What You Need to Know Before Going to Pompeii

If you are planning your trip to see the amazing city of Pompeii and the people frozen in time, I have a few helpful tips to share with you.

Here is a city, buried by a volcano almost two thousand years ago. Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. The entire city was covered in pumice and ash from the volcanic eruption, and it laid buried, largely undisturbed until the 17o0s.

When people finally dug up the city, they found the remains of the Pompeii residents in all sorts of odd positions. These dust people of Pompeii are legendary. Everyone is intrigued by them, and we are no exception. That was the number one thing I wanted to see on our tour, the poor, intact cast people of Pompeii.

But first, there are a few things you need to know before touring Pompeii.

I can say this with authority because these are the exact things we did not know that caused no small amount of trouble for us. We planned our trip in a very last-minute fashion. Alan booked the train, and I booked the Pompeii site tickets. We had no power over the fact that it was probably the hottest day of 2023, but some of our other challenges can be avoided with these tips.

Today you get to learn from our mistakes. That’s the best way because it means this does not have to happen to you!

And if you aren’t going to Pompeii, and just want to see what we saw, come along. We’ve got you covered there too.

#1. Be careful to book your train to go to “Pompei Scavi”, not just “Pompeii”.

Pompeii Scavi is the excavation site. This is what you actually want to see. This stop puts you right in front of the “Porta Marina” entrance to the park. It is perfect.

Unfortunately, we took the regular Pompeii train because we didn’t know and because the Pompeii train tickets are easy to buy online.

That is not what you want. Here is a link to all the details about taking the correct train to Pompei Scavi. It is a regional train called the Circumvesuviana. It leaves from the underground level of Naples Central train station in Piazza Garibaldi.

You cannot buy the tickets in advance. They do not sell them online. Here is a link to the Naples to Pompei Scavi train schedule.

Let me tell you why this matters so much.

Alan and I took the nicer train to the “Pompeii” stop. Now, to be fair, there was a bus at this incorrect station that takes passengers to the correct Pompeii Scavi site. We might have been able to buy tickets on that bus. But there were aggressive salespeople all around, and rather than talk to any of them, we just headed out on foot, not knowing which direction to even walk.

I was starving, so first we stopped by a coffee shop where I bought the most delicious gluten free cornet. (A cornet is a croissant in Italian).

Then we headed off on foot in the direction that we saw other walkers going. We figured maybe they knew the way.

This was during the hottest week of the summer of 2023. It was one hundred degrees Fahrenheit, which I learned that week is forty degrees Celsius. The heat was hard for anyone not to talk about because it was so intense.

Also I should mention there was not a cloud in the sky that day.

Alan and I walked for a solid ten minutes, still felt no closer to the Pompeii excavation site, and we began to get concerned. We finally pulled out our phones and used our maps to discover we were still pretty far away.

In the hot sun, after a week of hot days, and jet lag to boot, I was struggling hard. Alan found a shortcut for us through a neighborhood and got there a little faster, but that brings me to tip number two.

#2. Be careful which gate entrance you buy your Pompeii Archeological Park tickets for. They won’t let you in if you show up at the wrong gate.

By the time we hiked through the sun to get to the park, I was already getting dehydrated, weak, and whiny. My delight to see that there was no long line to get into the park quickly turned to dismay when the guards told me I could not go inside.

The security guards told me my tickets were for the wrong entrance. We were standing at the Piazza Anfiteatro gate, but our tickets were for Porta Marina. If we had taken the correct train, this would have never happened.

#3. Try not to whine out loud.

Full disclosure, I can be a whiner. I do not handle the sweaty heat well at all. In fact, I rarely voluntarily sign up for any sport or activity where sweating profusely is a requirement.

So when the guards told me I needed to hike another twenty minutes around to another gate, I melted into a whiny puddle.

They made fun of me. No one likes a whiner.

Alan was a good sport about it. He knew I could not handle hiking another mile on what felt like the sun itself just to go into this archaeological site and hike around for hours more in the same heat. Our solution was to simply buy new tickets at this gate.

We did our part to support the Pompeii economy.

#4. There is a ticket kiosk right there at the gate, so you can buy tickets on site.

There was a long line of people waiting to buy tickets the old fashioned way. Thankfully, there was no line at all at the automated ticket kiosks. Isn’t that funny? We were in the gates in no time.

#5. You must have a hat.

Even if it isn’t one hundred degrees, I would still recommend a hat. It is an all day outdoor, sunny, dry place to go. I bartered for a hat right outside of the gates, and I was grateful that I did. I managed to get this lovely blue one, which turned out to be my most useful souvenir.

Buying the hat was my favorite part of the day. It was marked $20, and I got the lady to sell it to me for $12 or $15.

#6. You must pack water, and a snack would also be good.

By the time we got in the gates, we’d already walked probably seven thousand steps in the hot sun, and the heat was so brutal it actually felt dangerous. I was so demoralized from the heat, I had trouble digging up any enthusiasm for this place that I was genuinely excited to see. The sun took us down hard.

