The following is just an example:
The Site of Ancient Pompeii is located on the Bay of Naples in between Naples, Salerno and Sorrento. Along the road, you can see and feel the towering presence of Mt Vesuvius. On the other side, you will instead enjoy nice views of the Bay of Naples and its islands. In a distance across the Bay stands Cape Misenum, where the Roman Military Navy was based and from where Pliny the Elder started his description of the eruption on 79 AD that buried Pompeii and the surrounding towns.
Please be aware Pompeii site is extended on a surface of approximately 160 acres. To make the best of your time Leisure Italy strongly recommends its optional guided services. This will also allow you to skip the line. Our guided walking tour will be adapted to the interests and walking attitude of the participants.
Here a suggested itinerary for our optional private guided walking tour of Pompeii in case you choose to explore the archaeological site together with a professional guide.
In Pompeii, you will first admire the city walls, dating back to the pre-roman Pompeii (4 centuries BC). One of the best-preserved ancient gates is called Porta Marina, it connected Pompeii with its port, with one path for charts and another for people.
Right before this gate, there is a not-to-be-missed building, the Suburban Bath House recently excavated and therefore very well preserved.
Once in town, you will be walking on the original road made by basalt stone (volcanic rock), and you will notice on the ground hundreds of little white spots made of travertine which were used to reflect torchlight (this is what nowadays people call “cat’s eye”).
Your attention will be caught by big blocks of basalt emerging from the road: they were stepping stones used by pedestrians to avoid getting wet when it rained; differently from other roman towns, Pompeii didn’t have a complete sewer system because the city was build on top of a lava platform too hard to be worked.
The city center was called the Forum, it hosts all the buildings with a public function: Religion (the Temple of Apollo, the Capitolium and the Temple of the Emperor), Trade (the meat and fish market called Macellum, the textiles market headed by a priestess called Eumachia), Administration (the Basilica) and Politics (Comitia). Other facilities in the Forum where exchange offices, public restrooms and a public scale (tabula mensurae) where to compare and weigh farmer’s products. In the Forum you will also see a display of the famous human casts.
Close to the Forum, there were public thermal baths where both men and women (in different sections), poor and wealthy, free and slaves could access daily hygiene. Pompeii had 3 of such complexes in town plus 2 right outside the town, and they all had the following facilities: a changing room (apodyterium), a tepid room (tepidarium), a hot room (calidarium) and a Gym (Palestra).
You will notice several places fronting the road with large vases built in a masonry counter: this is what the Romans called popinae, today’s taverns! Those earthenware jars weere filled up with food and beverages, and very many ancient Pompeians would stop in such places for lunch.
You will certainly recognize some of the bakeries of Pompeii, with their ovens and their grinding machines: incredible but true some round carbonized loaves of bread were found during the excavations. This is nowadays on exhibit at the Archaeological Museum of Naples together with more carbonized organics such as almonds, pine cones, figs, dates, etc…
Your visit would be incomplete without the red light district: the brothel (Lupanare) shows us today an interesting display of roman frescoes featuring several erotic images!
Do not miss the chance to discover Pompeii places for public performances: an outdoor theatre (for comedy and tragedy), an indoor theatre (Odeion, for mimes and declamation of poetry) and a big amphitheater (for games like gladiators or beast fights). You shall visit at least one of those places.
After the tour at Pompeii, you can stop for a few minutes if you wish, to get a fresh-squeezed orange juice or to browse the souvenir shops.
During your Private Tour of the Amalfi Coast, you will cross several charming villages: Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi, Ravello etc… The time you can stop in each of them will depend on your choice and of course on your ship’s last boarding time. On this tour Leisure Italy recommends to choose 2 towns, to have some time at leisure to enjoy instead of being rushed all day. Please consider that the driving time from the Amalfi coast back to Naples can take nearly 2 hours.
After you explore the archaeological site, your Private Tour of Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast will take you to the Sorrento Peninsula, with some beautiful landscape on your right-hand side. Along the way, your private driver will give you the chance to stop to take stunning panorama photos .
