Pompeii and the Amalfi Coat from Naples or Sorrento

Excursion in Naples

Tour Price : 750 Duration : 9 hours Languages: English, Italian, French, Spanish

This tour includes two world’s heritage sites listed by UN: the scenic Amalfi Drive featuring some Mediterranean villages like Amalfi, Positano or Ravello and the excavations of the ancient roman town of Pompeii, buried under 20 feet of ashes during the main eruption of Mount Vesuvius . If this is the first time for you in this area, you definitely cannot miss it! On this Itinerary:

Pick-up and drop-off in Naples
Excavations of Pompeii
Sightseeing of the Amalfi Coast and its villages
Shopping time

Italian meal upon request Road book Your driver will be holding up a sign with your name off the cruise ship. First you will be riding on the sloop of the Volcano Vesuvius for about 20 minutes. On the left you will see the volcano and the oldest Observatory of the Planet, on the right you have the bay of Naples, the northern islands of Ischia and Procida, and the Cape Misenum, a peninsula which hosted once the roman fleet, famous for being the point of observation for the big eruption of Pompeii in 79 AD by the admiral of the roman fleet Pliny the Elder. Then you will be riding on the Sorrento Peninsula, with some beautiful landscape on your right hand side. Along the way your driver will give you chances to get off the transportation and take some pictures.

Once on the Amalfi Drive you are in the pure Mediterranean beauty: steep cliffs, blue sea, some luxurious villas grabbing to the rocks and this incredible narrow road stretching along the coast. On our itinerary we have three beautiful villages: Positano, Amalfi and Ravello. The time you can stop in each of them will depend on your choice and of course on your ship departure time. We normally recommend to take 2 of the 3 little towns, so to have some free time to enjoy. Consider that the diving time from the Amalfi coast back to Naples is approximately 2 hrs.

The first village we meet on the Amalfi coast will be Positano, with its white washed houses and its fancy shopping. If you like we can leave the transportation and discover the village which is mostly a pedestrian area leading down to the beach. Amalfi is the largest town on the Coast, attracting people from all over the world with its glorious past. If you like we could visit the Cathedral or we can try to get away from the crowds exploring the maze of little white painted walkways: welcome back to the Middle-Age! At last we can visit Ravello (350 metres on the sea level), certainly the most elegant and less crowded of the three. There we could visit one of its ancient villas with astonishing view or just enjoy some free time. Lunch will depend on your desire: there will be options, from a snack up to the many excellent restaurants with sea view along the itinerary. The specialty along the coast is of course sea food. On the way back we will cross the mountain range separating the Amalfi coast from the peninsula of Sorrento, once on the top there will be more spectacular views of the Vesuvius. The Excavations of Pompeii are spanned on an area of 150 acres, therefore, to make the best of your time we warmly recommend you book our guide. However if you go on your own make sure you do see the Forum, The Baths, the Brothel and the Theatre. If you book our walking tour here is the itinerary: First you will see the city walls, dating back to the pre-roman town (4 centuries BC). One of the best preserved ancient gate is called Porta Marina, it linked Pompeii and its port, with a path for charts and one for people.

Getting into town we will be walking on the original road made by basalt (volcanic rocks), and you will notice on the ground hundreds of little white spots made of travertine which were used to reflect torch light (this is what nowadays people call “cat’s eye”). Your attention will be caught by big blocks of basalt emerging from the road: they were stepping stones used by pedestrians to avoid getting wet when it rained; in fact, differently from other roman towns, Pompeii didn’t have a sewage system because the city was build on top of a lava platform too hard to be worked. The city centre was called the Forum, it hosts all the buildings with a public function: religion (the Temple of Apollo, the Capitolium and the Temple of the Emperor), trade (the meat and fish market called Macellum, the textiles market headed by a priestess called Eumachia), administration (the Basilica) and politics (Comitii).

Other facilities in the Forum where exchange offices, public restrooms and a public scale (tabula mensurae) where to compare and weigh farmer’s products. In the Forum you will also see a display of the famous human casts. Close by there were public thermal baths where both men and women (in different sections), poor and wealthy, free and slaves could access daily hygiene. Pompeii had 3 of such complexes in town plus 2 right outside the town, and they all had the following facilities: a changing room (apoditerium), a tepid room (tepidarium), a hot room (calidarium) and a Gym.

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