Overview
The eruption killed by surges of hot gas rather than by lava, which is why the town stands to its upper storeys and its people left cavities in the ash. Giuseppe Fiorelli worked out in 1863 how to pour plaster into those cavities, and the casts are the reason Pompeii is not just an unusually complete ruin. Decades of collapse led to an EU-funded programme from 2012 that stabilised the site and reopened whole streets, and excavation in Regio V has been turning up new houses since 2018.
Highlights
Pick three or four houses rather than walking everything: the House of the Faun, the Villa of the Mysteries outside the walls, the baths at the Forum and the amphitheatre, which is the oldest stone one that survives. Book the timed ticket, take water, and note that the site has almost no shade by eleven. Two hours is a glance; four is a visit.