Visit Pompeii & Hike Mount Vesuvius on this Rome Day Trip
Visit Pompeii & Hike Mount Vesuvius from Rome
There are so many amazing things to do in Rome that you could easily spend two weeks exploring without ever leaving the city. Not to mention my favorite activity in Europe: just wandering the streets with no destination in mind. Plus you have to allow time to enjoy all the delicious food that Rome has to offer! Nevertheless, I always try to take at least one day trip out of the city when I’m traveling.
The selection of day trips from Rome can be overwhelming. Tuscany, Florence, Positano, and even Venice are all potential day trips from Rome. Each of these Italian destinations seems deserving of more than a day trip, so I’m glad that our group chose the Pompeii & Mount Vesuvius Volcano Day Trip from Rome to round out our week of Rome walking tours.
Rome to Pompeii
Dark Rome offers several Pompeii day trips from Rome, utilizing coach buses or a high-speed train in addition to “skip-the-line” access to the ruins at Pompeii.
While the high-speed train saves a couple of hours in transit, I enjoyed having a comfortable bus seat with guided commentary to prepare us for the tour ahead. To be honest, the day before our Pompeii tour was an 18-hour day, so I also appreciated the opportunity to snooze a bit on the way to Naples and Pompeii.
Pompeii Tour
While it’s possible to tour Pompeii on your own, the sheer size would be overwhelming. Our guide Michele was local to Naples and was one of the best tour guides we had on this trip.
Given the quality of all of our Dark Rome tour guides on this trip, that’s saying a lot! He was so passionate about the history, preservation, and renovation of Pompeii. It made our Pompeii tour so much more interesting!
Pompeii was a thriving city when nearby Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. The city was destroyed, but the volcanic ash and pumice were so thick that most buildings were amazingly well-preserved, aside from the roofs which mostly collapsed under the weight.
The ruins lay buried for nearly 1600 years until excavation began, and continues to this day. The current archeological site is huge, and yet it represents only 35% of the city as it once was. Every tour is different, so it’s possible to visit Pompeii several times without repeating any information.
I highly recommend booking a small-group tour or a semi-private tour of Pompeii. With a small group, we were able to access smaller areas that cannot accommodate larger groups.
Throughout our Pompeii tour, we visited a theater, admired street art, and graffiti, toured private homes with colorful frescos on the walls, and visited various businesses, including a laundry facility. For me, the most memorable stop on our Pompeii tour was the thermal bath, with rooms that looked nearly identical to modern-day gym locker rooms.
One of the more interesting aspects of a visit to Pompeii is that you are touring the ruins under the shadow of the volcano that caused them in the first place. The most recent eruption took place in the early 20th century, and it’s estimated that it will erupt again at some point in the future. Therefore, I recommend you visit Pompeii as soon as possible!
Mount Vesuvius Hike
After touring Pompeii and a quick stop for some of the best Neapolitan pizza I’ve ever had, we were off to visit Mount Vesuvius. The volcano looms over Pompeii, Naples and the Bay of Naples. The bus takes a long winding road nearly to the top of Mount Vesuvius. A word of caution to anyone who gets motion sickness as this road is very twisty!
After arriving at the end of the road, we piled out of the coach bus to begin our Mount Vesuvius hike. The air is much cooler up here, and we visited on a cloudy day so it was quite cool. It’s good to wear layers as you will warm up quickly during the uphill hike.
The path is really a dirt road, quite wide with a gradual incline. Along the way, there are a couple of gift shops/rest stops where you can catch your breath and grab souvenirs.
We had about an hour to hike to the top and return back to the bus. This was just enough time to linger along the way, enjoying expansive views and accessing several different viewpoints into the crater. You can still see smoke coming from a few fissures, evidence that you are hiking on an active volcano!
After the Mount Vesuvius hike, we boarded the bus back to Rome, where we arrived in the early evening, just in time for dinner. This Rome to Pompeii day trip was the perfect escape from the city and a great chance to see some of the Italian countryside.
I would love to return to see more of Pompeii as well as the nearby ruins at Herculaneum, another town destroyed in the Mount Vesuvius eruption.
Based on our visit, I would say fall is the best time for a Mount Vesuvius visit. It closes in mid-November and doesn’t reopen until April. Summer would be quite warm, but we were lucky to have cooler weather which makes hiking very pleasant! Although the ancient theaters at Pompeii still host concerts in the summer, so that would be a great time to visit Pompeii.
Contributor: Leigh Wilson
Leigh is a freelance writer and travel blogger with a lifelong passion for outdoor adventure travel and urban exploration.
In 2017, Leigh and her Airedale Terrier Bailey, left Chicago on a 4-month road trip in search of a new hometown, which is now Tucson, Arizona. Leigh blogs at Campfires & Concierges, where she shares travel tips, destination inspiration, must-see excursions, and dog-friendly destinations.