Visting Pompeii and Herculaneum

Visting Pompeii and Herculaneum
Ask the experts: Anne Hanley, our Italy expert, suggests the best travel options for visiting Pompeii, Herculaneum and other attractions in the Naples area. 

You might want to allow a whole day in Pompeii, and make a separate trip to Herculaneum Photo: Alamy--P J Hereford, Herefordshire, writes
I have been reading Mary Beard’s excellent piece in The Daily Telegraph about Pompeii and Herculaneum and have decided to take our daughter for a trip both to mark her 30th birthday and her safe return from a second tour of duty as an intensive care nurse at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan.
The Circumvesuviana suburban railway makes travel from Sorrento to the archaeological sites extremely simple. It’s just under half an hour to Pompeii and another 17 minutes on from there to Herculaneum. Visiting them both in one day would be quite a marathon, so if you want to make the most of it, you might want to allow a whole day in Pompeii, and make a separate trip to Herculaneum.Tickets to individual sites cost €11 (£9.50), but the combined ticket covering five sites in the area is valid for three consecutive days and costs €20 (£17). Unless you buy an ArteCard (below), you cannot book your tickets, and they must be paid for in cash at the gate.
 If you want to visit more attractions in the Naples area, the €27 (£23) three-day Campania ArteCard (buy online at campaniartecard.it) gives free entrance to two places (including Pompeii and Herculaneum), a 50 per cent discount on all others and unlimited use of public transport (though it can only be picked up at Pompeii and Herculaneum, or Naples, so you will have to pay one leg on the train to get there). A single from Sorrento to Pompeii or Herculaneum costs €2.10 (£1.80). 
Ancient Italy: alternatives to Pompeii
The British Museum’s current exhibition can only increase the crowds at Pompeii. So now’s the time to visit the other 'Vesuvian’ sites, says Mary Beard. 

The modern town of Ercolano, built on top of Herculaneum Photo: Alamy
The buried city of Pompeii always grabs the headlines — and the tourist hordes. But it wasn’t the only place overwhelmed by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79. That is something worth remembering if, inspired by the new exhibition at the British Museum, you are thinking of travelling out to see the ruins. Those who long to enjoy a glimpse of Ancient Roman life in relative peace and quiet, and without the jostling of fellow visitors, should plan a visit to one of the less well-known “Vesuvian sites”. None is quite as extensive as Pompeii itself, but they spring some memorable surprises and are not too difficult to reach by public transport. If you’re lucky, you may have one or two of these places almost to yourself.
View our interactive graphic of Pompeii's sites
Pompeii’s “little sister”, the town of Herculaneum (just 10 miles to the north, nearer Naples), almost beats Pompeii for the completeness of its preservation, though it attracts fewer tourists. True, much less of the place has been uncovered — partly because the modern town of Ercolano is built on top of it, partly because it was covered by yards of rock-solid volcanic debris, which makes it tough to excavate. In fact the modern site reveals just one corner of the little town. But there’s an advantage in that rock-hard covering: it preserved all kinds of unexpected things that the shallower and looser ash that fell on Pompeii did not.Most striking of all are the wooden fixtures and fittings. The houses in Pompeii can look disconcertingly bare and “open plan”, thanks in part to the loss of almost all the wood. Herculaneum gives us a rather different view. In one house you can still see a wonderful wooden screen that gave privacy to one of the rooms off the main hall (or atrium).

