A Day in Pompei

The best thing about living in Europe is that everything is so close! An hour and a half’s drive and you’re in a whole different part of Italy, which is completely different from the next with its own diversity and beauty to explore. However, I live in a very rural part of Italy where I’m basically housebound most of the time because I don’t know how to drive a manual car (too petrified really… Hello, Italian autostrada! No!) So any opportunity to see more of this wonderful country, I’m the first to put my hand up to be in the passenger seat!! Yes please!

Pompei has always been a place I’ve wanted to visit as the story of it all is just so fascinating. With Only an hour and a half’s drive (134km) from Sant’Oliva, I thought Pompei would be a nice little write up to include in St Oliva’s “Local Attractions” category.

Now for those of you who don’t know much about Pompei (myself included before I went home and watched dozens of documentaries lol) the ancient town of Pompei used to be a thriving sophisticated Roman City before it was buried in meters of ash and pumice after the catastrophic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 C.E. The site was lost for about 1,500 years until it was initially rediscovery in 1599 by an Italian farmer irrigating his land!

Almost 150 years later a broader rediscovery was recorded by a Spanish engineer by the name of Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre in 1748. The objects that lay beneath the city have been preserved for centuries due to the lack of air and moisture which are the cause of most decay. These artifacts provided an extraordinarily detailed insight into the life of a city during the time of the Pax Romana. During the excavation, plaster was used to fill in the voids in the ash layers that once held the remains of human bodies. This allowed one to see the exact positions of the people at the time of their death.

Today Pompeii has been listed under the UNESCO world Heritage Site status and is one of the most popular tourist attractions in all of Italy. For over 250 years Pompeii has been a tourist attraction with approximately 2.5 million people visiting per year!

WHERE: Via Villa dei Misteri, 2, 80045, Pompeii, Naples (30 min drive south of Naples) Look for Pompeii ‘Scavi’ which means ‘ruins’

OPENING HOURS: April - Oct: 08:30 - 18:00, Nov - Mar: 08:30 - 15:30.

BEST TIME TO GO: Early morning

TICKETS: Single for Pompeii (valid for 1 day), Full price € 11,00

GOOD TO KNOW: Pompeii is a vast archaeological site where the roads are quite distorted from previous earthquakes so I cannot emphasize enough to wear comfy shoes!!! This is no place to put fashion over comfort. There is little shade while walking around the ruins so aim to go when the weather is either overcast or not ridiculously hot in during the June - August peak seasons.

Bring water, a hat and maybe some snacks as bathrooms and cafes are vastly spread across the city.

#pompei #campania