Pompeii, Herculaneum and Vesuvius

Duration: 9 Hours

Location: Pompeii, Herculaneum and Vesuvius

The ruins of Pompeii, part of an ancient Roman city destroyed and buried by the eruption of the volcano Vesuvius in79 A.D. will be the first visit of this fantastic day tour.

Meet our tour guide for start to explore the area: the remainder of the uncovered city is today buried under the new Pompeii rebuilt many years subsequent to the eruption.

After a stop of about 2 hours continue the tour going to Herculaneum. This is an ancient residential town of Greek origin, destroyed and buried in ashes, together with Pompeii, by the eruption of the volcano Vesuvius in 79 A.D. that also offers a variety of beautiful scenery and invaluable arts.

Excavations began by accident in 1709 when some workers were digging a well – they discovered a wall which was later found to be one of the stages of the ancient theatre. Later, there were many human skeletons uncovered at the ancient shoreline, suggesting that numerous inhabitants attempted to escape but perished when mountains collapsed and volcanic gases were released.

For last the Mount Vesuvius! Is certainly the most important and the most interesting volcano existing in Europe. Famous for having buried, but also preserved for us, the two most famous archaeological sites (POMPEII & HERCULANEUM) it owes its importance to its imposing size being the biggest on continental Europe (not mentioning Etna in Sicily) with a max height of 1281 mt and diameter of the top cone (600 mt).

Through the centuries many have been the eruptions, but never that catastrophically, like the one of 79 A.D. The last eruption was in march 1944 during the second world war. After that one the volcano stopped smoking from its top. In 1880 a cable-car (funicular) was inaugurated and for the ceremony the famous Funiculi’ Funicula’ song was composed.

Back to Naples port by 5pm.