TesseraWorks with no signal
Audio, photographs and the map live on your phone. Inside the excavations there is no coverage, and that is exactly where the guide has to work.
Pompeii, explained where you stand
Forty-four hectares of ruins with almost no signage and no usable mobile signal. Tessera shows where you are on the plan of the park and tells you what you are looking at — downloaded before you go, working in airplane mode.
Download on the App StoreFree to install. The full guide is one payment, not a subscription.
73narrated stops
55 minof narration in English
4languages, one purchase
Listen before you buy
These five stories are free forever, in the app and here. No sign-up, no email — press play.
1
Welcome to Pompeii: Time Traveler's Briefing (Introduzione)
Sea Gate (Porta Marina)
Civil Forum (Foro Civile)
Triangular Forum (Foro Triangolare)
The Amphitheatre of Pompeii (Anfiteatro)
What you get
It offers, you decide
Nothing ever starts playing on its own. Walk up to something, and the app offers the story of the object next to you.
Four languages, one payment
English, Russian, Spanish and German are all included. Switching language later is a download, not another purchase.
A plan, not a tourist map
Streets, insulae, the city wall and the gates, drawn from survey data. Search finds a place by name, by number or by keyword.
Three ways to walk it
Times are counted, not guessed: walking distance over the real street graph, plus every story, plus ninety seconds of standing and looking at each stop.
Just the essentials
1 h 7 minWhat people come here for: the Forum, the House of the Faun, the Lupanar, the Great Theatre. Take this one if time is short.
Houses and new digs
1 h 49 minFrescoes, mosaics and what came out of the ground in the last few years: the Black Room, the hall of Dionysian mysteries, the bakery-prison. Guidebooks do not have these yet.
The whole city
3 h 25 minFrom the Marina Gate to the Amphitheatre by way of the Forum, the residential quarters and Via dell'Abbondanza. Half a day, and nothing left out.
Questions
Does it really work without internet?
Yes. Once downloaded, everything — audio, photographs, the map and the routes — is on the phone. You need a connection once, to download, and never again.
How much does it cost?
The app is free to install and includes five stories. Opening all 73 is a single payment of $6.99. There is no subscription and nothing expires.
Which languages are included?
English, Russian, Spanish and German — all four in the same purchase. You choose inside the app and can switch at any time.
How long does a visit take?
Between one hour and three and a half, depending on the route. The shortest covers the Forum, the House of the Faun and the theatres; the longest crosses the whole city from the Sea Gate to the Amphitheatre.
Do I still need a ticket to Pompeii?
Yes. Tessera is a guide, not an entrance ticket. Buy admission to the archaeological park as usual.
How much space does it take?
About 80 MB for one language, downloaded once. Photographs are shared between languages.
Is there an Android version?
Not yet. Today Tessera is iPhone only, iOS 16.4 or newer.
Who narrates the stories?
The texts were written for this guide and are read by a synthetic voice, one per language. Nothing is taken from a printed guidebook.