Pompeii tickets

Express or Pompeii+?

Pompeii Express (€20) covers the ancient city: the Forum, baths, houses, theatres and amphitheatre. Pompeii+ (€25) adds the suburban villas route, meaning the Villa of the Mysteries and the Villa of Diomedes, plus Villa Regina and its Antiquarium at Boscoreale, with the Artebus shuttle to get there.

If the Villa of the Mysteries is on your list, buy Pompeii+ from the start. The villas are not sold on their own. Express holders can add them on site for €8, card only, at the Porta Ercolano–via delle Tombe gate, which works out more expensive than buying Pompeii+ in the first place.

Staying nearby for a few days? Pompeii & other sites (€30) is Pompeii+ plus Oplontis, the Stabiae villas and the Stabiae museum, valid 3 days with one entry per site.

All tickets are single entry. Leave for lunch and you can't get back in on the same ticket.

Named tickets, entry windows and the daily cap

Pompeii no longer sells anonymous tickets. Each one shows the visitor's name, the date and an entry window: morning (9am–1pm) or afternoon. The park admits at most 20,000 people a day, 15,000 in the morning window and 5,000 in the afternoon.

What this means for you:

• Carry a passport or ID card for every adult. Staff can ask for it at the turnstile or spot-check during the visit. If the name doesn't match, you're refused entry with no refund.
• No refunds and no changes to the name or date, unless the park closes unexpectedly.
• The afternoon window has a third of the morning's capacity, so on summer weekends don't count on turning up at 2pm and walking in.

The reduced €2 ticket is for EU citizens aged 18–24 (and non-EU residents with certain Italian residence permits). Everyone else over 18 pays full price, whatever student card you have. Under-18s are free regardless of nationality, but online they can only be added to at least one paid ticket.

Official site or a reseller?

The official seller is Vivaticket, linked from pompeiisites.org. It's the cheapest way in, the PDF goes on your phone and you scan it at the turnstile. It is also rigid: no date changes, no refunds, no help if your train is cancelled.

Tiqets, GetYourGuide and Headout charge more for the same entry. In return they may still have stock when an official window is sold out, sometimes offer free cancellation, and add what the park itself doesn't sell: audio guides, archaeologist-led tours, small groups and transfers from Naples, Sorrento or even Rome. The names-and-ID rule applies to those tickets too, so have everyone's full name ready when you book.

A guide is worth it on a first visit. Pompeii is big, signage is thin, and without someone leading you it's easy to spend an hour in the sun looking for the one house you came to see.

Getting there and practical tips

From Napoli Centrale (Piazza Garibaldi) take the Circumvesuviana Naples–Sorrento line and get off at Pompei Villa dei Misteri. The Porta Marina and Piazza Esedra entrances are a few minutes' walk. Coming from Sorrento it's the same line in the other direction. The Naples–Poggiomarino line stops at Pompei Santuario, closer to the Piazza Anfiteatro entrance.

Bags bigger than 30×30×15 cm go to the left-luggage desk, so leave the suitcase at the hotel if you can. Wear closed shoes because the Roman paving stones are uneven, and bring water and a hat. In winter the last entry is 3:30pm and the site closes at 5pm, so arriving after lunch means seeing only a fraction of it. The "Pompei per tutti" step-free route starts at Piazza Anfiteatro.