Since you won’t be staying in Pompeii, it is likely you’ll want to visit some other Campania cities and attractions while in the general vicinity. Luckily, it is very easy to get between the most traveled places, and there are even opportunities to buy tickets to several of the historic cities at once and save money. For instance, you can buy a three-day pass for Pompeii that includes Herculaneum , another settlement affected by the Vesuvius eruption.

Visitors to Pompeii shouldn’t miss the opportunity to see Italy’s third-largest city, Naples . Located thirty kilometers up the coast, Naples has the airport you will most likely use if you're traveling internationally, so you might as well see the city while you're there. Naples is famous for two things: Renaissance architecture, and pizza. Grab a slice and walk along the Bay of Naples so you can take in the old buildings while enjoying the ocean breeze.

To see more of Italy’s best art and architecture, investigate Paestum , also located in the region of Campania. Paestum boasts an almost entirely intact Greek Doric-style temple and is also home to the famous Diver’s Tomb, a tomb painting dating from the 300s B.C. that is renowned for its fluid, unusual beauty. It’s a rare find: few Greek paintings have survived until today, and this one can be found at the Archaelogical Museum of Paestum.