Day Trip to Pompeii & Mount Vesuvius
During our trip to Rome we really wanted to venture down to Southern Italy and see the incredible ancient city of Pompeii and the volcano that destroyed it, Mount Vesuvius. To make it a really easy travel experience, we decided to do a day trip with City Wonders. Here is what to expect on your day trip down to Pompeii and Vesuvius!
Though our tour with City Wonders was comped, all options and photos in this article are my own.
City Wonders offers tours and day trips in a ton of different areas including London, Rome, Paris, and more! We have taken a total of three tours with City Wonders (some paid and some comped) and have enjoyed all of them! We met our tour guide in the palazzo and headed onto our nice air conditioned bus for the ride down to Pompeii.
View City Wonder’s website HERE.
View our tour on City Wonders website HERE.
Our tour guide and bus driver were so fun! She gave us some history then we had some quiet time to take a nap/relax. There is a comfort stop about half way to grab food and use the restroom.
A guided tour of the city of Pompeii is included in your ticket price! I am so glad we had a guided tour because Pompeii is so much bigger than I expected! It would have been impossible to find all of the main sites on our own.
The casts are really incredible to see, and also very saddening. You can see the actual position people were in when the ash hit and they died.
It was also unbelievable to see the paintings on the walls that have survived so many thousands of years. These are called “frescos”.
It was really wild to be standing in the midst of the Pompeii ruins and see Mount Vesuvius towering over it in the distance.
This house was one of the most intact in Pompeii. It had this beautiful mosaic tile at the entrance.
There is a large area where you can view artifacts found in Pompeii. I couldn’t believe the size of these vases that they used to carry water or store oil in.
After we had the most incredible time touring Pompeii we headed to an authentic Neapolitan pizza lunch. Lunch is also included in the price of your ticket. We each got a huge pizza to ourselves, a soft drink, an appetizer, and a piece of lemon cake for dessert.
After lunch we headed to Mount Vesuvius. The bus dropped us off at the entrance to the park and our tour guide gave us our tickets. We had 1.5 hours to spend at Mount Vesuvius. It takes about thirty minutes to hike up to the top and thirty minutes back down. So in all we had about thirty minutes to take photos and spend in the very top. There are restrooms at the bottom where you are dropped off and at the very top.
The hike up to the top is moderate, and it was extremely hot the day we visited. Make sure to pack plenty of water and sunscreen. The entire trail out and back is about two miles.
On the way up there are several little snack shops on the way. These have souvenirs, ice cream, snacks, post cards, etc. One of them even has a little wine bar with a gorgeous view overlooking Naples. The last stop before you hit the top has a special stamp if you buy a post card that says “Vesuvio” with the elevation.
When you are up at the top, make sure to look at both sides of the trail views! One side is the massive crater of Vesuvius and the other is a gorgeous view of the Italian coast.
Our very last stop before heading back to Rome was a quick limoncello tasting. This was complimentary and they had lots of other items to try like the famous bread lemons, lemon chocolate, lemon biscuits, and more! I couldn’t believe the size of these lemons, and when tasting them they are actually quite sweet.
We had a fabulous tour with City Wonders exploring Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius and I know you will too!
Book your next tour with City Wonders HERE.
Read my other posts about things to do and see in Italy HERE.
Finding the fun everywhere life takes us!
Love, Olivia Michelle
