Why should you go to Boscoreale?

Villa Regina at Boscoreale is a Roman villa. The word villa is applied to large Roman country houses but originally meant a farm. Boscoreale is a working farm. It is a comfortable working farm rather than the bare minimum required but it is certainly not luxurious. It is possible to speculate that it was the sort of farm which might be owned by a resident of Pompeii and might be used as the equivalent of a weekend escape but it would still have employed staff and would have had to make a profit. The area immediately surrounding the farm was in Roman times, and still is, a vineyard. Vines have been planted in the holes left by the roots of the Roman vines. The facilities for processing the grapes to wine remain. Those who have been brought up in the countryside will find that the building has the comfortable feeling of a working farm.

At the end of 2022 the villa at Boscoreale was open but the Antiquarium was closed during refurbishment. You are advised to check whether it has been re-opened before visiting.

 

How to get there - revised route

In June 2017 EAV opened a new station to serve the community at Villa Regina. It also provides a means of reaching the site and museum with a much shorter walk than the route from Pompeii Station.

For a couple of years we will keep both of these routes on this website but the original route should become a historical anomaly. It is possible that some visitors to Pompeii may wish to take the Villa dei Misteri exit and to walk from there to Boscoreale using the original route from Via Diomede onwards. They may use the original instructions.

The train timetables for the Naples to Sorrento railway included Villa Regina from October 2017. The new station is located close to one of the main roads in Boscoreale. On leaving the station it will be seen that there is a new approach road to the station ahead of you, walk along this road until it joins the main road and then proceed for a further 100 metres when you will reach Viale Villa Regina. There is a sign to the site at this junction, turn left onto Viale Villa Regina.

As you walk down Viale Villa Regina there is a large housing estate on your right which is served by a single road, Via Villa Regina, which winds through the estate with two junctions onto Viale Via Regina, you wish to take the second of these junctions, just before Viale Villa Regina turns sharply to the right. There is a sign at the junction indicating the site and the entrance to the site is visible along the straight section of Via Villa Regina.

Villa Regina is not the Roman name for this building, it was the name of the building which stood there before the housing estate was built, both the housing estate and the excavations take their name from this villa.

The author walked this route in June 2018.

How to get there - original route

The train route to use is the Circumvesuviana and the stop is the one for Pompeii Scavi. The route starts at the exit of the train station but could equally start at the Marine Gate exit from the excavations at Pompeii (turn right) or the Villa dei Misteri exit (turn left then right on Via Diomidi). Beware: none of these roads have name boards, but you can look them up on Google Maps before leaving home. The author has included descriptions of the surroundings at important changes in direction

The walk from Pompeii Scavi station takes about 15 to 20 minutes. The author sets a brisk pace.

From Pompeii Scavi Station turn left and proceed along the Via Villa dei Misteri, leaving the camp site Zeus on your left. This campsite also includes a restaurant and some of the parking for Pompeii. The road proceeds up hill past the Motel Villa dei Misteri.

After the motel take the first left onto Via Diomede. This road is both signed and also has a railway level crossing visible down the road. Pass across the railway line at the level crossing and then to a T junction and right onto Via Andolifi. 

Via Andolifi does not have pavements for pedestrians and it does have traffic - be careful. Proceed back under the railway line. Just before the first of the overhead power lines (less than 100 metres from the railway bridge) turn right just before the house shown and then immediately left onto Via Grotta Peralla. The house shown was in the process of being redecorated when the photograph was taken; its appearance may change.

On the Via Grotto Peralla you should be travelling in approximately the same direction as you were on the Via Andolifi but offset a 100 metres or so to the East. Via Grotto Peralla is a quiet, narrow lane and there are agricultural businesses on your right as you walk down this road.

At the end of Via Grotta Peralla is a main road named Via Settetermini. On the opposite side of this road and slightly to the right is the Viale Villa Regina. Villa Regina is the name of the roman villa at Boscoreale (note: it is the modern name of the house where the Roman remains were found; we do not know what the Romans called it). It is now a residential estate having many large blocks of apartments. Proceed along this Viale; ignoring the first turning to the right onto Via Villa Regina, take the second turning. This is the far end of a road which loops through the housing estate. This road just before Viale Villa Regina turns sharply right; if you have rounded a sharp right turn you have gone too far. There are signs to the archeological site on both sides of Viale Villa Regina at the junction. Villa Regina is a hundred metres or so down Via Villa Regina, at the end, where the road turns sharply right.

There is a car park and the majority of visitors arrive by coach or car. Judging from the reactions of the staff, pedestrians visitors appear to be rare.

It should be noted that the journey described cannot be undertaken by car.

A summary of the train services is available.

Last travelled

The author last completed the journey described in June 2012.