Hello all, this is my first posting. : ) I will be leaving for my first trip to Italy on Friday. We will be staying in Pompeii for one night as we visit Paestum and Pompeii. I read in Rick's book that the beach is a 20 minute walk from the Paestum ruins. Has anyone walked to the beach from there? I read iff-y reviews about trying to walk from the ruins on Trip Advisor. If there are better beaches that are easily accessible from the Pompeii area I am fine with that too. We will have a few free hours after visiting Paestum. Look forward to the sage advice!
Mimi
Posted by
point pleasant beach, nj, usa
646 posts
Do you mean you will have one day to visit Pompei and then make your way to Pasteum? Long way in between two sites. Pompei will take at a good part of the day. Then you will have to make your way to Pasteum. Not doable in my opinion. Have you read Rick's guide on the Amalfi Coast? Suggest that is a good way to start so you get some idea of what you are trying to accomplish.
Pompei is amazing!
Posted by
OP
Houston, Texas, USA
6 posts
Leaving Rome early morning to drop bags at B&B Notti in Pompeii, then headed to Paestum for the day. Head back to B&B to stay the night and visit Pompeii site the next day starting first thing in the morning. We will leave after day at Pompeii site on a train bound Florence. Does this sound more doable?
Posted by
Catadupa Alamere, CA
515 posts
Don't worry about getting the names wrong, lots of Americans do. Pompeii is the ancient town that was smothered by Vesuvius. The train stop for the ruins is Pompeii Scavi because in Italian "Scavi" means "digs" as in archeologists digging up ruins. In the 1890s, folks decided to build a town next door to the ruins and they named the town "Pompei". In Italian each of the final "i"s in the word "pompeii" is pronounced separately. This is something that American such as I are not accustomed to saying or hearing. So, for us, the words "pompeii" and "pompei" sound the same. Not so for Italians. Anyway, for train purposes, there are two stations: Pompeii Scavi at the ruins; and then, the next train stop (a few minutes) east is the town of Pompei. The town of Paestum is the site of Greek ruins and it is about 50 miles south of Pompei. I've driven it and it was an easy drive, although on weekdays you may hit some traffic between Battipaglia and Paestum. After Paestum, I drove to the coast, and then along it north to something like Mercatello. From the ruins to the beach was about 1.5 miles. What I saw at the beach was typical for an Italian beach: private beaches where you rent a chair and an umbrella. You probably want this because you will want to shower off the salt before driving "home". If there are public beaches and showers, I did not notice them, but I was not looking for any. Pompeii will take you at least half a day, maybe more because it is huge. Paestum took me a couple hours because I took a ton of photos. I suppose that the site could be sprinted in less than an hour, but that would be a waste.