Explorer Pompéi

The Shrine of the Virgin of the Rosary of Pompei is a basilica in the modern town of Pompei, begun in 1876 by Bartolo Longo and consecrated in 1891. Its two-storey facade of 1901 is crowned by a marble statue of the Virgin, the 80-metre bell tower was added in 1925, and the high altar holds the painting of Our Lady of the Rosary.

Pompeii is the Roman town buried under four to six metres of ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 and excavated since the mid-18th century. Its archaeological park covers paved streets, the forum, temples, baths, theatres, the amphitheatre and painted houses, along with plaster casts of the victims.

Oplontis is a Roman site under modern Torre Annunziata, buried with Pompeii by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79. Visitors enter Villa A, the so-called Villa of Poppaea, a seaside villa of the mid-1st century BC enlarged under the early emperors, with wall paintings, marble statues and gardens; Villa B nearby is not open. It is part of the Pompeii UNESCO site.

Mount Vesuvius is the volcano on the Gulf of Naples whose eruption in AD 79 destroyed Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplontis and Stabiae; it last erupted in 1944. Inside the Vesuvius National Park, trail no. 5, Il Gran Cono, climbs from a square at about 1,000 metres in the Ercolano municipality to the rim of the summit crater.

Herculaneum is the Roman seaside town in today's Ercolano that a pyroclastic flow from Mount Vesuvius buried in AD 79; it was found in 1709 and dug regularly from 1738. The deep deposits carbonised and kept wooden roofs, beds and doors, and the excavated streets show houses with marble and mosaics, baths and the boat sheds where some 300 skeletons were found.

Villa Rufolo stands beside Ravello's cathedral square and dates from the 13th century, when it belonged to the merchant Rufolo family. The Scot Francis Neville Reid restored it in the mid-19th century. Visitors see the Torre Maggiore, which houses a small museum, a cloister-like courtyard and terraced gardens over the Gulf of Salerno, where the Ravello Festival holds concerts.