A statue at Herculaneum, Pompeii’s 'little sister’
There are also traces of wooden stairways and balconies, and of wooden furniture — from cupboards and couches, right down to a baby’s cradle. (This furniture is not usually on public display on the site itself but some key pieces feature in the British Museum exhibition.)
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Other extraordinary survivals are the papyrus rolls. Just outside Herculaneum itself is a large and lavish residence, the so-called Villa of the Papyri. This has hardly been excavated in the normal sense of the word at all, but intrepid diggers in the 18th century tunnelled down to it, in narrow shafts through the 65ft or so of solid covering. Somehow they managed to bring back up not only more than 80, mostly bronze, sculptures (currently occupying a whole room of the Naples Archaeological Museum), but also the remains of a large library of papyrus rolls — only now being successfully unrolled and deciphered. Sadly, perhaps, for those hoping for the lost works of great classical literature, almost all the books so far have turned out to be the work of a single, frankly rather second-rate, Greek philosopher called Philodemus.
Archaeologists have argued for decades about the differing characters of Herculaneum and Pompeii. Even if it were fully excavated, Herculaneum would certainly be much smaller than its neighbour, not much more than what we would call a large village. And many people think that it was also rather sleepier and rather plusher (think Bourton-on-the-Water, perhaps) than the bustling, commercial and probably more politicised Pompeii next door. The painted election slogans, for example, that are such a feature of that town are simply not found at Herculaneum.
But it is absolutely certain that neither of these places was as upmarket as many of the lavish country residences round about them. The Bay of Naples was the holiday paradise of the metropolitan Roman elite. It was their Riviera — where they built their sometimes over-the-top holiday homes.
Naples
The biggest and most spectacular of these is a “villa” the size of a palace just outside Pompeii, at a place called Oplontis. In fact, it is sometimes believed to have had links with the Roman imperial family itself, as one of the properties of the emperor Nero’s wife Poppaea. That’s a rather doubtful claim, but — Poppaea or not — this is about as grand a residence as Roman money could buy. The paintings on its walls, in elaborate 3D trompe l’oeil, are the most astounding we have from anywhere in the Roman world and leave most of what you can see at Pompeii and Herculaneum looking, frankly, a little cheap. To cap it all, in the back garden there is an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
Even in the height of summer, few visitors make it to Oplontis. Even fewer get to the almost as extravagant Roman residences a few miles away at Stabiae, sited to capture what must have been in ancient times the most wonderful sea views (no longer — as the coast line has changed).
Some of the finds from the excavations of the Stabiae villas are among the highlights of the collection of the Naples Archaeological Museum, including the famous painting of “Primavera” gathering flowers and some exquisite obsidian cups. These alone (plus the sculptures from the Villa of the Papyri) make a visit to that rather “unreconstructed” museum worthwhile.
But in some ways the cases and cases of Roman bric à brac are just as impressive — the lamps (often decidedly phallic in shape), the hundreds of little bronze statuettes, the pots and pans, the carpenters’ tools, even the musical instruments. There is so much of the stuff that it can be hard to take in (and many visitors do walk briskly by), but it gives the best idea we have of the kind of clutter that must have littered real Roman homes, and it’s a nice reminder that in terms of domestic mess, the ancients were not much different from ourselves.
 Mary Beard is professor of classics at the University of Cambridge and the author of Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town (Profile, £9.99), which won a Wolfson History Prize.
Six essential sights
The House of the Wooden Screen, Herculaneum
Walk into the main hall and see the classic arrangement of water basin in the floor in the middle (to catch the rain coming in through the opening in the roof). The wooden screen across the back of the hall gives an idea of how much more private and snug these houses might have been than they seem at first sight.
The House of the Black Salon, Herculaneum
As its modern name suggests, this large house shows the variety of interior decoration in the Roman world (not all “Pompeian red”). Here we find elegant decoration in black, white and brown.
The House of Neptune and Amphitrite, Herculaneum
At the front of this house is a typical Roman shop, with areas for sales, storage and (compact) family living. Heavily restored, it gives a good idea of a Roman shopkeeper’s world.
Mosaic of Neptune and Amphitrite
The garden at Oplontis
As well as the extraordinary painting in the reception rooms, don’t miss the illusionistic internal garden – a series of small open courtyards, with their walls cleverly decorated to match the plants that would have grown there.
The slave areas at Oplontis
Look for the service corridors and slave areas – a sign you have reached them is the wall decoration: not the expensive painting of the public areas, but diagonal black and white stripes (“zebra stripe”).
National Archaeological Museum at Naples
Among the assorted bronzeware, seek out the cooking equipment: pans and moulds and egg poachers that would not look out of place in a kitchen today. There is some ancient gynaecologists’ equipment too.
Essentials
 Life and death in Pompeii and Herculaneum continues at the British Museum (britishmuseum.org) until September 29, admission £15. Mary Beard is one of the presenters showing viewers around the exhibition in Pompeii Live, a live broadcast that will be screened in cinemas around the country on June 18 (more details on the museum website).
Local practicalities
The easiest way to get to most of these sites is on the Circumvesuviana railway, which runs from Naples around Vesuvius and to Sorrento. This takes you within easy walking distance of Herculaneum (Ercolano station) and Oplontis (Torre Annunziata).
Reaching Stabiae is not quite so straightforward. From the Via Nocera station on the Circumvesuviana, you are faced with a hefty walk or a bus journey (through the not very tourist-friendly town of Castellammare di Stabia).
If you are planning to visit Pompeii and Herculaneum and at least one other site in the region, buy the combined ticket — which gives a substantial discount on the individual entry price.
The Naples Archaeological Museum has an excellent bookshop, but otherwise limited facilities. Don’t expect to get more than a basic drink and snack there. A walk of five to 10 minutes down the Via Santa Maria di Costantinopoli will bring you to some decent restaurants that are not simply tourist traps.
For Mary Beard’s detailed guide to planning a visit to Pompeii, see telegraph.co.uk/marybeardspompeii.
Mary Beard's Pompeii guide: a trip back to AD 79
Mary Beard, the broadcaster and classicist, offers an expert guide to visiting the Roman ruins of Pompeii.

