Pompeii & Royal Palace of Caserta Private Tour from Rome

The UNESCO World Heritage listed Reggia di Caserta started out as a royal boasting contest. King Charles VII of Bourbon wanted a palace to outshine the Palace of Versailles, so in 1752 he initiated the construction of the largest royal residence in the world. His most ambitious project was a palace to rival Versailles, and he commissioned the job to the Neapolitan architect Luigi Vanvitelli who made a palace larger than any other royal palace in the world. In the Palace there are 1790 windows and 1200 rooms. King Charles never came to spend a night at the palace. In 62 A.D. a violent earthquake struck the Vesuvius area. Seventeen years later, on August 24, 79 A.D., the sudden eruption of Vesuvius buried Pompeii with ashes and lapillus. The buried city was rediscovered in the 16th Century, but it was only in 1748 that the exploration phase began, under the King of Naples Charles III of Bourbon. Our guide will bring this ancient resort town to life.