8 days itinerary
Day 1: Arrival in Naples
Arrival in the city of Naples and your hotel in the historic center of Naples. The group meets in the evening for a welcome dinner in a typical restaurant in the lively city center.
Day 2: Vesuvius volcano, wine tasting and Herculaneum
Morning visit of Vesuvius with short hike around the famous volcano´s crater and walk in the Valle dell'Inferno, lunch and wine-tasting at one of the excellent vineyards on Vesuvius´s lower slopes, and afternoon - evening visit of the excavated Roman city of Herculaneum.
Day 3: Pompeii
Morning visit of the excavated city of Pompeii (3-4 hours), arguably one of the most important archeological sites in the world. Lunch in a secluded restaurant serving delicious meals based on ancient recipes. In the afternoon visit the superb museum of the Antiquario di Boscoreale before returning to Naples in the late afternoon.
Day 4: Campi Flegrei (Phlegrean Fields) and Pozzuoli
Day trip to explore the volcanoes of the Campi Flegrei (Phlegrean fields): the Solfatara, Monte Nuovo, Lago di Averna and Pozzuoli, ending at the famous Cape Miseno view point before enjoying dinner at a nice beach restaurant.
Day 5: Private boat tour along Posillipo coast and transfer to Ischia Island
Spectacular private boat tour along the impressive Posillipo and Pozzuoli coasts (swimming break). After disembarking, we "meet" our luggage transferred separately to Pozzuoli port, where we take a ferry to Ischia Island, where we will spend 3 nights in a charming sea-side hotel.
Day 6: Rotaro volcano and historic volcanism on Ischia
Easy hike to Rotaro volcano with its active fumaroles, continue to the southern side of the island with magnificent views, observation of the most recent lava flow, erupted in 1302. Continue to a large beach full of thermal springs, natural spas and fumaroles. Time to swim and explore some ancient spas dating back to Roman times.
Evening: visit an old picturesque fishing village and a volcanic “islet” attached to the mainland by a thin isthmus of sand.
Day 7: Sorgeto hot spring, Epomeo volcano, spas in San Montano Bay
Hike to an isolated bay with submarine hot springs (bathing even in winter!). Climb to the Epomeo volcano, enjoy a fabulous circular view on the whole Bay of Naples. Walk down to the village of Forio.
Rest of the day to relax in the natural spas of the beautiful bay of San Montano.
Day 8: Ischia Ponte, Aragonese Castle, departure from Naples or tour extension
Walk to the harbour, visit of the Aragonese Castle, departure or own extension program.
Arrival info:
Travel arrangements to and from Naples are not included in the tour package, in order to give everybody the best chance to plan the trip according to his/her preferences. Naples is easily reached by plane or train (e.g. from Rome airport or other cities). A taxi to the hotel costs about 30 EUR. We will be to help you with such travel arrangements, as well as assist you with your international travel to Italy.
Tour guide
Tom will normally be your tour guide on the Volcanoes of Italy - The Grand Tour.
Dr. Tom Pfeiffer (1970) is a German volcanologist with a PhD degree in geology about the volcanic history of Santorini volcano from the University of Aarhus in Denmark.
For more than 20 years, Tom has been working on volcanic systems (Hawai'i and Vesuvius volcano observatories), observing volcanic eruptions around the world and organizing guided tours to active volcanoes in Europe (Santorini, Etna, Stromboli,...), Kilauea on Hawaii as well as in Africa and Indonesia. During his travels, he found his strongest passion in
photography (link to his book) and the sharing of his knowledge and new travel adventures with people outside the scientific community. He first started a tour company in 2004 and is still guiding most VolcanoAdventures tours in Greece and Italy as well as the pilot expeditions and special eruption tours.
His other professional activities include a large number of articles about volcanoes published in newspapers and magazines such as National Geographic, Scientific American and others. Tom also participated in documentary film productions about Santorini (“The myth of the lost city of Atlantis”, "Mystery Hunters", both on Discovery Channel) and Stromboli (“Quarks and co: Vulkane” on the German television channel WDR), as well as the ongoing documentary series about active volcanoes "
Volcanic Odysseys" by Canadian filmmaker Michael Dalton (Love Nature & Smithsonian Channel).
Besides his German mother tongue, Tom speaks English, Danish and Italian fluently and can also communicate in Greek, French and some Spanish. He lived for 7 years in Denmark, spent about 2 years in Italy and worked one year on Santorini, Greece, before moving to Athens in 2004.
Volcanologist Dr. Tom Pfeiffer on Santorini
