On our last day I visited Pompeii, famous for being the Roman city frozen in time after it was destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. For 1,500 years Pompeii was covered by 20 feet of ash and pumice, preserving all its buildings and inhabitants almost perfectly in the moment when the volcano erupted.
When it was discovered by present-day archaeologists, it shed a light onto the way the Romans lived in the 6th-7th century B.C. and continues to be explored as only a third of the city has been excavated.
So to get there from Positano, I hopped on a late morning SITA bus to Sorrento.
From Sorrento I took a Circumvesuviana train from Sorrento to Naples, but getting off in the middle at Pompeii Sciavi, which took about half an hour.
I dropped off my bags in the train station for 3 euros and walked about 50 meters to the entrance of the ruins:
The entrance fee is about 11 euros. After paying, you then walk across the bridge before crossing into a land before time:
The main Forum:
Be sure to enter any doorway opening you find as they might lead you to little surprises such as this Roman bathhouse:
Or just keep wandering around and you’ll be bound to stumble upon something:
Pompeii has two amphitheatres. One holds about 2,000 people:
And the other is more like a coliseum, holding about 20,000 people:
And of course, one of the main attractions is to see the plaster casts of some of Pompeii’s inhabitants, who were also preserved by the falling ash of the volcano. The way you see them was the way they were the moment that they died:
After spending about 3-4 hours there, I hopped back on the Circumvesuviana train towards Naples. I arrived at Napoli Centrale station 30 minutes later, where I got on their main Metro train to head to my last hostel and call it a night.
- At time of posting in Pompeii, Italy, it was 24 °C - Humidity: 70% | Wind Speed: 2km/hr | Cloud Cover: partly sunny