South of Italy - Pompeii?

You get to spent the morning in Pompeii, about three to four hours. Depending on the weather you might find that is plenty of time as Pompeii gets very hot and there is little or no shade. Be sure you carry lots of water with you, there is only one outlet at the site to purchase it and it is always busy. You should talk to your tour leader about staying on at the site and taking the train to Sorrento, but you will miss whatever activities are happening that afternoon. Or you could pay another visit the following day which is a do it yourself day.

I agree with Lesley. We had a wonderful guided tour that lasted several hours. Even in April, Pompeii got very warm and extremely crowded (wall to wall people). A lot of the artwork from Pompeii is in the museum in Naples you visit a couple of days later. But if you feel that 3+ hours is not enough time, you do have a free day where most of us went to Capri and there is time once you are in Naples. I actually wish we had taken the time on our own to visit Herculaneum because it’s suppose to be less crowded and just as interesting.

During the 'free' day when many went to Capri, we went back (easy train ride) to Pompeii for the day. There is so much more to see than you experience in the two-hour tour with the group. Go and get out to the edges.

There are at least five important ancient sites with tourist traffic, and a ticket that covers all of them. We used the hot, gritty Circumvesuviana commuter train to visit Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Oplontis. (We had Oplontis to ourselves.) While they are all quite different, 3 were enough for us. (Independent travel, daytrips from Sorrento, but Naples would be just as easy.)

Does Rick's tour of the Archaeology Museum usually include the Farnese Marbles?

Tim, yes. The Farnese Bull was magnificent.