'Pompeii is the only place in the world where you can begin to understand how the Romans of the first century AD lived' Photo: AP
By Mary Beard -11:00AM GMT 07 Feb 2013
Pompeii is unforgettable. It is the only place in the world where you can begin to understand, face to face, how the Romans of the first century AD lived: from the brothels and lavatories to the posh dining rooms and lavish bathing establishments (the modern spa, health club and gym rolled into one).
I have been studying the place for more than 30 years and the magic works every time. I slip down a deserted side street (and the site is big enough that there still are deserted side streets), and without having to use much imagination I have travelled back 2,000 years – walking along the high pavements, hopping across the road on the stepping stones, peering at the ruts made by generations of Roman carts, or at the election slogans painted on the walls by hopeful Roman candidates for office.

Not that Pompeii is a city "frozen in time". The eruption of Vesuvius that destroyed the town in AD 79 wasn't quite as devastating as it is sometimes cracked up to be. This wasn't an ordinary little town going about its everyday business as usual – when suddenly, with no warning at all, it was covered in debris from the volcano and preserved as if in aspic. Vesuvius had been rumbling for days, if not weeks.
Most of the population, perhaps more than 17,000 out of an original 20,000 or so, managed to escape – taking their prized possessions with them. If Pompeian houses today look under-furnished, that's partly because the owners had loaded their best furniture on a cart and scarpered.
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They weren't all so lucky. The old, the ill and the hopelessly optimistic (or stupid) seem to have sat it out – and died. The skeletons of one family have been found, crouched together in a back room of a large house. One of the group was in her late teens and almost nine months pregnant. That presumably explains why they stayed put. Others may simply have decided to get on with their jobs and ignore the warnings.
One team of painters was working on some expensive new wall decoration in another large property until the very last minute. They certainly left in a hurry, knocking over their ladder and bucket of cement in the process – to be found by archaeologists almost two millennia later. They may have been very lucky in their escape and got away.
More likely they have ended up as some of the dead "bodies" you can still see on the site, crouching in corners, head in hands, or clinging to each other as the debris fell – the shape of their clothing, even their facial expressions as they died, preserved.
These are now some of the biggest attractions of the ancient town: vivid, if ghoulish, reminders of the real people who lost their lives in the disastrous eruption. They are not literally "bodies" at all, of course. One ingenious 19th-century excavator had the bright idea of pouring plaster of Paris into the cavities left in the lava around skeletons, where flesh and clothing had decomposed – and, hey presto, the shape of a living human being was miraculously recovered.
Modern science has developed these techniques. We have recently discovered that you can pour plaster not only into the cavities left by corpses but into those left by the roots of plants as they decomposed under the volcanic debris. And so whole gardens have been reconstructed with their flowers, fruit trees and cuttings in pots. Microscopic analysis can tell you even more – about the pollen flying around in the air in AD 79 or occasionally, when you find a cesspit, about what went through the digestive tracts of the ancient inhabitants of the town.
Eggs, we have learnt, were among the staples of the Pompeian diet – and there were some nasty intestinal parasites around.
But the pleasure of Pompeii is that you don't actually need a microscope to make discoveries. You just need your eyes open. The fittings of lost doors and windows are there for all to see if they look hard enough. So too are the stairways in the private houses that led to upper storeys destroyed in the eruption (despite first appearances, the Pompeians did not live in bungalows – but what went on upstairs is hard to say).
One of the most curious new discoveries has come from a closer look at those cart ruts that scar the Pompeian streets.
Generations of visitors have wondered how two ancient carts could possibly have passed each other in the narrow streets of the town. The answer now seems to be that they didn't. Carefully examining the scrapes of cartwheels in the roadway and against the pavements, one team of archaeologists has worked out the direction of the traffic flow and claims to be able to plot the one-way street system operating in ancient Pompeii.
How to make the best of your visit
A visit to Pompeii hardly ever lets you down. But to have a really successful time there are two essentials apart from wide-open eyes: sensible shoes (the bumpy roads and pavements are hard on the ankles) and a water bottle (a small one is fine: there are lots of ancient street fountains where you can refill).

