Rome Travel Forum

Any suggestions for how to manage a daytrip to Pompeii from Rome? A bus tour perhaps? We will have no car, and are reluctant to brave Naples by train, due to warnings about pickpockets and muggings, but would hate to miss Pompeii...will be staying near the Pantheon.

Also, any Rome restaurant recommendations beyond pizzerias and trattorias?

Hi,
You can pre-book a day trip to Pompeii from Rome:
http://www.viator.com/tours/Rome/Rome-to-Pompeii-Shuttle-Service/d511-3058VESUVIUS.

Rome has some incredible restaurants(and some incredible prices).
Ristorante Ara Pacis just off the Via Corso is very good, but not cheap.
Most of the good restaurants are in the area known as Campo Marzo or across the Tiber in Trastevere. Be aware that if you're looking for tradiional Roman food,
you will be eating a lot of offal.

But you really, really don't have to worry about 'braving' Naples. You won't have to set foot outside the station, and you'll be perfectly safe in there and on the trains.

Train from Rome Termini to Napoli Centrale, then private Circumvesuviana train (same station, lower level)to Pompeii Scavi (takes about 30 minutes). Site entrance is more or less opposite the station.

http://www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html

for (frequent) trains times to Naples. Takes 1.5 or 2 hours, depending on which train you choose (make sure you choose the ones which go to Na C. Le ). Standard one-way fare is 36.10 euros..

Circumvesuviana timetable here:

http://www.vesuviana.it/Reteeorari/Ferrovia/Orario

Choose a tour if you wish, but don't choose one just because you are wary of going via Naples.

I did the day trip with American Express tours. Mini-bus, just 10 people. Excellent Italian guide. Included lunch and The Villa with the frescoes - sorry don't remember its name. No need to reserve way in advance, 1 day ahead is sufficient.

The office is near the Spanish Steps; Piazza di Spagna 38

Villa Poppaea.

Circumvesuviana stop: Torre Annunziata.

Herculaneum is also on the line: Ercolano.

It's feasible to do all 3 in summer, when closing times are later, if you don't spend too long at Pompeii.

Hello,

I agree with doing it on your own. It really is an easy trip to make and you will be perfectly safe. Just take the train from Rome to the Naples station. Make sure you take the normal precautions you would in any crowded situation. Hold on to your bags and cameras. No wallets in back pockets. I prefer a money belt for the bulk of my cash with just a few euros out to buy the circumvesuviana tickets (less than 15 euros round trip for 2). Catch the circumvesuviana in the lower level of the train station. It takes about half an hour to get to the Pompeii Scavi stop. Then just a three minute walk to the gates of Pompeii.

The first time I did this trip I was with my husband. Two years later I did it with my 10 year old daughter. We had a blast, just the two of us. We never felt un-safe at any time. Just be aware of your surroundings and you will be fine. Don't miss Pompeii when you are so close and don't pay hundreds of dollars when you can easily and safely do it on your own. You will be fine.

Donna

have you visited Ostia Antica [the "old mouth"}? this is an ancient ruin of a city that was literally washed over by the Po (I believe), and no one knew it had existed until the 1700's. You can take the "black" subway line, in Rome, until it ends 30 minutes later at O.A. No need to spend 50 Euro apiece to sit on a tourist bus, stuck in traffic. You can walk into the rooms, see the butcher's table, the mosaic designs on the old gymnasium wrestling floor, sit in the amphitheater, etc. It sounds like a city after a heavy snowstorm -- eerily quiet! Good cafe on the premises. You see an ancient ruin without having to "brave" Naples, and you can be back in Rome by mid afternoon.

It's actually very easy to get to Ostia, simply by taking the metro to Pyramide, then going upstairs to the mainline station and getting the suburban train to 'Ostia Antica' station (train terminates at Ostia Lido). If you have a Rome travel pass it will cover this journey too: train takes about 30 minutes. The site is about 5 minutes walk from the station, and trains are frequent.

My Ostia pages have info and pics. You should visit if you can, even if you go to Pompeii as well: Ostia is an entirely different experience (abandoned and covered by soil over the centuries, eather than destroyed).

The train to Pompeii is safe. Your not going to Pompeii at night, so don't worry. You'll be fine. My tip is this: Freeze bottles of Gatorade or water the night before. Or ask your hotel to freeze them if they don't fit in your small fridge. Pompeii is HOT!!! You can buy an ice cool drink and within 10 minutes it's like drinking a hot tea. Trust me...freeze drinks before you go!

It's only hot in summer. It most definitely wasn't hot in February! :-)

But good advice to take lots of water in summer, yes...it's an open site, with very little shade because it was a large city with paved roads, and now there are no roofs! Heat is absorbed by and reflected from the stones, which makes it feel even hotter.