Wow, Pompeii was an absolute highlight of the trip so far! We had such a blast exploring the ruins. The history of Pompeii has always intrigued me, and seeing it firsthand was incredible.

We had to wake up very early for our 7:40 AM high-speed train out of Roma Termini to Napoli Centrale. From there, we had to hop on a metro to take us to Pompeii, and then a bus to get to the Pompeii Scavi stop (scavi translates to ruins in English). What a ton of transportation for one day trip! But everything went smoothly and we met up with our tour group right on time.

We had planned to do a guided tour first, then take some time afterward to explore the site on our own since our high-speed train back to Rome wasn’t until 6:35 PM. The tour was an excellent decision because we learned so much more than we would have on our own. Our guide had a PhD in archaeology and works on excavations at Pompeii in the summer, so it was incredible to hear all her insights.

One of the first things she told us was that Pompeii was buried under 50 feet of volcanic ash, which has now turned to stone. They’ve been excavating the site for 300 years and still haven’t uncovered it all! I hadn’t realized how enormous Pompeii is—it’s an entire ancient city covering 170 acres! We were navigating to addresses in there like it was an actual city on Google maps. So weird! We only had a few hours, so we couldn’t cover everything, but we made the most of our time.

Those stones are an ancient cross walk! Pompeii didn’t have a sewer system in place, so when people went to the bathroom, the waste just got dumped in the street afterwards. That meant those streets were nasty! You’d see these all around the city for this reason.

Our first stop was the Pompeii Forum, similar to the Roman Forum, but smaller. This was where we saw our first plaster casts of the bodies. It was haunting to see these people frozen in time. Something I didn’t know before this tour was how slow and painful their deaths were. There was no lava in Pompeii; instead, the people were suffocated by volcanic ash and poisonous gases. It must have been terrifying.

From there, we wandered through the market district. I loved learning the small architectural details about the city, like how store entrances had grooves for sliding doors, while homes had flat stones for doors that swung open. These kinds of tidbits always fascinate me!

We also visited the House of the Faun, which was a mansion back in its time and one of the largest homes in Pompeii. It had multiple gardens—if you had even one garden, you were considered wealthy, but two gardens meant you were seriously rich. The house had gorgeous mosaics, including one in the dining room that looked like a painting but was actually made of tiny tiles. It was amazing to walk through these rooms and imagine what life might have been like for its occupants.

The mansion even had stables and the unfortunate slaves’ quarters next to the animals. Our guide explained that slaves in Pompeii were treated poorly, often being subjected to whatever their masters wanted, including serving as mistresses.

Next, we visited Pompeii’s infamous brothel, the Lunpanar, which had frescoes depicting various sexual acts, essentially serving as a “menu” for the brothel’s clients. The rooms were small, with nothing but a stone bed. It was pretty disturbing to imagine what life was like for the women who worked there.

We passed by an ancient aqueduct on our way back from the brothel. It was made of lead! The Romans were brilliant engineers, but they didn’t know the dangers of lead poisoning, which likely caused a lot of health problems back then.

Our guided tour ended shortly after that, so we headed to the one and only cafe in Pompeii to grab lunch. The hamburger wasn’t great, but Jordan’s sandwich was pretty good, and the two cappuccinos and pistachio croissant we shared were excellent. It was just nice to sit for a moment after all the walking!

Once we finished lunch, we had some solo time to explore more of the ruins. I really wanted to see more plastered bodies, so our first stop was the Garden of the Fugitives, where 13 bodies had been excavated. It’s so eerie and sad to see these people frozen in their final moments.

After that, we wandered through a bunch of random houses, stopping wherever caught our eye. I couldn’t get enough of the mosaics and intricate designs in each one! We also visited the amphitheater and theater!

But one of my favorite stops was the Stabian Baths. The Stabian Baths are the largest and oldest baths in Pompeii, dating back to 125 BC. These weren’t just for bathing—they also served as exercise rooms. One of the rooms, the hot bath, was heated by underground steam from a brazier. It was fascinating to see how advanced their heating systems were.

We also checked out the Forum Baths, but they weren’t quite as impressive as the Stabian Baths. I joked that the Stabian Baths were for the elite, while the Forum Baths were more public.

After hours of exploring, we finally left the archaeological site and decided to walk through the modern town of Pompeii to the train station instead of taking the bus. It was a really nice stroll compared to riding a packed bus. 

Everything was going great until we got back to Roma Termini. The taxi queue was ridiculously long, and the bus lines were even worse. We found the bus stop we needed, but the bus never showed up. Eventually, everyone waiting with us left, so we figured something was up. We checked and found out that, due to construction at the station, there was a detour for public buses, but Google Maps hadn’t updated the route correctly.

We walked toward the detour and finally spotted the bus we needed, but the driver wouldn’t let us on, so we had to chase it through crowds of people until it reached the official pick-up point. We thought we were in the clear, but once we got on, the bus number changed, and everyone had to get off!

We even tried to walk farther away from the station and get on a bus further down the line, but the bus was slam packed and we couldn’t fit.

At that point, we’d had enough of public transportation and decided to walk back to the hotel—1.8 miles, or about 40 minutes, which felt brutal after all the walking we had already done in Pompeii. To top it off, it started pouring rain during the last five minutes of our walk! By the time we got back, we had walked 10.5 miles in total for the day, and my feet were aching.

We’ve had quite a few challenges with the bus system on this trip! At first, we thought we were just struggling to figure out the routes and stops, but today we finally realized the root of the problem: constant construction and detours around the city. Turns out, our navigation skills weren’t so bad after all—it’s just Rome’s bus system right now (or at least that’s what I’m going to tell myself lol.) 

For dinner, we went to another recommendation from our hotel concierge, Pizzeria Da Baffetto. He gave us a great tip that if you see a restaurant serving both pizza and pasta, it’s probably too touristy, because they can’t specialize in both of these options. This place only served pizza, and it was incredible!

After such an exhausting day, it felt amazing to finally lay down and rest my feet. We don’t have much planned for tomorrow except dinner reservations, but I’m sure we’ll find something to keep busy with—hopefully not too much walking, though!