Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Police station
(
081 856 35 11; Piazza Porta Marina Inferiore)
Pompeii sites
(
www.pompeiisites.org
)
Background and practicalities for Pompeii, Herculaneum
and other archaeological must-sees.
Post office
(Piazza Esedra)
Tourist office
(
081 850 72 55;
www.pompeiturismo.it
;
Via Sacra 1;
8am-3.30pm Mon-Fri, to 1pm
Sat)
Getting There & Away
Circumvesuviana trains run from Pompei Scavi-Villa dei Misteri station to Naples (€2.90,
35 minutes) and Sorrento (€2.20, 30 minutes).
CSTP
( 800 016659;
www.cstp.it
)
bus 4 runs to/from Salerno (€2.20, 90 minutes).
Shuttle buses to Vesuvius depart from outside the Pompei-Scavi-Villa dei Misteri train
station.
To get here by car, take the A3 from Naples. Use the Pompeii exit and follow signs to
Pompeii Scavi. Car parks (approximately €5 per hour) are clearly marked and vigorously
touted.
TOP OF CHAPTER
Sorrento
POP 16,500
On paper, cliff-straddling Sorrento is a place to avoid - a package-holiday centre with few
must-see sights, no beach to speak of and a glut of brassy English-style pubs. In reality,
it's a strangely appealing place, its laid-back southern Italian charm resisting all attempts
to swamp it in graceless development.
Dating to Greek times and known to Romans as Surrentum, it's ideally situated for ex-
ploring the surrounding area: to the west, the best of the peninsula's unspoiled countryside
and, beyond that, the Amalfi Coast; to the north, Pompeii and the archaeological sites; off-
shore, the fabled island of Capri.
According to Greek legend, it was in Sorrento's waters that the mythical sirens once
lived. Sailors of antiquity were powerless to resist the beautiful song of these charming
maidens-cum-monsters, who would lure them and their ships to their doom. Homer's
