Hours
Hours are the Park’s listing for 15 October to 15 March, from its open-buildings page. They differ in summer. Each entry paraphrases the Park’s own page for that place, or its easy-reading guide where there is no page.
Pompeii is not only grand houses. These places show work, food and washing, and the walls themselves carry painted notices and graffiti.
Thermopolium of Vetutius Placidus
A thermopolium was a street bar selling hot food and drink. This one opens on Via dell’Abbondanza and has a restored brick counter with round holes that held jars to keep food hot. A painted shrine on the back wall shows the household gods, an ancestral Genius, Mercury and Bacchus. The Park’s guide says archaeologists found gold coins in one of the jars. Look for: The counter with its holes and the painted shrine. Park listing: visible from outside.
Fullery of Stephanus
A laundry and cloth-treating workshop made inside an older house, in the last phase of the city. The old basin in the atrium became a washing tub, and the roof was used to dry the cloth. The Park says the workers, almost all slaves, trod cloth for hours in a liquid containing human and animal urine collected in pots along the streets. A skeleton with a hoard of coins was found near the entrance, and election notices suggest Stephanus was the owner. Look for: The central tub and the washing basins in the garden. Park listing: 9:15 to 16:20, last entrance 16:00.
Bakery of Popidio Prisco
Mill and bakery were part of one process. Five lava millstones survive, each made of a cone-shaped base (meta) and an hourglass-shaped upper part (catillus) turned by slaves or animals. Bread was baked in a large oven at the centre. The Park says this bakery has no sales counter, so bread was probably made to order, sold wholesale or sold by street vendors. Look for: The five millstones and the oven. Park listing: 9:00 to 17:00.
Wall inscriptions
Along the streets, painted and scratched writing survives on walls and columns. The Park’s guide lists love and hatred sentences, shopping lists, names and jokes, and election notices. Look for them while you walk, and do not touch the walls. Along many streets. No separate listing.
Information from the Archaeological Park of Pompeii (pompeiisites.org), checked on 28 October 2026. Hours, closures and access change, so check the Park before you travel. This site is an independent guide and is not the official site.