Where a daily cap decides your day

Pompeii admits a maximum of 20,000¹ visitors a day, La Pelosa beach 1,500², and the Vesuvius Gran Cono trail sells online only: three caps that decide whether a day works or collapses.

Pompeii: 20,000 a day, 15,000 of them before noon

Since November 15, 2024 the ticket at Pompeii carries your name and is checked against an identity document, and the site admits at most 20,000¹ people a day. From April 1 to October 31 that total is split in two bands: up to 15,000¹ between 9:00 am and 12:00, then 5,000¹ between 12:00 and 5:30 pm.

The measure followed days above 36,000¹ visitors. It was designed with the prefecture, the fire service and labor consultants, which tells you what kind of problem 36,000¹ people in one archaeological site actually is.

The practical reading: the morning band holds three quarters of the places, so the afternoon is where a same-day plan fails.

La Pelosa: 1,500 people, 3.50 euro, one legitimate website

From May 15 to October 15, 2026 access to La Pelosa at Stintino is capped at 1,500² people a day, booked in advance on spiaggialapelosa.it, at 3.50 euro a head. Children under 12 do not book and do not pay. One booking holds a maximum of 4 places.

The release runs in two stages: 500² places are open at any time in the season, and 1,000² more appear two days before the date at 9:00 am. Your QR code is checked on the beach between 8:00 am and 6:00 pm.

On the sand the rules are specific: a mat under the towel, no smoking, no dogs, no detergents, no taking sand or shells home. The official portal warns that fraudulent sites resell access, so type the address rather than following an advert.

Vesuvius: the Gran Cono is an online-only trail

Trail 5, the Gran Cono, admits visitors only with a ticket bought online in advance, under the sustainable use protocol approved by Presidential Decree 24 of June 29, 2026, which fixes time slots and maximum numbers. The ridge path along the north and east sides of the cone is permanently closed unless you hold a specific authorization.

Prices circulating for the climb come from secondary sources and are not confirmed on the park's own page, so this page quotes none of them. The Gran Cono also closes at short notice for weather alerts and fires, which is a real risk on a summer afternoon and a reason to keep the day flexible.

What we could not verify

3 more Sardinian beaches, Tuerredda, Cala Mariolu and Cala Goloritze, circulate with daily caps in the same range, and we have no primary source for their 2026 numbers, so they are not listed above with a figure.

That absence is deliberate. A cap you read here and find changed at the gate would be worse than no cap at all, and these systems change every spring.

How a capped day is planned

Book the capped item first, then build the day on top of it: 20,000¹ places at Pompeii and 1,500² at La Pelosa are hard numbers, and a hotel booking is not. Then check the release mechanism, which differs by site: 30 days at some monuments, two days at La Pelosa, no fixed window at all on the Vesuvius trail.

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