🏺 How To Get To Pompeii from Naples | The 4 Best Ways To Get From Naples to Pompeii (budget or comfort)

 How To Get From Naples to Pompeii - Bus/Trains or Private Transfer from Naples to Pompeii  (budget or comfort)

The most accessible and convenient way to travel to Pompeii from Naples is via two regular train services, which all depart from the same station and take about the same time. 

We’ve given all the specific details for each below, but here’s a quick overview:

✅1. EAV Circumvesuviana  (2025)  | €3,30 one-way · 35 minutes · busy commuter train · no advance tickets (on the spot) 

✅2. Campania Express (2025)  | €15 one-way · 35 minutes · fancier train with AC · advance tickets available - link : https://ots.eavsrl.it/web/public/ots/ticket/index

✅3. SITA BUS from molo Pisacane /Varco Immacolatella Location https://maps.app.goo.gl/MF6EEF8KbxeqPBvj9

✅ 4, Private Transfer : plan your transfer with me , contact me via DM (messanger)

We took the excellent value EAV Circumvesuviana out and back, via Mount Vesuvius, but the reputation and crowding of the EAV Circumvesuviana puts a lot of people off. If you’re not on a budget and prefer comfort, a seat, fewer stops, and air-con, then you may prefer the Campania Express. 

It’s highly recommended to book your Pompeii entrance ticket in advance online before you travel, due to its popularity and the length of queues - book your Pompeii ticket here.  https://pompeiisites.org/

The EAV Circumvesuviana

This slow public train connects locals with towns and suburbs along the Gulf of Naples, and brings thousands of visitors each day to Pompeii. You’ll also see it referred to as the Napoli-Sorrento line.

It departs from Porta Nolana Station (https://maps.app.goo.gl/H8YcMmzuKr3mgVBW9), but the easiest access point for you to get on will be at the next stop in Napoli Piazza Garibaldi (https://maps.app.goo.gl/aNHF3cfQPJDkysAs7 ), which is a separate station within the same building as Napoli Centrale Train Station (the city's main one).

That may sound complicated, but it's nothing to worry about.

Simply make your way to Napoli Centrale (https://maps.app.goo.gl/xPcaxP9Fz8QZGuBG9 ) and, once inside the station, follow the blue + white signs for the Linee Vesuviane / Campania Express / Circumvesuviana.

This will take you downstairs to the lower floor and along a covered walkway toward the staffed and clear to identify red ticket office (bigletteria) of Napoli Piazza Garibaldi on the right hand side.

From the main entrance of Napoli Centrale to Piazza Garibaldi station, it's about a 5-minute walk.

Alternatively, some of you may arrive by metro, taking Line 1 to the Garibaldi stop. If that’s the case, simply go up the three escalators after you disembark, exit into the modern shopping centre, then follow the brown + orange signs for Circumvesuviana. It’s straightforward, and you’ll arrive at the ticket desks in under five minutes.

There are now five tickets kiosks, a dedicated information point, and a real-time digital departures board in addition to the plethora of taped-up timetables

However, as this is the departure point for trains to the Herculaneum ruins, Vesuvius, and the Amalfi Coast as well as Pompeii, it can become quite crowded and chaotic with lots of confused tourists. 

Our main advice is not to panic or rush around like a headless chicken if everyone else is. 

For Pompeii, you want to take the blue 'Sorrento' line. 

When purchasing your ticket, ask for ‘Pompei Scavi’'; there is also a 'Pompei' station but this isn't the right one to go for or get off at!

It's €3.30 per person one-way, and travel time is around 35 minutes. A one-way ticket is fine. There are a lot of stations/stops along the way, but some of the Pompeii services run a little quicker as they skip a dozen or so. 

Note that you can currently only buy tickets in person at either Porta Nolana or Napoli Piazza Garibaldi station. Cash is definitely preferred by the staff, but you can pay by card (don't bank on this working though). As this is not a TrenItalia ( https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html )  train service, you will not find tickets online or on their website. There is a new GoEav app to buy tickets, but it’s less fuss just to buy at the station.

There are no seat reservations, and be aware of people trying to up sell or put you on the more expensive Campania Express train. 

Once tickets are purchased, pass through the barriers and go downstairs to the platforms. There are screens with departures/arrivals information, and the Pompeii train is most likely to depart from platform / binario 1, but just make certain that you get on the train with 'Sorrento' as its final destination, as there will be other Circumvesuviana lines passing through!

The current Circumvesuviana timetable has a first departure 05:40, and then 2-3 departures every hour. We recommend planning ahead though, and you can see the latest schedule on the EAV website  ( https://www.eavsrl.it/orari-linee-ferroviarie/ ) - click 'Orario Linee Vesuviane' then select 'L1 Napoli-Sorrento'. 

Note that 'DD' on the timetable denotes the quicker service with fewer stops. 

Disembark at Pompei Scavi station (sometimes written as 'Pompei Scavi-Villa Misteri'), and you'll be a two-minute walk from the Porta Marina entrance to Pompeii!

Important Tip 

✅ travelling in peak summer season at peak times, then boarding at Porta Nolana station (one stop before Napoli Piazza Garibaldi) Porta Nolana location (https://maps.app.goo.gl/H8YcMmzuKr3mgVBW9)    is the best way to guarantee a seat for the journey. The vast majority of people board at Garibaldi as it’s easier to reach, but anyone boarding in Nolana will have empty carriages.

✅Stops  are announced in advance and there's also a little route map above the doors in each carriage for you to keep track.

✅ Note that the green line to Poggiomarino, also part of the Circumvesuviana network, will take you to 'Pompei' station - this is however not the correct one for the archaeological site. If you end up going there by mistake, don't worry though as you'll just be a 10-minute walk from one of the three site entrances.

✅The blue Sorrento line is also the one to take if you wish to visit the Herculaneum ruins (disembark at Ercolano Scavi) or take a day trip to the Amalfi Coast.

✅If  you'd like to have a private  guide in Pompeii, plan  a  tour with an expert ,professional and highly-rated tour guide  He/she  will meet you at the Pompeii Ruins entrance  . ( Contact me via DM , messanger to get the perfect contact for your visit )

The Campania Express Train

If comfort is more important than cost, then you should consider the Campania Express.

Part of the EAV network, this is a fancier train specifically for tourists, including air-con, reserved seats, fewer stops , good service . 

You can also buy tickets in advance online, which includes a free audioguide for Pompeii.

As with the options above, it leaves from both Porta Nolana (https://maps.app.goo.gl/WmdvRdDFiUkf3WJF7) and Piazza Garibaldi stations (https://maps.app.goo.gl/vdqx3kdMnYeSrTcE8 ) - for disabled access, you should opt for Porta Nolana.

The train only has four departures from Napoli a day, and stops at the archaeological site of Ercolano/Herculaneum before arriving at Pompeii Scavi, which is a two-minute walk from the entrance. 

Travel time is about 35 minutes, with the first departure at 8.22am from Porta Nolana - you can find the most recent timetable on the EAV website ( https://www.eavsrl.it/ )  . 

Campania Express tickets cost €15 one-way or €25 round-trip, and you can find more information and buy them online on the official website. It’s also possible to buy non-allocated seat tickets up to 20 minutes before departure at the station. 

✅Sita Bus From Naples to Pompeii

The train is affordable and more frequent, but the bus may be your preferred option if your accommodation is close to Naples's docks and cruise terminal, Nuova Marina /Molo Immacolatella port.

Make your way down to the SITA Bus Station & Ticket Terminal (https://maps.app.goo.gl/4mb8Ngtqbz54pNoL7 ), and buy a ticket for the Napoli-Salerno line. Departures are on the hour and the half hour, starting from 7.30 am; note that not every service running this route stops at Pompeii, so you should always double-check before boarding the next departure.

Note that 'Pompei Scavi' is again the best place to disembark (it's the 3rd or 4th stop), but don't worry if you get dropped off elsewhere within the town of Pompei. 

Travel time is about the same as the train (35-45 minutes, depending on traffic), and costs €3.30 per person. You can buy you ticket on board if the ticket office is shut. If going for the bus during peak times or summer months, note that this will naturally have limited capacity versus the train and is also used by locals for non-Pompeii journeys. 

The SITA bus company website is horrendous to navigate, but if you go here (https://sitasudtrasporti.it/) , select ‘Campania’ then ‘Orari’, and input 'Napoli' as your departure and 'Pompei' as your destination, then click 'ricerca', it should bring up a PDF for the 5001 SALERNO - NOCERA - NAPOLI which includes updated schedule information.

Alternatively, you may prefer to travel with the Round-Trip Shuttle Bus to Pompeii, which has two morning departures from the centre of Napoli.

✅A Private Transfer

A better value option to consider, if you really don’t want to take the train/bus , is the Private Transfer

This private transfer offers door-to-door transport in an air-conditioned vehicle.

Plan your private transfer in advance,  contact me via DM (messanger) 

🏺 Why there is charred wood in Herculaneum, while Pompein does not ?

 Why there is charred wood in Herculaneum, while Pompein does not ?

Visiting Herculaneum one immediately grasps a detail that is not easy to find when visiting Pompeii, the charred wood. But how is it possible that two cities only a few kilometers apart and both destroyed by the same eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. preserve very different elements from each other?

Here, I want to give you the explanation to this frequent question that so many people ask.

The answer lies in the mode of the eruption that affected both cities!!! Yes, because although they were buried during the same eruption, the mode of burial was different.

Let's start by saying what happened on that August 24 or probably according to recent discoveries on October 24 of 79 AD.

The eruption that destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum

The eruption, as Pliny the Younger tells us in his letters to his friend Tacitus, began around 1 p.m. Ash and lapilli (pumice) began to pour out of the crater of Vesuvius, which, driven by winds blowing southeast, struck Pompeii.

City was completely submerged with about 3 meters of volcanic materials, in contrast to Herculaneum, which due to its position west of the crater was, on the other hand, spared from the fall of pumice.

The following morning, however, the eruption took a turn, no more ash and lapilli came out of Vesuvius but a burning cloud (the pyroclastic flows). Characterized by gas, water vapor at very high temperatures and ash rose to the sky and collapsed along the slopes of the volcano. Cloud first engulfed Herculaneum, which had initially been spared by the eruption, and then later the other Vesuvian cities.

The fiery cloud that hit Herculaneum unlike Pompeii, reached an estimated temperature of about 500°C and instantly killed the inhabitants who had taken refuge along the beach and in boat warehouses. Virtually nothing was left of them but their bones due to the vaporization of soft tissue caused by the extremely high temperatures of the flow. The same fate befell other organic materials such as the wood present in Herculaneum.

In fact, the high heat and absence of oxygen due to the rapid burial with mud (creating a kind of vacuum) allowed, the perfect preservation of the wood in carbonized form, instead of its complete combustion.

And this explains why in Herculaneum it is possible to see charred wood remains that are not preserved, in contrast, in Pompeii.

🏺 Pompeii was not abandoned after the eruption of 79 AD.

 A sensational discovery has been made in this hot August 2025, in the insula Meridionalis of the Pompeii excavations.

The ancient city was not abandoned by the surviving Pompeians after the catastrophic eruption of Vesuvius, which destroyed and buried it completely. But according to this discovery, it was reoccupied by the same and even other peoples.

The discovery was made during the work of securing, consolidating and restoring the Insula meridionalis. Where archaeological investigations are currently underway in level -2 (ground floor), in order to secure the vaulted roofs of the rooms on the southern front.

✅The new discovery of Pompeian reoccupation.

Finds made during in new excavations revealed the presence of post-eruptive levels of frequentation.

It is assumed that survivors who had no way to start a new life elsewhere, but probably other peoples (homeless and looking for a place to settle), had tried to reoccupy the area devastated by the volcanic event, also hoping to find valuables.

This was a situation that continued until the fifth century AD when the area was completely abandoned, probably due to the occurrence of a new eruption.

The Pompeians, therefore, distraught and homeless attempted to return to their land. They began to inhabit permanently among the ruins of the upper floors still resurfacing among the ash. Indeed, Pompeii, in addition to a place to live, offered the possibility of digging underground, where valuable objects could be found. And for these same reasons that other peoples also decided to settle there until the fifth century AD.

The investigation carried out in the insula Meridionalis has brought to light ceramic fragments of oil lamps, pieces of inscriptions, marbles, and other elements typical of the late antique phase of the fifth century A.D. Making Pompeii re-emerge post-catastrophe of 79 A.D.

🎞️SOPRANOS

 A Guide to The Sopranos Naples Filming Locations in Italy!

The Sopranos is a legendary crime drama television show that ran between 1999 and 2007 which follows Tony Soprano, the boss of an organised crime family in New Jersey, as he deals with life as the boss and tells all to his psychiatrist.

It’s arguably the best drama show ever made and paved the way for shows like Breaking Bad and Better call Saul .

They film one episode on location in Naples. Come with me to discover all the film  location  in my city 

About The Naples Sopranos Episode / FAQ

🎬Where  does The Sopranos take place? It’s mainly set in New Jersey in USA but there is one episode where they travel to Naples, Italy.

🎬 Which episode is The Sopranos setting in Italy? The episode is called Commendatori from season 2, episode 4 and is the 17th episode overall of HBO Sopranos episodes.

🎬What happens in Italy?  Tony, Christopher and Paulie travel to Italy to discuss the smuggling of stolen luxury cars with a local Camorra family. In exchange for the prices of the cars, Tony negotiates for English-speaking made man, Furio, to join his crew in the USA.

🎬 Which of The Sopranos actors went to Italy? James Gandolfini (Tony Soprano), Michael Imperioli (Christopher Moltisanti), and Tony Sirico (Paulie Gualtieri).

🎬 Who is The Sopranos Annalisa? Annalisa Zucca is the daughter of the boss of the Naples Mafia, Don Vittorio, currently senile, and wife of Mauro Zucca, currently in prison, which makes her the de facto head of the family.

🎬 Where did they film The Sopranos in Naples? That’s what this guide will answer for you!

One of The Sopranos best episodes is Commendatori because the crew actually go to the motherland: Italy.

They describe their associates in Italy as ‘our friends over the other side’ so it’s great to see them in a new yet familiar setting where the roots of the ‘family’ are which makes it a contender for the best Sopranos episode.

It showcases things Italy is known for like the food, family traditions, language, art and history.

It’s also where we are introduced to Furio, we see Paulie pitying himself, there is a female head of the family, the start of Christopher’s addiction, we hear some of The Sopranos best songs in this episode as well as some fantastic Italy shots.

Essentials Before Travel

🎬 The walk around all these locations is fairly long so wear comfortable shoes and plan your day out so you have time to see it all

🎬 Stay somewhere smart in Naples for your Sopranos walking tour through this deals finder:

All The Sopranos Naples Filming Locations

1) Mount Vesuvius

Mt Vesuvius has become synonymous with Naples so the stills of the volcano were definitely going to be used through the episode where the guys go to Naples!

‘Vesuvius, Jesus’ 

You can see Vesuvius the best from Lungomare, Naples Port, while taking the ferry out of Naples or even take a tour to visit the volcano yourself.

2) Naples Harbour / Port

Naples Port is seen when Tony and the crew arrive in Naples. 

‘Naples, Ischia and Capri. And oh, the food.

Naples Harbour/Port is easy to find as wherever you are in Naples, if you walk toward the ocean, you’ll find the port or use your Maps and the route is correct. 

3) Hotel Excelsior

The Hotel Excelsior is real in Naples and where Tony, Chrissy and Paulie stay during their business trip. It can be seen from multiple angles and costs as much in real life as I imagine the Sopranos would have paid. 

‘I’m gonna hoof it back to the Excelsior’

Hotel Excelsior is on the corner of the streets Via Partenope and Lungomare di Napoli. It is opposite Castel dell’Ovo and has great views of the city and Gulf of Naples.

Address: Via Partenope, Via Francesco Caracciolo, 48, 80121 Napoli NA, Italy

4) Tunnel della Vittoria

There is just a quick shot of cars passing through this tunnel.

‘Look at this, the mother country’

You can only visit this location by car as it’s just the tunnel on the road to Naples so if you’re brave enough to drive in Naples, you can head to Via Ammiraglio Ferdinando Acton. 

5) Piazza Porta Capuana 

This is a classic image of Naples and in the episode of the old castle walls, hustle and bustle of people with the fish market in front and motorbikes/cars passing by.

‘Going to Italy huh’

6) Fontana del Gigante / Fountain of the Giant

Right next to the Hotel Excelsior is this monument shown in this episode when they arrive at the hotel in Naples, it can be seen in the background when they get out the taxi.

‘I feel sorry for anyone who hasn’t been [..] don’t put it off another second’

 if the hotel is directly behind you, look across the road and to the left and you’ll see the Fontana.

Address: Via Partenope, Via Francesco Caracciolo, 48, 80121 Napoli NA, Italy

7) Via Partenope

There is one shot of this road which is the road that the Hotel Excelsior is found and the shot is from the opposite end of the hotel.

‘Fabulous, I felt right at home’

8) Procida Island

Procida Island is in the Bay of Naples and shots of the island from the ocean are seen throughout this Sopranos episode. 

‘A woman boss? Never happen in the States’

‘Our men kill each other [..] but in love to their mamas yeah so being a woman comes natural’

9) Monte di Procida Mansion

This is the mansion where Annalisa lives and invites Tony to stay, eat and discuss business. It’s an impressive place but not actually located in the city of Naples it’s on the island of Procida. 

‘Tony, come down to eat’

‘Jesus Christ, is that all you people do’

If you visit the island of Procida head to the Monte di Procida commune to see this mansion in real life from one of The Sopranos best scenes.

10) Restaurant

Where Tony and Annalisa have dinner and discuss her superstitions about cutting and destroying her toenails.

‘You hungry?’

‘I could eat’

The closest looking restaurant would be Ristorante Da Lucullo on the beach near Via Montegrillo.

11) Via dei Tribunali 

This is one of the most popular streets in Naples and best locations Sopranos filmed in as well as one of the funniest scenes in the episode. Paulie is sitting here enjoying a coffee and says ‘commendatori’ to men sat next to him. The man looks at him and looks away without replying. The man is actually David Chase!!

‘Commendatori, Buongiorno, Cocksuckers’

12) Piazza San Gaetano 

This is the piazza where the old ladies are seen sitting and is opposite the Chiesa di San Paolo  church (Dioscuri  temple) .

‘Commendatori, like a commander. I like that. That’s respect’

This location is on the same street as Paulie’s scenes so when visiting there just walk a few minutes and you’ll see the Piazza on the right. 

13) Baia Beach

Where Tony tells Annalisa he wants Furio to join him in America and Annalisa names her price.

‘So you want Naples guys’

14) Piazza del Plebiscito

This is a grand place to visit in Naples! It’s a 360 shot of the square and statues as the song ‘Certamente’ by Madreblu begins to play before it shows Chrissy high in his hotel room.

‘I hope we get some spare time, I’m gonna see that volcano’

Address: Piazza del Plebiscito, 80132 Napoli NA, Italy

15) Via Montegrillo

This is the road where Paulie is seen sitting on a bench in Baia.

‘Commendatori [..] I’m from America’

16) Arco Felice a Cuma

This is a quick shot in the episode as Tony and Annalisa are on their way to explore the caves and discuss business.

‘You are your own worst enemy’

Address: Arco Felice, 80078 Metropolitan City of Naples, Italy

17) Archaeological Site of Cuma / Sybil’s Caves

At the caves, Annalisa tells Tony about the myths and history of the Sybil as well as discussing their sexual chemistry.

‘Second most important oracle, after Delphi‘

Address: 5 Strada Provinciale Cuma Licola, Monte di Cuma, 80078, Italy