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Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
You can pick up a free map at entrance as well as a booklet describing the attractions, although versions other than Italian are often out of print. Audioguides cost €10, €16 for two, ID required, turn in 30 minutes before closing. Lockers are available next to the ticket office; larger bags must be stored in a locker or at the information desk. Inside the compound, there are some vending machines offering drinks and snacks. Toilet facilities are next to the ticket office and next to the vending machines. You will need around 2 hours at a calm pace if you want to visit everything.
Herculaneum is an ancient Roman town located in the modern-day comune of Ercolano, Campania, Italy. Herculaneum was buried under a massive pyroclastic flow in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
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Casa di Nettuno ed Anfitrite
Worth the visit for its stunning mosaics alone, particularly that of Neptune and Amphitrite (a sea goddess and wife of Poseidon), after which the house is named.
Casa del Bel Cortile
The attractive courtyard is said to resemble an Italian medieval courtyard more than a Roman building. In a display case there are two skeletons fused with volcanic rock.
This is one of the oldest properties so far discovered on the site. Excavations suggest that, at various times, the upper floor was rented out and the courtyard was sold off. What remains now is a large roofed and elegantly decorated atrium with a few small rooms around it.
Terme del Foro
The male and female baths, which are next to each other, are well preserved. They were fed by a large well, which brought water from a depth of 8.25 m, heated by a large furnace and distributed around the baths by a network of pipes that also served to provide central heating.
The Augustales were an order of Roman priests responsible for attending to the maintenance of the cult of Augustus, who was considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire. The building consists of one large, well-decorated roofed room.
This was another luxurious waterfront dwelling.