Pompeii tickets: which one you need and the rules that catch people out

Short answer: the basic ticket covers the ancient city; the Villa of the Mysteries needs the dearer one that adds the suburban villas. Tickets now carry your name, the park admits at most 20,000 people a day, and in high season you enter in a morning or an afternoon window. Book from the official sales channel as soon as your date is fixed.

The tickets, in plain words

• Pompei Express — the ancient city inside the walls: the Forum, the houses, the baths, the theatres, the amphitheatre. This is what most people mean by «Pompeii».
• Pompei+ — the same city plus the suburban villas route: the Villa of the Mysteries and the Villa of Diomedes outside the Herculaneum Gate, and Villa Regina at Boscoreale.
• Multi-site tickets — Pompeii together with the other sites of the park, such as Oplontis and Stabiae, valid over several days.

The names have changed several times over the years and resellers rename them again, so read what the ticket includes rather than what it is called.

The Villa of the Mysteries is not on the basic ticket

This is the trap. The villa with the famous painted room is reached from the Herculaneum Gate and the Street of Tombs, and since 2024 it is a separate route that the basic ticket does not open. You need Pompei+, or a supplement bought at the entrance to that route. Many visitors only discover this after walking all the way out there.

Named tickets and the daily cap

Every ticket now carries the visitor’s first and last name, so a ticket cannot be passed on, and you should bring an ID. The park admits at most 20,000 people a day. Once the day is full, no tickets are sold for it at all — not online and not at the ticket offices — so arriving at the gate without one on a busy day can mean not getting in.

Entry windows in high season

From mid-March to mid-October the day is split into two windows: a morning one from 9:00 to 13:00, which gets most of the places, and an afternoon one from 13:00 to closing entry. You must enter during the window printed on your ticket. Once inside you can stay until closing.

Take the morning window if you can. It is not only about the crowd: the excavations have almost no shade, and an afternoon entry in summer means the hottest hours in the open.

Where to buy

Buy from the park’s official sales channel, linked from its website, or at the ticket offices at Porta Marina, Piazza Esedra and Piazza Anfiteatro while places last. Resellers are legal and some include a real tour, but many sell the ordinary ticket at a markup as «skip the line». There is no line to skip beyond the security check, which everyone goes through.

The free first Sunday

Like other Italian state sites, Pompeii opens free on the first Sunday of the month. The cap and the rules still apply, and it is the most crowded day of the month. If the saving matters, go; if it does not, a weekday is a much better visit.

What no ticket includes

• A guide. The map at the entrance names the buildings and explains none of them.
• Every house. Some are always closed, others open on rotation or close for restoration without notice.
• Large bags. Big luggage is not allowed inside; check the current rules if you are travelling with it.

Updated 2026-10-27