Campania: three access rules to plan around

Campania is the only Italian region where three separate access rules decide your day: a daily cap at Pompeii, timed slots on the Vesuvius summit trail, and alternating number plates on the Amalfi road.

Pompeii: 20,000 a day, and your name on the ticket

Since November 15, 2024 the archaeological park has issued named tickets and asks for photo ID at the gate, with a ceiling of 20,000⁴ visitors a day. The measure followed days that passed 36,000⁴ people.

Between April 1 and October 31 the cap is split in two: up to 15,000⁴ from 9:00 am to noon, then 5,000⁴ from noon to 5:30 pm. Morning slots go first, and the afternoon band is small.

Four tickets have existed since January 12, 2026. Pompei Express at €20.00 covers the ancient city alone; Pompei+ at €25.00 adds the suburban villas and the shuttle; Pompei Plus 3 days at €30.00 covers four sites over three days out of four; the annual pass is €45.00. EU citizens aged 18 to 25 pay €2.00.

Vesuvius: the crater rim is a timed ticket

Trail 5, the Gran Cono, is sold only on the park's online platform, at €11.68⁶ full and €9.55⁶ reduced. Places are released in blocks of 50 every 10 minutes, up to 30 days ahead, plus ten late tickets per slot on sale half an hour before, named since April 11, 2026 and limited to five per email address.

The walk is 4,010⁶ m out and back to 1,175⁶ m above sea level, rated easy, and takes about two and a half hours. Closing time moves with the season: 6:00 pm in July and August, 5:00 pm from April to June and in September, 4:00 pm in March and October, 3:00 pm in winter. Last entry is well before that, so an afternoon slot in October is shorter than it looks.

The Amalfi road alternates number plates

On the SS163⁷ Amalfitana, between 10:00 am and 6:00 pm, Anas order 340⁷/2019 bans cars whose plate ends in an odd digit on odd numbered days, and even on even. In 2026 it applied from March 30 to April 6 and from April 24 to May 2.

Exemptions cover residents of the Costa d'Amalfi towns, disability permit holders, taxis and hire cars with driver, emergency vehicles, hotel guests holding a reservation, and non resident workers under contract. Motorbikes and scooters are outside the rule, and traffic runs freely outside the hours. A rental car with the wrong plate on the wrong day is a real problem, and it's the hotel booking that fixes it.

If Pompeii is full: Herculaneum, Paestum, Velia

Herculaneum costs €16.00 full and €2.00 for ages 18 to 25, opens every day except December 25, and runs 8:30 am to 7:30 pm with last entry at 6:00 pm from March 16 to October 14, then 8:30 am to 5:00 pm with last entry at 3:30 pm.

Paestum and Velia share one ticket valid three days, covering both archaeological areas and the national museum at Paestum: €15.00 from March to November, €10.00 from December to February, €2.00 reduced. Open daily 8:30 am to 7:30 pm, ticket office closes at 6:30 pm.

Seven World Heritage sites, and where the crowds are not

Campania holds seven World Heritage sites: the Royal Palace at Caserta with the Carolino aqueduct and San Leucio, the historic center of Naples, the Pompeii, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata group, the Amalfi Coast, the Cilento and Vallo di Diano park with Paestum, Velia and the Padula charterhouse, the Longobard sites, and the Via Appia added in 2024.

Pressure is not spread across them. Naples alone takes 7.0% of all American nights in Italy, part of the 60.3%¹³ concentrated in five towns nationwide, while the Cilento at the southern end of the same region barely registers.

Getting to the two Vesuvian sites without a car is simpler than it looks. From Porta Nolana and Garibaldi in Naples, the EAV L1 line toward Sorrento is the only Vesuvian line that stops at both Ercolano Scavi and Pompei Scavi Villa dei Misteri, on the timetable in force since March 28, 2026.

Naples Capodichino handled 13,271,522¹⁰ passengers in 2025. The region logged 21,369,462¹ overnight stays in 2024, 4.58%¹ of the national total. Buffalo mozzarella from these plains has been DOP since June 21, 1996.

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