Greek & Roman Campania
7 Days / 6 Nights
Day 1: Rome
Arrival in Rome. Brief bus tour of the city with panoramic views from
the Gianicolo Hill and other heights. Dinner at a local restaurant followed
by an evening walk around Rome's historic center: Piazza Navona, the Pantheon,
Campo dei Fiori & Piazza Farnese. Overnight.
Day 2: Naples
Departure for Naples. Visit to the National Archaeological Museum of
Naples, containing one of the finest collections of Classical sculpture in the
world.
Continue to Sorrento area to check in at our hotel. Dinner and Overnight.
Day 3: Pompei
All day visit to Pompeii, perhaps the single most famous archaeological
site in the world. An unimportant provincial Roman town, Pompeii's fame rests
exclusively on its role as a perfectly preserved archaeological fossil providing
a valuable snapshot of Roman daily life. Free time late afternoon. Dinner and
overnight.
Day 4: Herculaneum - Paestum
Today we tour Herculaneum, the small fishing town & vacation resort
for rich Romans from Naples that was destroyed by Vesuvius along with Pompeii
in 79 A.D.
During the afternoon we visit Oplontis, ruins of a large Roman imperial
villa, believed to have been owned by Nero's wife & containing superb examples
of ancient Roman wall painting. We then proceed on to our hotel in the area
of Paestum. After dinner we shall take a stroll by the temples illuminated
at night. Dinner and overnight.
Day 5: Velia
Half-day trip to Velia, the ruins of a Greek city on the rugged coast
30 miles south of Paestum and birthplace of the Greek philosopher Parmenides.
Velia is an interesting example of how flexibly the Greeks adapted their rational
principles of city planning to an unusual local topography. Return to our hotel.
Dinner and overnight.
Day 6: Paestum
Visit to the ancient city of Paestum, its Greek temples of the 6th
& 5th centuries B.C. Return to Rome. Free afternoon. Farewell Dinner and
overnight.
Day 7: Rome
Transfer to Fiumicino airport for return flight home.
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