There Will Be Bodies: A Flavia Albia Journey to the Bay of Naples

Departing: March 2027 - March 2027

We invite you to the Bay of Naples for a tour with a difference. Travelling with author Lindsey Davis and archaeologist Oliver Gilkes, we explore the real sites that inspired bestselling novelist Lindsey Davis's Flavia Albia mystery, There Will Be Bodies set among the buried villas of Stabiae itself. For those with an appetite for expert-led archaeology, or readers who have followed Falco and Albia through two decades of Roman crime, this tour offers something rare: the chance to stand in the real places behind the stories, with the novelist and the archaeologist beside you to explain what's true, what's invented, and where the line between the two gets pleasantly blurred.

Included

Explore Villa Arianna & Villa San Marco which inspired There Will be Bodies
All other visits as outlined in the itinerary
Expert Guide Lecturers & professional Tour Manager
4 nights at La Medusa Hotel, Stabiae
4 breakfasts, 3 lunches & 4 dinners
Wine & tea or coffee with dinner
Private air-conditioned coach travel
Field notes, taxes & gratuities for local staff

Highlights

Discover the villas at Stabiae, the inspiration for Lindsey’s Flavia Albia mystery, There Will Be Bodies
Explore newly excavated houses at Pompeii and learn about new finds at Herculaneum
Visit Boscoreale and discover the everyday, wealthy farm life of ancient Rome
See extraordinary treasures up close at Naples' archaeological museums

Oliver Gilkes

Oliver is a consulting archaeologist and specialist in Albanian archaeology. With over 10 years’ fieldwork in Italy, he has excavated at sites including Pompeii and San Vincenzo al Volturno, and directed excavations at Albania’s World Heritage Sites of Butrint and Gjirokastra.

Lindsey Davis

Lindsey Davis is best known for her Roman detective Marcus Didius Falco and Flavia Albia series. She has also written about the English Civil War and Emperor Domitian and received the Crime Writers’ Association Cartier Diamond Dagger.

Tour Itinerary

Join the group flight from London or meet at the La Medusa Hotel in Stabiae. The hotel is situated on the very stretch of coast where Lindsey Davis's Flavia Albia mystery, There Will Be Bodies, unfolds. Over a welcome dinner, join Lindsey for an informal evening of conversation and book reading.

Meals included: Dinner
Accommodation: La Medusa Hotel, Stabiae

Day 1 There Will Be Bodies: A Flavia Albia Journey to the Bay of Naples

This morning we see the villas which inspired Lindsey's novel: Villa Arianna and Villa San Marco, the sprawling clifftop residences of Stabiae's Roman elite, where Tiberius Manlius is sent to dig out a buried property and Albia finds rather more than dust. Archaeologist Oliver Gilkes separates fact from fiction on-site - what excavation here actually looked like, what a Roman "restoration job" would really have involved, and what the real finds tell us. This is also where Pliny the Elder died during the eruption, watching from close quarters and never leaving. After lunch, we visit the newly displayed Museo Archeologico di Stabia which puts faces, frescoes and everyday objects to everything we've discussed.

Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Accommodation: La Medusa Hotel, Stabiae

Day 2 There Will Be Bodies: A Flavia Albia Journey to the Bay of Naples

Our morning is devoted to Pompeii and all the wonderful details that fill Lindsey's novels. Here we see graffiti scrawled by real Pompeians with real grudges, theatres, houses, bathhouses, brothels, and bars (thermopolia) still stocked with the ghosts of a Roman takeaway. Oliver Gilkes leads the archaeology; Lindsey brings the novelist's eye for how a crime writer reads a crime scene two thousand years old. In the afternoon, we visit Villa Poppaea at Oplontis, a site traditionally linked to Nero's second wife, a woman whose own death was, depending on which ancient source you believe, either an accident or a domestic murder.

Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Accommodation: La Medusa Hotel, Stabiae

Day 3 There Will Be Bodies: A Flavia Albia Journey to the Bay of Naples

This morning we explore Herculaneum. This seaside city was buried to a significantly greater depth than Pompeii perfectly preserving everyday objects as well as houses up to their rooftops. In addition to the site, we explore the Antiquarium, newly opened after 44 years, which houses precious articles found along the seafront, including a well-preserved boat. After lunch we visit Boscoreale, which aptly illustrates the world Albia's clients usually come from: a working wine-farm, not a senator's playground, and a reminder that most Roman crime, ancient or fictional, happens among ordinary people as well as emperors.

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner
Accommodation: La Medusa Hotel, Stabiae

Day 4 There Will Be Bodies: A Flavia Albia Journey to the Bay of Naples

We spend the morning at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, the vast, glorious repository where so many of the objects we've spent the week discussing actually ended up. The mosaics, frescoes and everyday finds from Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiae and Oplontis are gathered here under one roof: the celebrated Alexander Mosaic, the household shrines and cooking pots that put flesh on the ordinary Roman life Lindsey Davis writes so well, and the notorious Secret Cabinet, a reminder that Roman taste was rather less buttoned-up than we sometimes imagine. It's the perfect last chapter before we depart for Naples Airport or you can continue your trip at leisure.

Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch

Day 5 There Will Be Bodies: A Flavia Albia Journey to the Bay of Naples

Accommodation

Set in Castellammare di Stabia, La Medusa Hotel occupies an elegant 18th-century building surrounded by gardens, close to the archaeological remains of Stabiae and within easy reach of Pompeii. All rooms are en-suite and include air conditioning, free Wi-Fi, a TV, minibar, safe, hairdryer and tea and coffee-making facilities. Many rooms also feature a balcony with views of the gardens, pool or sea. Facilities include an outdoor swimming pool with sun terrace, Eden Boutique Spa, fitness centre, restaurant and bar.

Availability & Booking

2027

20th March from $3,675

Call to Book

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