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In 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius erupted, burying the nearby Roman city of Pompeii and other towns. For centuries, the city lay preserved under ash. Starting in the 1700s, archaeologists began unearthing the vast ruins of Pompeii. Eventually, this place of destruction would become a UNESCO World Heritage Site that millions of people tour each year.
While there are many ways to visit Pompeii, I think you get the most out of your experience by taking a Pompeii small group tour with an archaeologist. These expert-led tours will leave you with detailed knowledge about how the citizens of Pompeii lived (and, tragically, died).
How To Book A Pompeii Tour
There are several options for visiting Pompeii. Given these options, there’s a debate: should you do a self-tour or tour in Pompeii? Personally, I think the best way to tour Pompeii is on a professionally guided tour by an archaeologist. Read on to find out why!
Self-Guided Pompeii Tours
First, tours are not necessary to visit the famous archeological site. You can buy Pompeii tickets without a tour included.
You can get to Pompeii by public transportation on the Circumvesuviana train from Naples or Sorrento.
However, even if you get to Pompeii on your own, I recommend purchasing the additional audioguide at a minimum. The signs at Pompeii only provide so much information, so an audioguide or guided tour will help you fill in the rest.
The site is also massive, so there’s plenty of time to listen while walking around.
Related: Given the massive Pompeii grounds and the hot weather in southern Italy, be sure to bring plenty of water, sunscreen, and a hat or other shade-giving items.
Guided Tours of Pompeii
There are also multiple options for guided tours of Pompeii.
First, you can just show up and find guides offering Pompeii group tours. However, not all tours are equal.
Further from the entrances, you’ll find Pompeii tour guides offering their services. These guides can take large groups around the ruins.
However, you’re better off heading inside the Porta Marina and Piazza Esedra entrances, where official Pompeii tour guides offer their services to smaller groups in several languages.
Even better, you can book a small group Pompeii tour with an archaeologist ahead of time, so you won’t have to worry. This also ensures that a tour will be available in your preferred language when you want to visit.
We chose this option, and we had no regrets. Our tour guide was incredibly knowledgeable, and we left Pompeii impressed by what we saw and learned.
Book a Pompeii Small Group Tour with an Archaeologist
If you want to visit Pompeii and don’t want to deal with figuring out transportation or tickets, I recommend booking one of these other Pompeii tour options, which include private tours.
Pompeii Archaeological Tour Review
After taking the train to Pompeii, we had a bit of a walk to the Porta Marina entrance, where our afternoon tour would start.
This time worked best with our schedule, but if you can manage it, visiting Pompeii earlier in the day is preferable. The weather is cooler, and you’ll have more time to explore on your own after the guided tour is over.
We had some time to kill, so we got drinks and a snack at the Hortus Pompei restaurant and kiosk, which is located right across from the entrance. Yes, it’s a touristy place, but it’s not the worst of the bunch. I recommend at least grabbing some water before you go in if you don’t already have some.
We then met Alessandra, our tour guide. She has a PhD in Archeology from the University of Naples, so she really knows her stuff. It must be great to be able to study so close to a place as famous as Pompeii.
As we entered Pompeii, Alessandra gave us background information about the 79 AD eruption as well as the archaeological excavations that have taken place.
Official excavations began in 1748, but archaeologists are still digging today. Of the estimated 60 hectares of Pompeii, only 40 have been unearthed. Volcanic materials still cover the rest.
Pliny the Younger isn’t just one of my favorite beers from Russian River in Santa Rosa. He’s the guy who wrote letters describing the events of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, including the death of his uncle, Pliny the Elder.
No lava or magma flowed into Pompeii. The city was covered by 15 meters of ash rather than being wiped away. This ash actually helped protect the city buried underneath, so the ancient Roman ruins of Pompeii are some of the best preserved in Italy.
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Three other nearby cities, including Herculaneum, which I also recommend visiting, were also destroyed.
Our group consisted of around 12 people, which made navigating the ruins easy and gave us opportunities to ask Alessandra any questions we had.
