Mount Vesuvius Half-day Coach Tour from Sorrento

Overview

Explore the crater of Mount Vesuvius, the Volcano responsible for the destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum in the eruption of 79AD. You travel as far as the extinct outer crater of mount Somma at an altitude of 1000 metres, from where you can start the hike to the top of internal active cone, where there will be a guide tour, on the return journey to Sorrento, there will be a visit of the mineralogical museum in Vico Equense.

Half-day tour escorted by a guide, driving through the towns forming the Sorrentine peninsula and continuing on the State Road 145 'Sorrentina' from where you can admire the Sorrentine peninsula in all its glory. After a journey of about 45 minutes along the motorway, you reach the Torre del Greco and start the ascent of Mount Vesuvius. This volcano is particularly interesting for its history and the frequency of its eruptions. It is part of the Somma - Vesuvius mountain system, 1281 meters high. It is located slightly inside the gulf coast of Naples.

Vesuvius is a sight of unusual beauty in the landscape of the Gulf, especially when viewed from the sea with the city skyline. After the 1944 eruption, Vesuvius is considered dormant. This period of rest is atypical, and the eruptive activity appears severely delayed. For some reason, still mysterious, the duct, virtually always open since 1631, must have been blocked in depth, or should have emptied its "pockets" of magma that fed the cyclic activity, so the volcano is apparently inert as it was before 1631. On clear days the most famous volcano in Europe offers spectacular and striking views, leaving the eye to wonder over to the sea, the islands and the archaeological excavations of the cities buried by the eruption of 79AC. A few years earlier, in 62 AC., there was a terrible earthquake, premonitory of a far worse catastrophe that would have struck in a few years the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum and other towns in Campania.

Since dawn of that day in 79 AC., on Mount Vesuvius appeared a large cloud. At ten o'clock in the morning the gases that were pressing inside exploded together with the solid lava that blocked the volcano crater, reducing it in to ash and liquid lava. The ash was so thick that it blocked out the sun. Since that terrible day the cities have ceased to exist and remained buried for centuries under a blanket of over 6 meters of ash and lava.

With the coach, we will reach a height of 1000 meters, then continuing walking along a path and reaching the peak of the volcano, for an impressive view of the crater visited with a specialized mountain guide. The trip is complemented by a visit to the Mineralogical Museum in Vico Equense, (to be carried out on the outward or return journey). The museum is one of the largest science museums in the Campania region for the number, variety and rarity of its minerals. It boasts a collection obtained during the course of more than fifty years of research by the engineer Pasquale Discepolo. There are over 3500 minerals of 1400 different species from around the world. Italian and foreign scholars have enriched the collection with their many donations. Return to Sorrento in the early afternoon.

Sorrento - Campania and Naples, Italy