Our Family never thought we would be looking inside the only Volcano that is currently active and has erupted on the European Mainland in the past 100 Years.
Mt. Vesuvius is most famous for its eruption in 79 AD which destroyed the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplontis and Stabiae. Check out this post and read all about our day in Pompeii.
Mt. Vesuvius’s most recent eruption happened in 1944 which you can still see traces of today. It was pretty cool to see where the path of lava flowed from the crater down the mountain side.
Our Family set out on this trip not sure what to expect and a little worried that it might be dangerous. Everyone assured us that the authorities would have at least a two weeks notice before it would erupt again.
We decided to trust that was the case and took our little family with 4 kids ages 9, 7, 4, and 1 on a hike they will never forget. Well the younger ones might forget it, but the pictures we took will help them remember.
Our Family ended up in Naples because it was one of the stops on our 15 day Mediterranean Cruise with Holland America which we could not get enough of. (Read about why our family prefers Holland America over Disney when we Cruise)
Landing in the port of Naples we were not sure what we wanted to do. Some of our group had plans to go to the Amalfi Coast (Which the rest of my family loved) but because we had kids and decided to try something different.
We hired a tour van to take us around and he met us once we got of the ship. Once we arrived at the base of the Mt. Vesuvius (which is considered a national park) there was a small building where you purchased an entrance ticket for a fee of 10 euro per person.
There was no other way to get to the top outside of hiking. It took approx. 30 mins to get to the top. It was doable for our older two kids but we had to carry our 4 year old part of the time while the 1 year old was carried in a hiking back pack.
The views from the top were incredible. You first reach the main creator but you can hike around the rim which takes a little longer. We highly recommend making that hike because you can see the city of Pompeii and how far away these cities were that were completely destroyed.
Overall we rate this event a 9 out of 10 for families. Due to the difficulty it places on smaller kids.
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