Once on the Amalfi Drive, you are going to experience the pure Mediterranean beauty: cliffs, blue sea, some luxurious villas perched like eagles’ nests atop the surrounding mountains and the incredible narrow winding road stretching along the coast. You will be surrounded by breath-taking scenery.
Sorrento is our choice for shopping and lunch opportunities. It is famous for its “limoncello” production – an alcoholic lemon liquor which you can taste mostly anywhere in town. Not to miss the overview to the Bay of Naples from the Garden of St-Francis.
Positano is the first village you will cross along the Amalfi Coast. Its whitewashed houses and its fancy art and ceramic galleries have attracted thousands of people from all over the world, turning it into a very touristy destination. If you like you can leave the vehicle and discover the village which is mostly a pedestrian area leading down to the beach. On the upper part of Positano there are some friendly taverns, please do not hesitate to ask your driver!
Amalfi is the most interesting place on the Amalfi coast for its glorious historical past.
You can visit the Cathedral – burial place of St. Andrew – or you can try to get away from the crowds exploring the maze of little white painted alleys and travel through time back to the Middle-Ages!
Finally, you can visit Ravello (350 meters on the sea level), certainly the most elegant and scenic village on the coast. In Ravello, you can visit either Villa Cimbrone or Villa Rufolo with their astonishing views or simply enjoy some free time.
Lunch will depend on your desire: there will be different options, from a snack up to a nice seafood meal in one of the many excellent restaurants with sea view along the itinerary.
Tour Reviews
Fabrizio’s knowledge is amazing. He has the knack for making history come alive in a fun and interesting way and is excellent at answering questions in a clear and concise way.
My Partner Ronald and I, traveled from Atlanta to Rome for the first time at the beginning of February 2022 and we had a strong desire to visit the Southern regions of Italy. I found LEISURE ITALY through a google search because something told me to look further then some of the tour sites that were showing me tons of other tours. I did a search into their reviews and I was thoroughly impressed, so I took a shot at booking with LEISURE. I was happy with the process of securing the tour via deposit, and paying the balance once we arrived. Giuseppe quickly responded to our booking, and was thorough, attentive and empathetic to the experience we were looking to have on our private tour.
We arrived in Naples via the fast train from Rome on 2/2/2022 at a little after 8am, and Giuseppe was there already around 8:15 to pick us up, even though our tour did not begin until 9am. He was considerate, welcoming and we were so privileged that we also had Fabrizio as our driver, because I had read so many wonderful things about them both and I was excited we were able to have both of them on our journey that day.
We started by visiting Pompeii, and immediately from the moment we entered the car, we were immersed with history, and just overall good information and conversation on the area. We spent about 2 and a half hours in Pompeii, which was more than enough with the information he provided, and it was a lot of walking, (your ankles will hurt the next day and I don’t know how those people hopped along those stones back in the day! haha).
Once we left Pompeii, we stopped in Sorrento for lunch, because the thing I could appreciate about Giuseppe was his HONESTY that although we had chose Positano and Amalfi as our 2 stops out of the 4 options for the towns with Ravello and Sorrento being our other choices, he was adamant to let us know that we were visiting Positano during off season and most of the restaurants and the town would be closed and limited our options, so he managed to maximize our time and give us a lovely stop for lunch in Sorrento at a great restaurant and then still allow us to get to Positano to wander and educate us, and then to Amalfi by the early evening, and we enjoyed more history, good coffee and dessert in Amalfi.
Giueseppe and Fabrizio are beautiful heart centered people who love what they do, and they are family men and definitely it showed in their warmth. This is also a family business that Giuseppe’s father and his father did also, which makes it that much more special.
Would I come back to Italy and repeat a tour with them? Absolutely. I’d book them two and three times over because the experience was that informative, warm and welcoming. Two very down to earth, intelligent men who represent LEISURE ITALY immaculately!
PS (Pompeii was so amazing people the intelligence of the people in that time and era, described my Giuseppe will BLOW YOUR MIND!)
I would love to come back and visit Capri and do other things when the boats are running!