What to See in Pompeii: A Hour-by-Hour Guide for Visiting on Your Own

The first time I walked into Pompeii I spent forty minutes wandering around Regio I with no idea what I was looking at. There are plaques with the Latin name of each house, a faded map at a few junctions, and little else. You walk the Via dell'Abbondanza over the very flagstones scored by cart wheels, you peer into courtyards with the fountain still standing, and without a bit of homework it ends up being a pleasant stroll and not much more.

Visiting Pompeii on your own is perfectly doable and, in my view, better than going in a group: you go in when you like, you can linger for half an hour in front of a fresco if you want to, and you don't have to follow a coloured umbrella. But you have to do the reading before you turn up.

Pompeii tickets 2026: what they cost

These are the prices from the official table of the Archaeological Park, in force since 12 January 2026:

• Pompeii Express — €20. The ancient city only. It's what almost everyone buys and it fills a full day without feeling thin.
• Pompei+ — €25. Adds the suburban villas (Villa of the Mysteries, Villa of Diomedes and Villa Regina in Boscoreale with its Antiquarium) and the shuttle bus that links them.
• Pompeii Plus 3 days — €30. Also includes Oplontis, Villa Arianna, Villa San Marco and the Stabia Archaeological Museum.

The reduced ticket costs €2 for EU citizens aged 18 to 24. The first Sunday of the month is free, although on that day the site fills up with local coach trips.

If you bought the Express and mid-morning you change your mind about the Villa of the Mysteries, you can add the suburban villas route for €8 by paying at Porta Ercolano, at the start of the Via dei Sepolcri. Card only. It's on the official site and you don't have to decide on the day you book.

What's worth knowing before you book

Tickets have been named since November 2024 and there is a cap of 20,000 visitors per day. They carry your name and at the gate they can ask for your ID card or passport, so check that it matches your document exactly.

Between 16 March and 14 October there are also two time slots, and they are not equivalent. The morning slot, 9:00 to 13:00, has 15,000 places. The afternoon one, 13:00 to 17:30, has barely 5,000. If you book late in summer you'll be left with the worse half of the day.

With the standard ticket you can't leave and come back in. It says so literally on the price table and it mainly affects where you eat lunch.

The official online sales channel is Vivaticket, linked from pompeiisites.org. Resellers easily charge 30 or 50% more for the same ticket. The physical ticket offices are only inside the site, at the three entrances, so turning up in August without a ticket is a slow way to lose the morning. Save a screenshot of the QR code before you arrive, because reception at the gate is patchy.

How to get to Pompeii from Naples, Sorrento or Rome

From Naples, take the Circumvesuviana from Napoli Garibaldi, below the central station, heading for Sorrento. The stop is Pompei Scavi – Villa dei Misteri: about forty minutes, with frequent departures throughout the day. There's another station called simply «Pompei», on the Poggiomarino line, which drops you in the modern town and leaves you with a decent walk. It's an old commuter train, with unreliable air conditioning in summer and often crowded, but it does the job.

From Sorrento it's the same line in the other direction and the trip is a bit shorter. From Rome, take the high-speed train to Napoli Centrale, a little over an hour, and change there for the Circumvesuviana; it's worth leaving early to be at the gate before 10:00. By car, there are private car parks next to Porta Marina and Piazza Anfiteatro, handy if you're coming from the Amalfi Coast.

Which gate to enter by: the decision that shapes your day

Pompeii has three entrances and picking the wrong one doubles the walking.

Porta Marina is the main one, right next to the station, and drops you straight at the Forum. You start with the most impressive bit, with the downside that by half past ten there's a human traffic jam on the first stretch.

Piazza Anfiteatro is at the opposite end, next to the modern town. If you enter there you walk the city against the main flow and reach the Forum around midday, once the groups have cleared off. It's also the gate for the accessible «Pompeii for all» route.

Piazza Esedra sits beside Porta Marina and usually has shorter queues. It's the one the park itself recommends for the Antiquarium, which is included with the ticket and which huge numbers of people skip without realising they've paid for it.

What to see in Pompeii in a day: hour-by-hour itinerary

Before the route, two warnings that are worth more than the itinerary itself.

The first: the list of open buildings changes constantly. The park publishes on its website which houses can be visited each day and the page is updated every few weeks. There are domus that open only on specific days, others closed for months on end for restoration and some that turn out shut on the morning because staff are missing. Check it the night before and keep two or three alternatives in mind.

The second: you'll have to double back. Pompeii isn't walked in a straight line. The houses sit on both sides of the main streets, many have a single entrance and you often have to retrace half a block. With five or six hours you can take it slowly. With four you move at a clip. With less than three, better to come back another day.

