Pompey

Do

Plan your visit beforehand on Google Maps or Google Earth, or re-live it afterwards. Streetview coverage exists for part of the city and there are 3D models of many of the buildings. Bing Maps also provides fairly detailed oblique views of the city. Buy a guidebook. Get the official guide (Pompeii: Guide to the Site, published by Electa Napoli) from the site bookshop next to the ticket office. Lots of guides and maps are available, but this one neatly combines the two. Have a look at random villas, as sometimes even small side rooms have amazing frescoes (wall paintings). Don't miss the "Garden of the Fugitives" at the south-east side where plaster casts of several victims (sadly, including children) are on display where they originally fell. The plants in this garden have been reconstructed to match ancient growth, based on the study of plaster casts of plant roots. Walk outside the City Gates to the Villa of the Mysteries, one of the greatest houses to come down to us from the ancient world. Even on a very hot day, it is worth the walk. Put a big memory card in your camera. There are many hundreds of photo opportunities in this site.

Buy

Interesting plastic "past & present" books sold for €12 by vendors. Deal with them for an even better price Buy a tour guide book for €5, so you can read more about the interesting city history, building and artifacts. There is so much to learn from the Romans and to see how they lived. Cameos. These are a local speciality and tour buses frequently stop at a factory.

Eat

On the way from the station to the official entrance loads of shops try to sell stuff for very expensive prices but the food is not outstanding. Drinks, especially the freshly pressed orange and lemon juices, however, are fantastic especially in the heat, though slightly pricey (€3 for a glass) You can get a very good panino (filled bread roll) from some of the stands. The one at the end near the Porta Marina has fantastic ones. There is a café and restaurant in the excavation area, just north of the Forum. Not surprisingly, this is rather expensive and not particularly good. Nonetheless, it is an OK place to take a break and recuperate, particularly with its air conditioning. If you don't have time for a rest you can grab a €3 ice cream from a service window that faces the street. The restaurant has toilets, seemingly the only ones on the site.

Drink

Remember to take enough water to drink as it gets quite hot in the dusty streets. Keep your empty bottles for refilling as there are occasional water taps around the site dispensing rather odd-smelling water that, however, seems to be drinkable. Lemon and Orange granita bought from outside the site are a tasty way to cool down.

Stay safe

Mt. Vesuvius is an active volcano and can erupt at any time. Scientists have devised a system to detect impending eruptions, though, so feel free to browse Pompeii's ruins without fear of falling ash and lapilli (pumice)! It's more likely that you should be trying to protect yourself from pickpockets. The site attracts a huge array of international visitors every day, and this money attracts some thieves, so keep your valuables protected, particularly near the entrances and the train station.

If you come by car, be aware not to park at the parking place near the entrance to the archaeological site. It is a tourist trap! Though there is no price displayed at the entrance of the parking, you'll be surprised when finding out that it costs €2 per hour when trying to leave, and you cannot leave unless you pay. This means that if your visit to Pompeii lasts a whole day (which a site like this certainly deserves) you may end up paying as much as €20 or more. There are much cheaper parking places just a few hundred meters down the hill in the town, and if you stay at one of Pompeii's hotels they normally offer free parking at one of these.

Bags larger than 30x30x15 cm are not allowed inside the ruins. You must leave them at the free cloakroom at the entrance.

Go next

Also visit the National Museum in Naples, where most of the best preserved mosaics and found items from Pompeii are kept. Visit the sister site Herculaneum, which is also on the Circumvesuviana line and suffered a similar fate to Pompeii's. Though it is a smaller site it was covered by a pyroclastic surge (instead of the ash and lapilli that covered Pompeii). This allowed some second storeys to survive. Head over to the underwater Archaeological Park of Baiae Take a trip to the Amalfi Coast Take a boat from Naples or Sorrento to the island of Capri Buses leave for Mt. Vesuvius from the site (8 per day, every half hour 09:30-10:30 and every hour starting at 11:25, takes 1 hour) Go by Circumvesuviana local train to the Antiquarium of Boscoreale, a pretty museum displaying every day life objects discovered in the Vesuvian archaeological sites. Go by Circumvesuviana local train to Oplontis Go by Circumvesuviana local train to Stabiae