Pompeii & Herculaneum

Campania’s favourable climate, fertile soils and natural harbours were attractive to the Greeks looking to trade and for places to settle. They founded their earliest colony at Cumae and others soon followed with Naples and Paestum (Posidonia) among them. The prosperity enjoyed by the Greek colonies is best seen at Paestum where three of the most complete Doric temples anywhere still stand.

After falling under Roman dominion, Campania continued to prosper with wealth generated by agriculture and trade. Towns like Pompeii and Herculaneum thrived and wealthy Romans seeking to escape from the summer heat of Rome built villas along its coast. Campania became an imperial playground with the emperor among the most famous and notorious of all villa owners on the Bay of Naples.

However, life on the Bay of Naples was struck by tragedy when Mount Vesuvius erupted in ad 79 and buried Pompeii and Herculaneum with volcanic ash. Paradoxically, this sudden obliteration preserved the towns with a level of completeness which has no parallel with any other archaeological site in the world.

Excavation has revealed them almost in their entirety, providing a unique insight into everyday life in the Roman Empire. Even the smallest and most fragile objects of daily use have survived, along with wall paintings, floor mosaics, precious jewellery and household utensils. The immediacy and vividness with which the imagination is able to grasp a past civilisation is startling and unique.

This tour is particularly strenuous. Please review the Physical Requirements under Tour Notes.

Inclusions

Travel by private coach, and some travel by train; hotel information as described under Accommodation; breakfasts, 3 lunches and 3 dinners with wine, water, coffee; all admissions; all tips; all taxes; the services of the lecturer, tour manager and local guides where required.

Expert Speakers

Dr Mark Grahame
Archaeologist, lecturer and Member of the Chartered Institute of Archaeologists (MCIfA). He obtained his PhD from Southampton University and his thesis on the spatial layouts of the houses of Roman Pompeii was published as a British Archaeological Report and a series of journal articles. He has coordinated an adult education programme in archaeology at the University of Southampton (2002–2011), has taught courses on the archaeology and history of the Roman Empire for Cambridge and Oxford Universities’ Institutes of Continuing Education, and between 2018 and 2024, ran his own heritage consultancy, M-Arc Heritage Ltd.

Dr Nigel Pollard
Nigel Pollard is an archaeologist and historian, Professor in the Department of History, Heritage and Classics at Swansea University in Wales. He was educated (in Classics) at Cambridge University and (PhD Classical Art and Archaeology) the University of Michigan. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Nigel has undertaken archaeological fieldwork in Syria, Egypt, Tunisia, Italy (including Pompeii) and the UK. He has published widely on Roman archaeology and history including, besides academic works, The Complete Roman Legions (Thames & Hudson, 2012). His current research mostly relates to cultural heritage in Italy in the Second World War, including his most recent book Bombing Pompeii: World Heritage and Military Necessity (University of Michigan Press, 2020).

Dr Nigel Spivey
Senior Lecturer in Classical Art and Archaeology at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Emmanuel College. Among his publications are Understanding Greek Sculpture, Greek Art, Enduring Creation, The Ancient Olympics and Classical Civilization: A History in Ten Chapters. He presented the BBC2/PBS series How Art Made the World.

Tour by Martin Randall Travel.