Alessandra told us about particular archaeological details the Romans used. This background information helped us learn to spot things on our own.
She showed us how to identify the various types of buildings by their doorsteps. For example, some doorways have grooved tracks. 2,000 years ago, these tracks held sliding doors, which were common in shops.
The buildings of Pompeii show some repeated patterns. Around 70% of the buildings were shops that had living spaces above. It’s an ancient example of urban planning that we should be embracing once again.
Many of these shop spaces were used as restaurants. In fact, they don’t look all that different from a place you might grab some food today.
Each space has spots where food was kept hot. Once you learn about these restaurant spaces, you’ll begin to spot them all over Pompeii.
Our walking tour of Pompeii was well-paced. There’s a lot of ground to cover, but our tour guide never made us feel rushed, nor did she keep us standing around for too long in one spot. There was a perfect amount of time for us to look around and take photos of each space.
There are way too many Pompeii highlights to cover, and that’s not what I’m here to do, but here are a few of the most impressive spots.
Early in our tour, we passed the plaster casts of bodies. These were not found here but elsewhere. Today, they are some of the most famous sights in Pompeii.
There are also some scattered bakeries where bread was baked in a manner similar to the pizza restaurants of Naples today.
One of the most impressive stops is the palace of a Roman noble. It is called the House of the Faun.
This property is much larger than others and also includes a mosaic of Alexander the Great vs Persians.
Then, we visited the most famous road of Pompeii. One reason why it’s famous is because the red light district of the city was located right off of it.
The most famous brothel, the Lupanar, is covered in erotic frescoes.
Needless to say, this artwork makes it one of the most popular stops on the Pompeii tour, so there’s a bit of a queue to see it.
The name “Lupanar” means wolf den. Roman prostitutes were called lupa (she-wolves).
As we walked through other streets (many of which have stepping stones in the center to make walking during rain and flooding easier), Alessandra pointed out other notable architectural features.
We stepped over original lead pipes embedded in the ground. If the volcano hadn’t killed the ancient residents of Pompeii, their usage of lead might have gotten them anyway.
Alessandra also showed us another detail we had walked past many times without noticing. Pompeiians carved penises in stone as a symbol of luck and prosperity.
Once you notice these carvings, you’ll realize they can be found all over Pompeii.
After winding our way through the busiest and most notable sections of Pompeii, we arrived at the theater district.
These theaters could accommodate up to 5,000 people.
This theater was actually the first building excavated in Pompeii. It all started by accident. A man was digging a well and found fragments from the theater. The rest is history.
Exploring Pompeii On Our Own
Alessandra left us at the theater and told us we were now free to explore Pompeii on our own. She did give us a few suggestions, plus we had gotten a copy of the sprawling map when we entered.
This free time to explore is one reason why you might want to do your guided tour of Pompeii as early as possible in the day. There’s so much ground to cover that you can easily spend a full day walking around. If you’re someone who wants to take in every detail, you could spend even longer.
There’s one particular area just east of the theaters that’s a must-see. This area has several houses near each other that have beautiful decor.
Casa Dei Ceii has gorgeous murals.
Then, Casa del Menandro is another house with spectacular grounds.
Later, we visited Casa Del Fruttello, which is filled with beautiful art.
We could have walked further, but this would have taken us away from where we wanted to end up. Pompeii is so expansive that the 20,000-person amphitheater on the other side of the city is a 30-minute walk away.
Our final Pompeii tour stop was the Antiquarium di Pompei.
This museum holds many archeological artifacts and artwork that need to be preserved indoors.
By this point, we were exhausted from walking around, but it was all worth it to see one of the most impressive archeological excavations in human history.
I highly recommend taking an archaeological tour of Pompeii. You will learn much more than if you just visited on your own. It’s the best way to get the full context of the city, from ancient Roman life right before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius to the ongoing excavations of the present day.
Book a Pompeii tour with an archaeologist here
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