Our water was not cold anymore, so I turned it down when Alan kept offering it to me. That is how I became more and more dehydrated. By the time I hiked up a hill towards the back of the park, to get to what was labeled as a cafe on the map, my situation was bad. I could barely carry a thought in my head, and my body stopped producing sweat. That’s how dehydrated I was.

To my dismay, the cafe was still under construction. There was no food or drink for sale anywhere. All they had was bathrooms. Well, who would need a bathroom on a day like this? I finally sat down on a ledge and drank from Alan’s thermos of water. It was bath water temperature, but it was better than nothing.

#7. This was the only place we toured in Italy that did not feel like a fashion show. Here you dress for suffering outside.

Finally, everyone was dressed like American tourists! Ha! White t-shirts, shorts, tank tops, crop tops, hats of any kind, and comfortable shoes reigned supreme.

#8. Where are the dust people?

I had one burning quest. I was there to see the people they dug up in Pompeii, the people who were frozen in time, the ones we all read about. This famous phenomenon was haunting and intriguing, and I simply had to see it.

Alan seemed perfectly fascinated by the civil engineering of this town from two thousand years ago, but I wasn’t all that interested in the town part. Where are the people?

I got out our brochure and studied it until I could figure out what item on the key stood for actual people. We were so excited when we finally began to find them.

They are located in several spots throughout the park. Some of the people are even placed in the very area where their bodies were discovered.

#9. How are the people preserved this way?

You can read an extensive explanation of how the bodies are preserved here. The bodies that you see in casts are the people who died in the final wave of the volcano eruption. They died instantly of thermal shock when the pyroclastic flow hit them, and they remain in that position from when they were covered by calcified layers of ash.

When archaeologists originally found these people, they discovered if they touched them, the bodies would turn to dust. In order to reveal the position of each body, they poured plaster into the spaces, creating the casts of where each person who died in the pyroclastic flow was positioned.

I also read that though archaeologists are still digging up Pompeii and its deceased inhabitants, no new casts are being made. They say the casts harm the bones, but I think the casts are so interesting they should continue to do a few. Pour more casts, and leave a few as bones to study as well. But then I’m not an archaeologist, and I doubt they care what this American tourist thinks.

#10. Did any residents of Pompeii escape?

Yes, most of them did. The people of Pompeii had many warnings. The volcano grew more and more active. Most residents fled before it got so bad. Between fifteen and twenty thousand people lived in Pompeii and Herculenaum in 79AD, when the volcano erupted. Most of the people left town in time to survive.

To read more about the refugees, see this article. It has good videos too.

#11. Rain, shine, or heat wave, it is still worth it to visit Pompeii.

This ghost village, preserved in ash for seventeen hundred years, is beautiful. Plus, you learn so much when you visit Pompeii.

You will be amazed as we were about how advanced this society actually was. If there is anything Alan and I could definitely agree on, it was our desire to see Pompeii. We both thought this was the coolest opportunity ever. I mean, who wouldn’t want to see this historical display?

Painted walls were also common. Isn’t this impressive? It survives from at least 79 AD.

This is very close to the time that Jesus walked upon the earth. That means that the towns of Israel may have looked much like this one in Italy. Roman society was indeed advanced. This preserved town gives us a haunting peek into the past, into a world from two thousand years ago.

Here are a few more photos of this incredible archaeological site.

The place is so big, we weren’t even able to see it all. The outdoor areas of the vineyards were glorious.

Water fountains were available in ancient times. Unfortunately, they do not still work. I could have used a good water fountain!

Near the time of the destruction of Pompeii, this amphitheater was actually shut down by the Roman government. The Pompeiians got too rowdy and violent in one of their events here, people died, and the public cried to Rome about the brutality that happened in Pompeii. So the government shut down all use of the amphitheater for four years.

This was no holy society. The village boasted at least twenty-five brothels, staffed by sex slaves who could not escape.

I found it especially sad just how many toddler-sized casts there were, some of them attached to a mother.

This is the cast remains of a horse. Pompeii also has a dog cast in a terrible struggle for his life. I didn’t manage to get a photo of the dog.

For more information about the archaeological park of Pompeii, visit their website here.

For more photos and stories from our trip to Italy, see this one from the Vatican.

Even though it was an admittedly rough day, I am so thankful we got to go!

By the time we got out of the archaeological park, we were ready to pay any amount of money for a cold, icy beverage. There were plenty of street vendors ready to sell to all of the sweaty tourists. I had a delicious watermelon slushy.

Then we headed straight to the Pompei Scavi train station and bought new train tickets.

Yes, we had return tickets for the other train in Pompeii, but it was too far away to walk. We were so done.

We packed into the local train, standing room only, but at least we didn’t have to hike a couple of miles to catch the other train!

In fact, when Alan and I got back to Naples, we plopped ourselves down at the nearest restaurant to the Naples train station and ate pizza! Did you know Naples is the birthplace of pizza?

In conclusion, if you have any other questions, feel free to ask below, and I will answer to the best of my ability.

And most importantly, if you do go, pack plenty of ice water and a snack! Wear sunscreen and comfortable shoes. Go with a positive attitude, and have a great time!