• Pompeii Archaeological Park - The tour of Pompeii is divided into two segments: it starts in Pompeii, where the entire excavated city will be thoroughly explored. The guide will explain the culture of the era, including aspects like family roles, city politics, and governance. Visitors will explore temples, gardens, aqueducts, the forum, and the basilica of Pompeii, as well as the renowned houses of the Faun and Vettii families, the grand theatre, and the Temple of Isis. The second segment of the tour occurs in the galleries of the Archaeological Museum of Naples, founded in 1738 by Charles III of Spain, who began excavations in Herculaneum. As the heir to the Farnese family’s extensive Roman antiquities collection, he transferred them to the Naples Museum. The museum’s collections today are truly remarkable, including several perfectly preserved mosaics that were protected under lava for centuries. The tour concludes with the Secret Cabinet, which contains objects with erotic themes found in Pompeii. These items, once kept in a restricted collection, are now openly displayed.

• Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli - The Archaeological Museum of Naples

The origins of the Archaeological Museum of Naples date back to 1738 when Charles III of Spain, founder of the new Kingdom of Naples, initiated excavations in Herculaneum. Due to the abundance of discoveries, excavations extended to Pompeii in 1748 and Stabiae in 1749, where they continue to unearth history. As Charles III was the son of Elisabetta Farnese, a descendant of the powerful Farnese family, he inherited their vast Roman antiquities collection, which was transferred to the Naples Museum. The museum’s collections today are extraordinary, and even a small portion of these collections in 1750 at the royal villa of Portici-Herculaneum made Naples a must-visit on the Grand Tour—a sophisticated cultural journey through the birthplaces of classical art and literature undertaken by young European aristocrats to complete their education.

In addition to a fascinating series of inscriptions, intricately carved sarcophagi, and vases from various regions of southern Italy, the Museum houses numerous sculptures. For instance, there is the marble statue of Marcus Holconius Rufus, the most prominent citizen of Augustan-era Pompeii, depicted in military attire. The statue originally stood in the city’s center. There are also exquisite statues of Dacian barbarian prisoners, crafted in two different marble qualities, originally owned by the Roman Colonna family; two marble equestrian statues of Marcus Nonius Balbus, father and son, from Herculaneum; and the colossal statues of the Greek gods Castor and Pollux from Baia.

The Farnese collection includes works of immense value: The Farnese Hercules, with its powerful musculature, resting after mythical labors, represents a Roman 3rd-century AD variation of the figure. Its contemplative attitude and posture differ from the heroic and triumphant Greek model in bronze by Lysippos from the 4th century BC. In contrast, the Farnese Bull is a tumultuous work, depicting the painful torture of Dirce, bound to an enraged bull’s legs as punishment for her errors. The group’s pyramidal organization, with the bull’s head raised in imminent fury and the characters’ emotional intensity, creates a unique work rivaled only by the Laocoon in the Vatican Museums.

The central and largest part of the collection consists of objects unearthed from the excavations of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiae, and other Vesuvian centers buried by the 79 AD eruption. Gold and emerald pins, earrings, bracelets, and necklaces are perhaps the most intimate objects, offering insight into the private lives of Pompeii’s men and women. There are also everyday furnishings, the ancestors of modern pots and glasses, mostly in silver, as well as braziers, tripods, scales, lanterns, and harness bells, mostly in bronze, along with many other curiosities. Other masterpieces deserving admiration include the bronze statues from the Corridors of the Villa dei Papiri of Herculaneum, whose glass paste eyes still shine with life, and the bronze statue of the Drunken Satyr, reveling in divine abandon.

Visitors will also see a dozen perfectly preserved mosaics with refined, cultivated subjects, as well as everyday and comic themes. These mosaics, removed from walls or floors and preserved under lava for centuries, have no equivalent in any other museum worldwide. Mosaics such as the Battle of Alexander the Great, the Traveling Musicians, and the Academy of Plato are astonishing, and their stories, discovery locations, and political and social significance in Roman culture will be explored.

Similarly, the frescoes, familiar from school textbooks, will move visitors in person as they present the faces of distant men and women, the myths and stories that filled their lives, their gods and religion, and the daily routines of their forgotten lives.

As visitors pass through these galleries, they will gradually restore the deserted spaces visited in Pompeii with the statues’ features, the furnishings’ form and color, and the mosaic and fresco decorations that enlivened the spaces and gave meaning to the lives of both the wealthy and the less affluent, merchants, and military officials who lived in Pompeii—the vibrant and bustling city of the Roman Empire before that fateful August day in 79 AD.

The tour concludes with the Secret Cabinet, containing objects with erotic themes, often featuring explicit representations of acrobatic love. These items were also found in Pompeii. Unfortunately, at the time of their discovery, mid-1700s Bourbon Naples was conventional and conservative, and the images were deemed offensive and scandalous, thus gathered in a separate collection, accessible only to a few scholars with official permission. Fortunately, today, visitors can freely explore and be amazed by the audacity our predecessors displayed, even in this area.

• Teatro Grande - Guided tour

• Expert, English-speaking private guide
• Headsets for groups of 6 or more
• Skip-the-line tickets
• Private driver and round-trip transportation between Naples and Pompeii
• All Fees and Taxes

• Food and beverages
• Gratuities (optional)

This tour is divided into two segments: the first occurs at Pompeii, where the entire excavated city will be thoroughly explored. Participants will almost feel like specters, quietly observing the lives of the residents just before the disaster struck. The second segment of the tour is set in the galleries of the Archaeological Museum of Naples. Here, frescoes, statues, crafts, and jewels, which lay beneath the lava for centuries and were later unearthed during excavations, have been meticulously gathered to form the core of the Museum’s collections. These artifacts are unparalleled by any other museum globally. Mosaics such as the Battle of Alexander the Great, the Traveling Musicians, and the Academy of Plato are astonishing, and participants will delve into the narratives they tell, the locations where they were discovered, and their political and social significance within Roman culture.

• All visitors - children and infants included - must bring copies of passports/identification document on the day of any tour
• Please ensure you arrive 15 mins early and at the right meeting point, we cannot wait for late arrivals

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.