Tour Guidato di Pompei da Salerno: Treno, Biglietto Salta la Fila e Pranzo

Tour guide had a microphone, which fed into headphones that we were wearing. It meant she kept wandering ahead of us and not engaging at all with the tour group. She seemed totally dispassionate about the history of Pompeii, felt like she'd run this tour a thousand times and was bored. Logistics were good on the way out (we received train tickets and instructions in advance). On the way back, we were told they could only book us on a train that terminates at our station (even though there were other trains that ran through our station), so we had to wait an hour for the train they booked us on (missing 3 trains that would've taken us home).

The tour was an amazing experience! Our guide Claudia was very knowledgeable and answered many questions. Pompeii is larger than I thought it would be. The tour company handled all of the transportation from Salerno to Pompeii - first a train, then a bus ride. The tour company is in Pompeii. This was a bit confusing for me, but the company was extremely communicative via WhatsApp and helped me navigate my way to them. Incredible people and incredible sites. At one point, a small group of us did separate from the guide. After contacting the company, we were provided with her phone number and met up with her again.

We had an excellent guide, I am sorry that I didn't catch her name. She didn't ramble on but gave us lots of interesting facts. There is lots of walking and so very much to see. However, the 2 hour tour was long enough to tire us out. Our guide gave us directions to see other things after the tour was over, which was nice. The tour we booked included train fare from Salerno but not back which wasn't specifically noted when we booked. I would recommend this tour company though, we were very satisfied.

I should have been more careful in booking this tour, however that does not excuse the rushed and poorly executed tour we experienced. Our guide was hard to understand and merely talked about and pointed to significant areas without really guiding us to see them. We were not able to tour the brothel and we were only able to see one cast body. We had to explore others on our own after our guide ended our tour early and disappeared. Our guide has a passion for the protection of the ruins, which is admirable, however, he acted as a security officer and rudely scolded others not in our group for sitting, standing or touching things along the way. His demeanor was harsh. The communication concerning the meeting location was poor. We did not expect or have adequate information about the bus transfer to Pompeii SCVI from the train station, and we were not told to walk up the road a quarter of a mile to find the tourist office. I also felt that the group size of 20+ was too large.