Erika Chiappinelli tour guide

Guided tours

Tour on request

TOUR ON REQUEST

Pompeii - the excavations
Herculaneum - the excavations
Oplontis - the excavations
Stabiae - the excavations
National Archaeological Museum of Naples - MANN
National Archaeological Museum of Naples - MANN - Magna Graecia section
Paestum: temples and museum
Baiae Baths
Capodimonte Museum
Flavian Amphitheater of Pozzuoli
and also: Cumae excavations, Amphitheater of Santa Maria Capua Vetere, Royal Palace of Naples, Gallerie d'Italia, Museum of the Phlegraean Fields, Piscina Mirabilis...

Pompeii - the excavations

Pompeii in the 1st century AD was experiencing a prosperous era. It was a wealthy city, based on trade. Suddenly, in 62 AD, an earthquake almost completely destroyed the city. The Pompeians did not know that this was only a warning from the volcano, which would erupt 17 years later, burying the city under about 7 meters of lapilli and ash. Pompeii would only be brought to light in the eighteenth century, when, under King Charles of Bourbon, systematic excavations began. During the nineteenth century, the archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli would discover the technique of plaster casts, which would reveal to us the expressions of terror on the faces of the ancient inhabitants of the city, suddenly struck by the fury of the volcano. Currently, about 2/3 of the 66 hectares of Pompeii's total area can be visited. Pre-established route or on request.

Pompeii excavations, the Forum

Herculaneum - the excavations

Herculaneum was the holiday destination of many nobles of antiquity. Located just 15 km from Vesuvius, it offers, and offered to the owners of the villas of the time, a breathtaking and unparalleled view. Like Pompeii, Herculaneum was also destroyed by the eruption of the volcano in 79 AD, but it was covered not by lapilli and ash like Pompeii, but by mud and pyroclastic material. The extent of the excavations is very limited (only 4 hectares), but the pyroclastic material allowed for better preservation of the frescoes and mosaics of the baths and domus, compared to Pompeii. In Herculaneum, it is also possible to see the skeletons of the inhabitants who, at the time of the eruption, tried to find refuge under the arches, on the ancient beach.

Herculaneum Excavations

Oplontis Excavations

The excavations of Oplonti include a single villa, the Villa of Poppea, which probably belonged to Nero's wife at first. The villa is entirely open to visitors; you can recognize the rooms of the atrium, the kitchen, the dining hall, the baths, and the garden, as well as the pool, which at the time of the eruption was undergoing restoration.

Fresco in the Villa of Poppea, Oplontis excavations

Excavations of the Villas of Stabiae

In Stabia, the present-day Castellammare di Stabia, you can visit three of the six villas that stood on the Varano plateau in Roman times, and which were destroyed, like those of Oplontis, Pompeii, and Herculaneum, by the eruption of Vesuvius. The three villas open to visitors are Villa Arianna, the so-called Second Complex, and Villa San Marco. Ancient Stabiae was chosen by many Roman patricians at the time as a holiday resort, and some villas had direct access to the sea. Come and discover the rich decorations; you will be intoxicated by their beauty.

Fresco, villas of Stabiae

National Archaeological Museum of Naples MANN

Guided tour to discover the main treasures of the MANN - National Archaeological Museum of Naples.

Farnese Collection, Mosaics, Hall of the Meridian and more. The building of the National Archaeological Museum, previously a stable and then the Palace of Studies of Naples, became a museum under Ferdinand I of Bourbon in 1816, who decided to gather within the building the Farnese collection, inherited from his father Charles of Bourbon, and the artifacts from the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiae, and Oplontis, destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. The National Archaeological Museum of Naples includes numerous permanent sections (Farnese Collection, Villa of the Papyri, Hall of the Meridian, Uses and objects of daily life, Frescoes, Numismatics, Mosaics, Egyptian Section, Temple of Isis, Epigraphic Section...) and several temporary exhibitions.

Fresco, Archaeological Museum of Naples

Magna Graecia Tour at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples

Meeting at the entrance of the Archaeological Museum, we will discover, in the Magna Graecia section of the museum, the influences of Greek culture in the colonies of southern Italy, in the pre-Roman era.

