Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius Tour from Rome with City Wonders

I was vacationing in Rome and the recent movie Pompeii came out and naturally I wanted to go see the actual site. I found Dark Rome, which is now part of City Wonders, online which offered a variety of tours in various cities in Italy including Rome, Vatican, Venice, Florence, and Milan.They offered a day trip from Rome to visit the Pompeii ruins and a climb up Mt. Vesuvius which is still an active volcano.

On the day of the trip, we met up at Piazza del Popolo at 7:30 am where a bus took us south for about 2 hours. We did get a rest stop were we grabbed some snacks, drinks, and got to take a restroom break. Most of the way down, our tour guides talked to us about the history and fun facts about Italy and Pompeii.

When we arrived at the ruins of Pompeii, another local tour guide took us around and pointed out the different parts of the city, from a theater, to stores and restaurants, to wealthy and regular homes, to bathes and a brothel. The guide was very descriptive of what life would have been like back in the first century. The citizens were surprisingly advanced with a plumbing system to heat their communal bathe houses. It was all very interesting to learn about the history but there is lots of walking so I recommend bringing conformable shoes. Here are some pictures of the ruins:

Pompeii arena and theater

Streets of Pompei

Plaster cast mold of Pompeii citizen

Pompeii with view of Mt. Vesuvius

At around noon, we were all hungry so we were taken for a bite to eat of either margherita pizza or pasta and a side salad with your choice of drink. The pizzas are very simple in Italy so there is minimal sauce and cheese but the crust was nice and crunchy.

Margherita Pizza

Afterwards, we were taken by bus to Mt. Vesuvius. If you don’t know if you are in shape, then this trek up the mountain will certainly tell you. It is about a 20-25 minute hike to the top of the volcano crater where you can get great views of the area. You also get to see steam coming from inside the volcano to let you know that it is still active. Access to Mt. Vesuvius is from April 7 – Nov 9. From Nov 10 – April 6, the 2nd part of the tour will be at the Naples Archaeological Museum instead. Here is a picture of the volcano crater: