What can you do inside Pompeii?

Exploring the ruins reveals an array of attractions in Pompeii, offering a glimpse into life during the Roman Empire. From the Amphitheatre to the preserved villas, these structures showcase the city's past. Discovering these archaeological sites makes any visit to this heritage destination memorable.

Stand in the Forum, and you’re standing at the crossroads of everything that mattered in Roman Pompeii. The Forum was the city’s commercial, political, and religious core.

Picture it: merchants hawking goods under colonnaded porticos, lawyers arguing cases in the Basilica, priests making offerings at multiple temples, citizens gathering to hear official announcements.

What makes the Forum truly special is how it tells Pompeii’s cultural evolution in architecture. The Temple of Apollo, with origins reaching back to the 6th century BC, speaks to the city’s Greek roots. Later, the massive Temple of Jupiter was built to dominate the northern end, a stone declaration that Rome was now in charge. You’ll even find the Temple of Isis here, dedicated to an Egyptian goddess (proof that Pompeii was a cosmopolitan melting pot where Eastern mystery cults found enthusiastic followers).

Walk to the southeastern edge of the city, and you’ll encounter the oldest stone-built Roman amphitheatre still standing. Built around 70 BC, this arena predates Rome’s famous Colosseum by more than a century.

The amphitheatre was where Pompeians came to watch their version of reality TV: gladiatorial combat. These weren’t just mindless bloodbaths (though they were certainly bloody). Gladiators were celebrities, their names and victories scratched into walls with the kind of fervor modern fans reserve for rock stars. One bit of graffiti calls the Thracian fighter Celadus “the heartthrob of the girls.”

But the amphitheatre’s most infamous moment had nothing to do with planned entertainment. In 59 AD, a gladiatorial show descended into a massive riot between Pompeian fans and visitors from the rival town of Nuceria. What started as shouted insults turned into a full-scale brawl with stones and swords. The violence was so severe that Emperor Nero imposed a ten-year ban on all games as punishment. A vivid fresco found in a nearby house captures the chaos.

Step through the entrance of this massive residence, and you’re entering the private world of Pompeii’s ultra-elite. Occupying an entire city block at 3,000 square meters, the House of the Faun was a statement of power, wealth, and cultural sophistication.

The real showstopper is this intricate sculpture, originally placed to crown the central rainwater basin of the atrium. This masterpiece depicts a mythical faun in a dynamic pose, executing a rhythmic dance with outstretched arms and a slightly arched back. You can see the detail in his wild hair, the intensity in his facial expression, and the athletic definition of his form frozen in time.

The house was essentially a private museum, using art to broadcast the owner’s elite status to every visitor who crossed the threshold. The original mosaic is now safely displayed at the Naples Archaeological Museum, while a replica marks its original location.

Here’s where Pompeii’s story gets really interesting. The House of the Vettii belonged to two brothers, Aulus Vettius Conviva and Aulus Vettius Restitutus, who were freedmen (former slaves) who’d made it big, probably in the wine trade. After the devastating earthquake of 62 AD drove many old aristocratic families out of Pompeii, ambitious entrepreneurs like the Vettii brothers rushed in to fill the vacuum.

You’ll know you’re in “new money” territory the moment you enter. The vestibule features a massive fresco of the god Priapus weighing his enormous erect phallus against a bag of coins. While phallic imagery was common in Pompeii as a good-luck charm, this version is unusually explicit and commercial. The brothers are literally equating their masculine power with their financial success.

Let’s talk about Pompeii’s most famous brothel. The Lupanar sits at the intersection of two side streets, and it’s the only building archaeologists can identify with certainty as a purpose-built, commercial brothel.

What makes the Lupanar fascinating isn’t the building itself, it’s what’s written on the walls. Over 150 graffiti inscriptions were scratched into the plaster by both clients and the prostitutes themselves.

The Lupanar is a reminder that Roman society, for all its architectural genius and artistic achievement, was built on profound inequality. But those graffiti inscriptions? They give voice to people history usually silences, making this one of the most human places in all of Pompeii.

Photo: "Brothel in Pompeii, Italy, 2016" by Benjamín Núñez González.

The Garden of the Fugitives transforms Pompeii from an archaeological site into a human tragedy. Located in a former vineyard near the Nocera Gate, this area displays thirteen plaster casts of victims preserved in their final moments. These individuals survived the initial volcanic bombardment but were overtaken by a fatal pyroclastic surge while desperately fleeing toward safety.

