesuvius. Be aware that there is a lot of driving (approximately 3 hours from Rome to Pompeii, the driver will stop halfway for toilet/refreshment break) but it is so worth it for the sites you will see. It is a long day, we left Rome at about 7:30am and returned to Rome at about 8:30pm.
So, we arrived in Pompeii for a guided tour around the archaeological site. Pompeii a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is roughly the size of 3 football pitches with new excavations being uncovered all the time. It receives around 2.5 million visitors per year. Pompeii was destroyed, along with other towns and cities, in 79AD when Mount Vesuvius erupted and the city was buried in ash. It was truly fascinating! Our guide, Roseanna, was so knowledgeable, funny and just so lovely! You could tell how much she enjoyed sharing the history of Pompeii with those in her group.
We went into the Pompeii Amphitheatre, saw original marble and mosaic floors, saw original paintings, and walked through a brothel. We also saw the famous casts of those who perished during the 79AD eruption. One thing Roseanna kept saying was that the Romans were “intelligent but not educated” – “they had no google”. By this she meant that they were able to live in a civilised society with relatively modern inventions like basic central heating and grooves in the streets for transporting chariots up and down the hill to the port BUT, they didn’t know that Vesuvius is actually a volcano and the rumblings they could hear meant impending eruption. It was so interesting and I learned so much! It’s amazing to think we only saw a little snippet of the historical site – according to our guide, even if you spent 3 days there, you still wouldn’t see everything!
After our guided tour, we broke for lunch. We had the option for either lunch or for free time. As it was an early start and a late finish, I opted to have lunch. This was great as it gave me time to get to know some of my fellow tour buddies and get out of the now torrential rain – we all agreed that this was the better option at the time, but the weather didn’t bode well for hiking Vesuvius.
We then got back on our coach and made the short drive to Mount Vesuvius (Monte Vesuvio). As we were driving up the volcano, we could see the lava flow from the 1944 eruption. Vesuvius is incredibly interesting – the 79AD eruption (the one that wiped out Pompeii etc) was so powerful, it caused the original crater to collapse in on itself and therefore formed a new crater. The 79AD eruption, was pyroclastic meaning it spewed hot ash and rocks from the crater instead of lava. In comparison, the 1944 eruption was effusive meaning that lava flowed from the volcano.
We met out guides who led us up the volcano on foot, giving us the history and other facts along the way. We were hoping that we would be able to get up to the crater rim, unfortunately though, the weather wasn’t in our favour, and it was determined to be too unsafe to continue to the rim (but we did get to about 200m from it - the first photo in the selection below). Where we stopped before the crater (and before heading back to the coach), we had incredible views of the surrounding towns and cities, such as Sorrento and Amalfi Coast, and learnt about what the surrounding areas would do in the event of another eruption.
After hiking Monte Vesuvio, it was time to get back on the coach and head back to Rome. Everyone was pretty whacked from a full on day so the majority napped en route.
You could definitely do this trip by yourself, but you would have to factor in transport costs (hire car or public transport). I don’t know how frequent public transport is to Pompeii etc, this may limit the time available for you to explore. Hiring a car would give you more flexibility but if you are only doing a day trip, it may not be worth it. Alternatively, you could opt to stay in Naples or somewhere closer than Rome. I do, however, recommend this day trip as all the logistics, entrance fees and guides are all covered – lunch and souvenirs are the only thing you have to pay for.
While I am disappointed we weren’t able to go right up to the Vesuvius crater, it was a great hike with amazing views and a great day all round. I really enjoyed learning about Pompeii beyond what they teach in school. I always loved learning about ancient history and volcanos (or geography in general) and I still do. This was the perfect trip for that. It was a fantastic day trip and I thought it was good value for money. I met some great people of the trip and the guides were extremely knowledge and friendly.
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