Naples (Pizza Making Class) and Pompeii Same Day

Naples has a good subway system. Depending on the location of the pizza-making class (or the pizza restaurant) you choose, the Metro might be all the transportation you need in Naples.

Must the Pompeii visit be in the afternoon? It may be quite hot there, and there's not really any shade.

It will be brutally hot and sunny in Pompeii. Be prepared. Check closing time (seasonal) since you are arriving late in the day.

It is unclear if you understand the difference between arriving in modern Pompeii city on Trenitalia and arriving right AT the Porta Marina entrance to Pompeii Scavi by Circumvesuviana train. I suspect the latter is better for you, but that is unclear. Will you have your luggage at the pizza class and at Pompeii? Both big entrances of Pompeii Scavi have luggage storage, but you would not want to check your luggage at Porta Marina and then leave by Amfiteatro because you are using Trenitalia ... see what I mean?

It is common to wait 45 minutes for a lunch table at a well-known Naples pizzeria. I do recommend it, but maybe not right before a sweltering afternoon at Pompeii. Are there any certified Neapolitan pizza ovens in your home area?

Just for comparison (not a prescription for your family) we had 5 nights in Sorrento. We set aside one full day for Pompeii (late May, also sweltering). Another day, we went to Herculaneum in the morning, had lunch in a town restaurant in Herc city (no food in Herc excavation, but there is in Pompeii), and went to Oplontis in the afternoon. Our luggage was at the hotel.

I should add that we did not have to include kid's activities on our trip. I can imagine that you have to strike a balance. In fairness, many, many posters here save time by going to Pompeii on the way to Sorrento or on the way back to Rome. But they don't try to eat in Naples or take a class there first. We did have pizza in Naples before going directly to Sorrento on the hot, jammed, gritty, Circumvesuviana. We paid for a car service back to the Naples train station! (Note that 5 tourists don't fit in a sedan.)

Thank you both!

We would prefer to do it in the morning, but might not be able to book a tour for Saturday in the morning so late in the game (initially we were going to do Paestum, but I know the kids will enjoy Pompeii more). Since we were heading that direction it is hard to pass up a Naples opportunity for Pizza (it is a place I haven't been to as well). However, we are pretty seasoned travelers, and I am not trying to make it a hectic day, so that is the challenge. I'm ok with shorter tours as well (kids only have so much of an attention span).

Good thing is, no luggage to deal with, just making a day trip from our home base.

No qualms about trying to juggle kids and riding the metro in Naples for the first time?

No qualms about trying to juggle kids and riding the metro in Naples for the first time?

I guess that's a question. I meant "include attractions of interest to kids of unspecified ages, to get them to try an ancient city." But if you mean, "Will my children be abducted on public transit in Europe?", you said that you have plenty of travel experience. No one gets abducted on the New York City subway! Unlike Sorrento, Pompeii Scavi is not the end of the line, so you need to tell them where to get off if they happen to get separated from you. But nothing separated my wife and me on our multiple Circumvesuviana trips. Remember to validate your ticket before boarding.

Do you understand that the Naples Metro and the Circumvesuviana (and, for that matter, Trenitalia) are all different products, probably run by different agencies? We did not use the Naples Metro, because we like walking cities new to us. We walked about 1.5 miles from our hotel to the Naples Central Station, to pick up the Circumvesuviana to Sorrento. (We had left our luggage at the hotel on checkout, and first walked to the Archaeology Museum, before lunch. I will say that the wait for a pizza table [at Gino Sorbillo, in our case] was kind of a festive crowd occasion, although a bit hot in the sun.)

It is hard to overstate how crowded the Circumvesuviana is. In my opinion, the much-ballyhooed "pickpockets" were unable to reach us, because the crowd was completely impassable. The real struggle is to get your luggage (if you are just arriving) close enough to you to keep an eye on it, while not blocking 120 other people from getting in and out of the train on the 12 (made-up number) stops before Sorrento. Well, Pompeii Scavi isn't quite as far from Naples, same line as Sorrento.

I imagine the Circumvesuviana is particularly intimidating for first-time European visitors who have never used public transportation in their home country. But in 23 years living in NYC, I have almost never felt as crowded on the subway as I did on the Circumvesuviana. I do remember when the NYC subway was not air-conditioned, like the Circumvesuviana is, today.

I don't see any reason why you'd have a problem on the Naples Metro. I used it several times earlier this year and it seemed simple enough. Just one caution: Be careful when buying tickets from a vending machine. I don't know whether I read the screen carelessly or it was worded poorly, but instead of the five individual tickets I intended to buy, I ended up with a stored-value card with 5 rides loaded on it. I think that would not be shareable by a family. If you opt to buy tickets from a newsstand or tobacco shop, you'll be asked to pay cash. The vending machines take credit cards; I don't remember whether they are tap-to-pay (which is available on some vending machines in Italy now) or insert-the-card.