9:00 – 11:00. The eastern end

Start with the Amphitheatre of Pompeii, the oldest surviving in the Roman world, and the Palestra Grande next door, where the plaster casts of the victims are on display. A few minutes away is the Garden of the Fugitives, with thirteen casts in the exact spot where the people died. Carry on to the House of Venus in a Shell, with its fresco of the goddess on a blue background in the garden, and the Estate of Julia Felix, a complex of flats, baths and rented premises that explains the real Pompeii better than many grand houses.

11:00 – 13:00. The Via dell'Abbondanza

This was the city's shopping street and it pays to walk it ducking in and out on both sides. The Fullonica of Stephanus still has the tubs for treading and washing clothes. The Thermopolium of Vetutius Placidus has the counter with jars set into it and a lararium painted at the back. The Lupanar of Pompeii still has the built-in beds and the frescoes on the ground floor; it tends to build up queues because the corridor is narrow and two groups can't pass at once. The Stabian Baths, the oldest in the city, let you follow a Roman bath's full circuit, with separate men's and women's sections and the ceiling stucco still in place.

13:00 – 14:00. The Forum

The civic square, with the Macellum of Pompeii (the meat and fish market), the Sanctuary of Apollo with its travertine altar, the Temple of Jupiter and Vesuvius framed right behind it, and the Building of Eumachia. Pop into the Forum Granary, now used as a storeroom, to see the stacked amphorae and more plaster casts.

15:00 – 17:00. The grand quarter

The House of the Faun takes up a whole block and keeps in situ the replica of the mosaic of the Battle of Issus; the original is in the Naples Archaeological Museum.

The House of the Vettii, reopened after years of restoration, is the best preserved on the site.

The House of the Tragic Poet has the Cave Canem mosaic in its entrance. If you've got the Pompei+ or you bought the supplement, head out via Necropolis of Porta Ercolano, walk the Necropolis of the Via dei Sepolcri and finish at the Villa of the Mysteries, for the red frieze of the Dionysian room.

Where to eat in Pompeii: the midday break

Eat between 14:00 and 15:00, and not because you're hungry. It's the hottest part of the day, the one when walking gets least done, and precisely the hour when the organised groups leave the site.

The catering options inside the site are limited and they get hammered at that time. Around the three gates there are trattorias and pizzerias at normal prices, especially near Piazza Anfiteatro, the least touristy of the three. Here the no-re-entry rule bites again: if you go out for lunch, your visit is over. That's why the sensible move is usually to bring a sandwich and some fruit and sit in the shade in one of the rest areas, saving the restaurant for after three. With small children or in extreme heat, going out to eat and not coming back can be the right call.

Take water in with you. There are fountains inside, but they're poorly signposted and you shouldn't rely on finding them.

The ones hardly anyone sees

If you're coming back or have time to spare, look for these four. Check beforehand on the park's website that they're open:

• The Insula of the Chaste Lovers, opened to the public in May 2024, with a raised walkway looking down on a bakery and a stable with the remains of the donkeys that turned the mills.
• The Thermopolium of Regio V, excavated in 2020, with the polychrome counter and the frescoes of the dog and the Nereid.
• The House of Leda and the Swan, with a fresco uncovered in 2018.
• The Necropolis of Porta Nocera, outside the walls, where there's no one. Porta Nocera and the walls are nearby too.

Pompeii audio guide in English

There are no explanations inside. That's why it's worth having a Pompeii audio guide in English ready before you go through the turnstile.

Guipock is ours, so read this with that filter on. We built it to be downloaded before you go in and to work offline, which on a site of this size isn't a small detail. You carry commentary on every house, every temple and every street, and you decide how long you spend at each.

The practical bits

The Roman paving is uneven and slippery: no sandals. In summer, a litre and a half of water per person as a minimum, because there's no shade and by two in the afternoon the Forum is an oven. If you're going to use an audio guide and a camera for six hours, bring a power bank. And decide where you're eating before you go through the turnstile.

One idea to walk in with: you won't have time to see it all, and you don't need to. Pompeii has more than a thousand excavated buildings. Pick in advance the houses that genuinely interest you, check they're open and give them time, instead of poking your head through thirty doorways in a row without understanding any of them.

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Prices, opening hours, time slots and access conditions verified against the official price table of the Parco Archeologico di Pompei (pompeiisites.org, «Orari e tariffe» section), updated on 28 July 2026. The list of open buildings is checked on the same site, under «Open buildings». The park changes both regularly: confirm before you book.