How many days would it take to look around Pompeii, not on a tour?

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agooddub

Only plan on one day, it will be more than enough. If you don't want a tour guide, there will be at least 10 organised tours going on and all you have to do is go to a spot and wait till a tour arrives and listen in to what the guide is telling the people. Move along and listen to what the next tour guy is saying at a different spot.
It's not that expensive to join a tour group and the ticket office will arrange it. They just ask you what language, and you wait until a sufficient number have gathered and you join that group.
Don't buy anything like Roman coins etc. from the stalls outside the entrance, it's all fake tack.

conley39

Pompeii is worth a full day. There will be independent guides soliciting people to put together tour groups on the spot in the area where you buy tickets. You can also get a lot out of the site on your own with a good guidebook. I'd go on to Sorrento and Capri from there if you have another day for that area. Erculano is another town that was buried by the eruption of Vesuvius. It's on the Circumvesuviana train line between Naples and Pompeii and is also worth a visit.

shana

two days are sure to be enough enjoy

Curious :)

I live like 45 minutes away from Pompeii so I've been quite a few times. Just stay a day, I don't speak Italian either, I'm American. We didn't do a tour either. We kinda just walked around, you can buy guide books in all different languages, & it'll show you wear to go. Wear 2 sweaters, it's cold here now, so imagine November!

Hope this helps.

Lingo

Hi there! Well, frankly, i don't know where you want to spend your stay in Pompei. I can only say that if you want to visit only the excavations, perhaps just one or two days. For the rest of the city, you'll want to take advantage of a weekend. Pompei is a great city and deserves more time.
Anyway, welcome in Italy!
Have a nice day

louisiana_state

I lived in Italy for 3 years. Depending upon how deep you want to visit into it, will take you anywhere from 3 hours to a day. It shouldn't be no more than a day thing. The tour isn't even worth it. Buy a cheap book about it, or look up the article on the city on wikipedia
here is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompeii
If you just want to walk around the ruins and just glance at them...take in the moment....take some pictures etc. then it should only take you half a day. Besides the ruins, in the town itself there is nothing to do. It is pretty hot and sunny and like most of southern italy, is very cultural and not that luxurious. Alot of the pizza places are cafeteria in the hole type of deals. There is another ruined city near by call Herculaneum that has the same type of things. I did not want to go to it, because looking at Pompeii was enough for me. but here is the link about this city:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herculaneum

have fun!

ageingcynic

I would say allow a full day. You can get there on the train and buy a guidebook before you get there. Ignore the people who want to show you round and just wander round and absorb the atmosphere, looking at the things you are interested in. Take a picnic and sit under a tree in a remote spot (it is easy to find a remote spot because everyone else will be in the places the guides want to take them to).

This is what I did, and I had a much better time (and saw more interesting stuff) than the people who went on a guided tour at the same time.

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