Private Pompeii

Walking tour in Pompeii

Tour Price : 120 Duration : 2 hours Languages: English, Italian, French, Spanish

An incredibly well preserved roman town, buried for centuries under volcanic ashes. Step into ancient public baths, private villas, public buildings, snack bars, shops, theatres and a 2000 year old amphitheatre. Marvel at the fabulously preserved frescoes and mosaics which adorn the walls and floors of the villas. High on the list of the Wonders of the World, the second most visited archaeological site in Italy, a must for your travel. This tour is designed to move around by public transport so to get immersed into local way of living. 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 (Palestra).

During our walk you will notice several places fronting the road with large vases built in a masonry counter: this is what the Romans called popinae, today’s fast-food! In fact those earthenware jars where filled up with hot food and beverages, and most men would stop in such places for lunch. You will certainly recognise some of the bakeries of Pompeii, with their ovens and their grinding machines: incredible but true some round carbonized loafs of bread where found during the excavations, they are on exhibit at the Archaeological Museum of Naples together with more carbonized organics such as almonds, pine cones, figs, dates etc…

Our visit would be incomplete if we missed the red light district: the wore-house (lupanare) shows us today an interesting display of roman frescoes featuring mostly erotic images! Pompeii had three places for public performances: an outdoor theatre (for comedy and tragedy), an indoor theatre (Odeion, for mimes and declamation of poetry) and a big amphitheatre (for games like gladiators or beast fights). We will see at least one of those places. Pompeii is too big to visit entirely in one day. We will make sure you see the highlights and that you visit an example for each typology of building.

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