It is also a good idea to do a bit of planning. If you put yourself at the mercy of one of the guides who tout for business at the entrance, you will miss out on the fun of wandering as you please. It's far better to work out an agenda in advance and find your way around with a map.
There are two basic rules here. First, don't get too interested too early. Most people arrive by the little Circumvesuviana railway from Naples or Sorrento, and go in by the main entrance at the Porta Marina (the sea gate). From here you quickly come to the Forum, or the main piazza of the ancient town.
It's impressive enough in its way, and many new visitors spend ages there trying to work out what every building was. Don't. There are even more impressive things to come – brilliantly preserved bath buildings, a working-condition brothel and an amphitheatre, for example.
Second, take any opportunity offered. A lot of the best private houses of the town are locked for much of the time. But custodians do open them occasionally. If you spot an open door – go through it. All kinds of surprises might lie inside: little mosaic fountains, reconstructed gardens, the carefully crafted marble couches on which upmarket Romans dined.
Six essential sights
1. The House of the Tragic Poet (it has nothing actually to do with a tragic poet, but most houses got nicknames in the 19th century).
This is among the best-preserved private houses and features the famous "Beware of the Dog" mosaic at its entrance – and it was the one that Edward Bulwer-Lytton chose as the home of his hero Glaucus, in his engaging 1830s romp The Last Days of Pompeii.
2. The Temple of Isis
Bulwer-Lytton's villain in The Last Days was a priest of the Egyptian goddess Isis, and her temple is one of the most vividly preserved in the whole town. It was visited by the young Mozart in 1769, and gave him ideas for The Magic Flute.
3. The brothel
This is now the most-visited building on the site (more visited than in antiquity, no doubt) – and you may well have to queue to get in. It consists of five poky cubicles, with some explicit erotic paintings and a lot of graffiti from satisfied customers.
4. The Stabian Baths
These give you the best idea of what Roman bathing was like. There are richly decorated vaulted rooms for a good steam (the men's section considerably richer than the women's) – plus a swimming pool and exercise yard.
5. The Villa of the Mysteries
Just outside the city walls, this villa-cum-farm includes the most famous Pompeian wall-painting. A mysterious scene wrapping around the four walls of a large reception room, featuring flagellation, phalluses, a bride (?) and the god Dionysus.
6. The amphitheatre
One for the energetic (it's about as far from the entrance as it could possibly be), but worth the effort; 150 years older than the Colosseum, it's the earliest amphitheatre to survive anywhere in the world.

Mary Beard is Professor of Classics at Cambridge University. Her book Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town (Profile, £9.99), which won a Wolfson History Prize, is currently available.
To download the Telegraph's free iBook, 'The Treasures of Pompeii and Herculaneum', visit telegraph.co.uk/Pompeii