Do you know how red-figure vases were made? And the black-figure ones? What are the favorite depictions for the tombs of Magna Graecia? What kind of jewelry was used?

We will discover the treasures of Ruvo, Metaponto, Paestum, and many other Greek colonies.

The section includes 14 rooms with mosaic floors dating back to the Roman age, so it is necessary to purchase disposable shoe covers at the museum.

Magna Graecia Section, MANN

Paestum - the Greek temples and the museum

The original name of Paestum is Poseidonia. It was the Greeks, in fact, who founded the city around 600 BC, and built the temples that we still see today in the archaeological park. They were dedicated to the deities: probably to Hera the oldest temple, long considered a Basilica, to Poseidon (or to Zeus?) the temple currently in the best state of preservation, and to Athena the temple in the highest position. It was only at the beginning of the twentieth century, however, thanks to an intuition of the archaeologist Spinazzola, that excavations began to find the rest of the city, with the forum, the amphitheater, the residential area, etc. Paestum bears the marks of the various peoples who ruled it: the Greeks, the Lucanians, and then the Romans. After seeing the archaeological area, we visit the museum, where the metopes of the temples, the votive statuettes, and the grave goods found in the tombs of the entire Gaudo area are preserved. Among them all, the most famous is certainly the Tomb of the Diver, a Greek tomb from the early 5th century BC.

Temple of Athena in Paestum

Baths of Baia

Nullus in orbe sinus Baiis praelucet amoenis (Horace). No inlet in the world shines like pleasant Baiae. And it must have truly been so for the ancient Romans, who had their villas built right in Baiae, considered at the time a place of temptations and perdition. The current Archaeological Park of the Baths of Baiae was also an imperial villa, and during the visit we can observe the layers that have accumulated over time. The view that can still be enjoyed from the park today is something that takes your breath away. The ancient Roman baths consisted of rooms such as the frigidarium (with cold water), the tepidarium (with water at about thirty degrees) and the calidarium (with water at sixty degrees). Inside the archaeological park it is possible to visit the thermal halls, once considered temples, such as the "Temple of Mercury," the "Temple of Venus," and the "Temple of Diana."

Baths of Baiae

Baths of Baia

Capodimonte Museum

The Capodimonte Museum building was constructed starting in 1738, at the behest of Charles of Bourbon, who entrusted the architect Antonio Medrano with the task of building a palace on the hill that could house the heritage inherited from his mother, Elisabetta Farnese. Becoming a museum only in 1957, today it hosts more than twenty thousand objects, distributed among the Historical Apartment, Farnese Gallery, Neapolitan Gallery, Nineteenth-Century Gallery, Contemporary Art Collection, and the Cabinet of Drawings and Prints. Through a selection of paintings, porcelain, glass, ivory, sculptures, and furnishings from the apartment, we will visit the museum's sections. Pre-established or on-request tour.

Capodimonte Museum

Flavian Amphitheater of Pozzuoli

Probably built during the Flavian era, the main amphitheater of Pozzuoli is the third largest arena in Italy. Tradition has it that Saint Januarius, the principal patron of Naples, together with his companions, was exposed ad bestias there, but managed to survive because the lions that were supposed to tear him apart knelt at his side. The amphitheater experienced a period of splendor, but then fell into decline in the 4th century, and remained abandoned for a long time. Only with Ferdinand II of Bourbon, in 1839, did restoration activities begin, which lasted until the middle of the last century with excavations conducted by Amedeo Maiuri. Let's discover the structure of the amphitheater: the arena, where the fights took place, and the seating area, divided into summa cavea, media cavea and ima cavea, and the underground areas, where you can see the lifting system through which animals were brought into the arena.

Amphitheater of Pozzuoli, Naples

...and many, many other itineraries!

The itineraries can also be combined. For information and reservations, contact via SMS or WhatsApp at +393492949722

Do you want to customize your tour?

Do you want to customize your tour? The requested destination is not among those listed? No problem, contact me at 3492949722 and request a personalized tour.

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