Pompeii in 2 days, on foot

This 2-day self-guided walking plan for Pompeii covers 15 narrated sights in an easy day-by-day order. Each day is split into a morning and an afternoon loop, and every stop has a two to three minute audio story in the Gingerguide app.

You set the pace: this is a suggested order, not a schedule. Walk it in 2 days, or stretch it out. Reorder freely; Pompeii rewards a detour.

Day 1

Morning

1. The Forum: The political and civic heart of Pompeii, a grand open square surrounded by temples and civic buildings, with Vesuvius dominating the horizon through the temple columns.
2. Plaster Casts of the Victims: The haunting plaster casts created by archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli in 1863, poured into the voids left by decomposed bodies in the hardened volcanic ash, preserving the final moments of eruption victims.
3. House of the Faun: The largest and most luxurious private house in Pompeii, home to the Alexander Mosaic (now in Naples) and a charming bronze dancing faun, the finest example of Hellenistic domestic architecture in existence.
4. Temple of Jupiter: The dominant temple at the northern end of the Forum, dedicated to the Capitoline triad of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, with Vesuvius perfectly framed in the gap between the columns.

Afternoon

1. Villa of the Mysteries: A suburban villa just outside the city gates with the most extraordinary fresco cycle in the ancient world, a sequence of large-scale paintings depicting an initiation into the Dionysian mysteries, still vivid after 2,000 years.
2. Lupanar (Ancient Brothel): The only purpose-built brothel in Pompeii, featuring erotic frescoes above each cubicle that served as a menu, graffiti reviews on the walls, and extraordinary insights into Roman commercial sexuality.
3. Thermopolium: Roman Fast Food Counter: A remarkably preserved Roman fast-food counter with food still in its terracotta jars, a skeleton was found behind the counter, and the dolia (food containers) still contain traces of the last meals ever served.
4. Amphitheatre of Pompeii: The oldest surviving Roman amphitheatre in the world (70 BC), with a capacity of 20,000, twice the city's population, and the site of Pink Floyd's famous 1971 concert filmed without an audience.

Day 2

Morning

1. House of the Vettii: The finest surviving example of a wealthy freedman's house, with spectacular mythological frescoes in the dining rooms and the famous Priapus fresco at the entrance, owned by two brothers who made their fortune in trade.
2. Forum Baths: The best-preserved Roman bath complex in Pompeii, with intact caldarium, tepidarium, and frigidarium, featuring original stucco ceiling decoration and a cold plunge pool that visitors can still see in near-perfect condition.
3. Basilica of Pompeii: The oldest surviving Roman basilica (2nd century BC), the law courts and commercial hall of ancient Pompeii, whose architectural form would become the template for the Christian church building across Europe.
4. Temple of Apollo: The oldest temple in Pompeii, predating the Roman city by centuries, with bronze statues of Apollo and Diana (copies) and Ionic columns that have stood for nearly 2,500 years.

Afternoon

1. Via dell'Abbondanza: Main Street: Pompeii's main shopping and commercial street, with stepping stones for crossing, ruts from cart wheels, painted shop fronts, electoral graffiti, and the most complete surviving picture of a Roman street in daily use.
2. Orto dei Fuggiaschi: Garden of the Fugitives: The most emotionally powerful site in Pompeii, a garden where 13 victims were found together in the positions where they fell, overwhelmed by the pyroclastic surge as they tried to escape the eruption.
3. Pompeii Antiquarium: The on-site museum displaying artefacts from daily life in Pompeii, jewellery, coins, surgical tools, food containers, and objects that bring the reality of Roman domestic and commercial life into vivid focus.

Full Pompeii guide and all stops →