Pompeii can be without a doubt considered the most famous and significant archaeological site in the world.

Between the 24th and 25th of August in 79 A.D. the city was destroyed by the violent eruption of Vesuvius. Roads, monuments, houses and gardens along with their inhabitants, caught at the moment of the eruption, were buried, scaled for centuries under six or seven metres of debris.

The excavations at the site, started in 1748 under the reign of Charles of Bourbon, and have continued almost uninterrupted for 250 years, but because of the hardened ash wich covered the whole area and the quality and the and number of the ruins of Pompeii, the research can’t ever be considered completed.

The city was founded on a plateau 30 metres high in the 7th century B.C. by a local population (the Oscans) it was strongly influenced by the Greeks of Cuma and the Etruscans of Capua and was conquered by the Samnites. It became a Roman colony in 80 B.C.

In 62A.D. it was hit by a strong earthquake which caused substantial damages to the city, in fact at the moment of the eruption that buried it, the reconstruction works began to repair and rebuild the damaged buildings.

The excavation covers an area of 66 hectares (44 are yet excavated) and allows the visitors to follow the evolution of the Italic and later Roman house from the IV century B.C. to immerse yourself in the daily life in what was one of the richest Roman cities and to remain fascinated by the construction technique and the achievement of the frescos visible inside its homes.