Their exact final postures, clothing folds, and facial expressions were captured using a brilliant technique developed in 1863 by Giuseppe Fiorelli. By pouring liquid plaster into the hollow cavities left by decomposed bodies in the hardened ash, he created poignant statues of the deceased. Today, these huddling families and fallen individuals offer a heartbreaking look at the disaster.

Photo: "The cast of the corpse of a victim of the 79 AD eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, found in the so-called Garden of the Fugitives in Pompeii" by Daniele Florio/Gridge.

Dating back to the 2nd century BC, the Stabian Baths are the oldest and best-preserved public bathhouse in Pompeii. But don’t think of these as just a place to get clean. The baths were the ancient Roman equivalent of a community center, gym, spa, and social club rolled into one. Since most Pompeians lacked private bathing facilities at home, a daily trip here was essential, not just for hygiene but for networking, gossip, exercise, and relaxation.

The bathing ritual followed a specific health-oriented sequence. You’d start in the apodyterium (changing room), then move through progressively hotter rooms: the warm tepidarium, the hot caldarium for sweating and hot baths, and finally a bracing plunge in the cold frigidarium. The complex also featured a large courtyard, or palaestra, for wrestling and exercise, plus a swimming pool.

Photo: "Apodyterion (changing room) in the Stabian Baths at Pompeii in Italy" by AlMare.

The Villa of the Mysteries was a luxurious suburban estate combining aristocratic leisure with practical farming. But what draws visitors is a single room covered in nearly life-sized figures painted against a luminous “Pompeian red” background.

These frescoes have puzzled scholars for over a century. The most accepted interpretation is that they depict a woman’s initiation into the Dionysian Mysteries, a secret cult devoted to Dionysus (the god of wine, fertility, and ecstasy). Unlike formal state religion, mystery cults offered personal, emotional spiritual experiences and promised initiates special knowledge and benefits after death.

Why visit both Pompeii and Vesuvius? Because seeing the city without confronting the mountain that killed it leaves the story incomplete. Pompeii shows you the aftermath and Vesuvius shows you the cause. Standing on the crater rim, staring into the 450-meter-wide, 300-meter-deep volcanic mouth where steam still rises from fumaroles, gives you the physical reality behind the abstract historical event.

The most popular route is Path N. 5, “The Gran Cono”, which leads directly to the crater rim. The walk offers panoramic views of the Bay of Naples, the Sorrento Peninsula, and the sprawling modern city below.

Visiting both sites in one day is entirely feasible. Most people recommend seeing Pompeii first ,spending the morning and early afternoon walking the ancient streets, then heading to Vesuvius for the late afternoon climb. This timing gives you two advantages: the hike is cooler, and you’ll potentially catch sunset views from the summit.

While Pompeii gets the fame and the crowds, this smaller, wealthier seaside resort town offers preservation that borders on miraculous. Pompeii was buried slowly under 4-6 meters of ash and pumice, which caused roofs to collapse and destroyed organic materials. Herculaneum was engulfed instantly by pyroclastic flows that buried it under 20-25 meters of volcanic tuff, creating an airtight seal that preserved things Pompeii lost forever.

Herculaneum has original wooden doors, window frames, staircases, furniture, and even a baby’s crib. Pieces of cloth, fishing nets, and carbonized food items survived.

The site is also dramatically more compact and manageable than Pompeii’s sprawling 66 hectares. You can see Herculaneum’s highlights thoroughly in 2-3 hours, making it perfect for an afternoon visit after a morning in Pompeii.

Here’s what most visitors don’t realize until it’s too late: many of Pompeii’s greatest masterpieces aren’t in Pompeii. The finest frescoes, the most valuable mosaics, and majestic marble sculptures, like the seated portrait statue of a noblewoman dominating the gallery corridor, were removed for protection and preservation, transported to the Naples National Archaeological Museum (MANN). If you walk through Pompeii marveling at the art, you’re often looking at replicas. The originals are waiting in Naples.

The museum also houses the famous “Secret Cabinet” (Gabinetto Segreto), a collection of erotic and sexually explicit art that was considered so obscene by Victorian standards it was literally bricked up and kept from public view for nearly a century. It finally opened in 2000 and includes explicit frescoes from the Lupanar, sculptures of Priapus, and everyday household items shaped like phalluses or depicting sexual acts.