700,000 people live under Vesuvius

Around 700,000¹ people live on the slopes of Vesuvius, inside a red zone of 25 comuni, and the alert level was green when this page was checked on September 2, 2026.

The red zone: 25 comuni and around 700,000 people

The emergency plan's red zone covers 25 comuni in the provinces of Naples and Salerno, plus parts of the city of Naples, with around 700,000¹ residents on the volcano's slopes.

The planning scenario for that zone is a sub-Plinian eruption of the 1631¹ type. That is not a forecast of what will happen; it is the size of event the evacuation plan is built to handle, which is a different statement.

The civil protection department describes a violent strombolian eruption, VEI 3, as the more probable event. Planning to the larger scenario and expecting the smaller one is the normal shape of this kind of document.

Green alert, last eruption 1944

The alert level was green at the last check, on September 2, 2026. Vesuvius has been quiescent since the eruption of 1944, with an obstructed conduit.

An obstructed conduit is the technical difference between this volcano and Stromboli, which vents continuously. A closed system does not release pressure in small amounts, and that is why the monitoring and the plan exist.

The level is dynamic. Nothing on this page substitutes for the current bulletin from the civil protection department and INGV on the day you travel.

The Gran Cono: €11.68, online only

Trail 5, the Gran Cono, is the marked route to the crater rim and it requires a ticket bought online in advance, €11.68³ full and €9.55³ reduced, sold exclusively through vesuviopark.vivaticket.it. Prices on this page are in euros.

Tickets go on sale up to 30 days before, with 50 places per 10-minute slot. A further 10 last-minute tickets per slot are released 30 minutes ahead of it. Since April 11, 2026 the tickets are named, with a maximum of 5 per email address.

The two figures on the official page fit together: the protocol allows 360³ hikers an hour, so 60 people every 10 minutes in three groups of 20, and of those 60 the site sells 50 thirty days ahead and holds 10 back as last minute places.

The walk itself

The trail is 4,010³ meters round trip, climbs to 1,175³ meters and takes about 2 and a half hours at low technical difficulty. It is a wide track on volcanic gravel, not a scramble.

Opening starts at 9:00 am all year, with closing at 6:00 pm in July and August, 5:00 pm from April to June and in September, 4:00 pm in March and October, and 3:00 pm from January to February and November to December.

Book the earliest slot you can stand in summer. There is no shade on a cinder cone, the slot system means you cannot simply arrive earlier, and the slot you booked is the slot you get.

Why the tickets are named

Since April 11, 2026 the Gran Cono tickets carry a name, with a maximum of 5 per email address, and that rule exists because a trail with 50 places every 10 minutes is a resource people resell. The named ticket is an anti-touting measure written into a hiking permit.

It also means the person on the ticket has to be the person at the gate. If your plans change, you are not passing the slot to a friend, and the 10 last-minute tickets released 30 minutes before each slot are the only flexibility in the system.

How to read a green level

Green was the level on September 2, 2026, and a level is a statement about monitoring on a date, nothing more. It carries no promise about any other date, and it is not an argument to be made either way in a travel article.

The two useful things to do with it are practical: check the level before you book the trail, and read the park's own notices on the day, because access here is decided day by day and published by the park.

For the region below, see Campania.

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