Standing on the cobblestone roads of Pompeii, many tourists often find themselves in a dilemma: Should we follow the guide and stop to closely examine the intricate patterns of the "banquet scene" mural in the corner of the wall, only to have the guide urging us to "move on to the next site, the streets covered with volcanic ash are even more worth seeing"? Or should we stroll leisurely on our own, only to stare blankly at a stone tablet engraved with Latin text - the English sign only says "Ancient Roman Commercial Site", and there's no idea whether wine or olive oil was sold here; not to mention the scattered ruins of houses, without explanations, we can only "guess how people lived back then" at the broken stoves and stone beds. For international tourists visiting Pompeii, "whether to hire a guide" has become a dilemma: Hiring one is not free, and not hiring one means "not understanding" - until Yingmi's self-guided tour system entered this thousand-year-old ruin, the demand for "strolling at one's own pace" and "understanding the stories behind each site" was firmly realized.
Ⅰ.The "dilemma" of visiting Pompeii is not as simple as choosing whether to hire a guide
Tourists who have visited Pompeii know that the pain points of visiting this place are more special than those of ordinary ancient cities. It is not a regular scenic area, but a "scattered collection of history": from the temple foundations unearthed from the volcanic ash, the bakery with burn marks, the houses with graffiti still on the walls, each place hides details, but without explanations, these details are just "stones and broken walls". And the choice of whether to hire a guide often makes tourists fall into two awkward situations.
Let's start with the troubles of hiring a guide. The official guides in Pompeii mostly speak only Italian and English. If tourists come from Spain, France, or Southeast Asia, they either have to pay extra to hire a language-learner guide or can only follow "for the sake of entertainment". Even for English guides, the pace is difficult to adapt to everyone - some tourists want to stay for 10 more minutes to view the mural, but the guide has to rush to the "volcano eruption refuge site" site; some are interested in the details of ancient Roman life, but the guide only talks about the macro history, such as "in 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius erupted", and doesn't mention "what the people of Pompeii ate and wore at that time", just passing it over. Not to mention during the peak season, when the guide leads a large group of 10 or more people, the rear tourists can't hear the explanations clearly and can only follow the crowd "for a cursory look". A local travel agency in Pompeii conducted a survey, and among the tourists who hired guides, 65% reported "the pace was not suitable" and "they didn't hear enough details".
Then look at the awkwardness of not having a guide. Many tourists think "they can be more free", but when they enter Pompeii, they realize that "freedom" comes at the cost of "ignorance". For example, seeing a depression on the ground of a ruin, the guide sign only says "Ancient Roman Square", tourists don't know that this was the political center of Pompeii, where the senators voted; seeing the red graffiti on the wall, thinking it was graffiti left by later generations, it was actually the "advertisements" left by the Pompeians - "The bread in this bakery is the most delicious". What's more worrying is that the ruins of Pompeii are scattered and without a guide leading the way, it's easy to miss key attractions, such as the "mysterious villa" hidden in the residential area, which has the most intact mosaic mosaics and many self-guided tourists didn't find it after visiting. A Japanese tourist said, "After 3 hours of visiting, I only remember 'volcanic ash buried the city', and I didn't understand anything else. It feels like I came here for nothing."
Ⅱ.Yingmi Breaks the "Language Barrier": Not by translating more languages, but by making tourists "understand the culture"
Among the international tourists visiting Pompeii, 70% come from non-English speaking countries - Spaniards want to understand the local explanations, Chinese people want to know "the differences between ancient Roman culture and Chinese Qin-Han culture", and Southeast Asian tourists are curious about "what the life of the Pompeians was like and how it differed from their own hometowns". Traditional guided tours are either monolingual or have awkward translations. For instance, translating "the oven of the Pompeian bakery" directly as "ancient oven" doesn't help the tourists understand how the oven works or what kind of bread it makes. Yingmi's self-guided tour system, however, has successfully achieved "cultural adaptation" at the level of "language adaptation".
Its basic configuration includes 8 languages - Italian, English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Arabic, covering the majority of international tourists visiting Pompeii. If other languages such as Russian or Portuguese are needed, they can be customized in advance by communicating with Yingmi 2 weeks in advance. But more important than the number of languages is that the explanations are not "dictionary-style translations", but "telling stories" based on the tourists' cultural background. For example, when explaining the "public bathhouse" of Pompeii to Chinese tourists, it would compare "it with the hot spring baths in Han Dynasty China, where Pompeii's bathhouse placed more emphasis on social functions, where people chatted and conducted business"; when explaining the "diet of the Pompeians" to European tourists, it would relate "the pizza in Naples, Italy, which can be traced back to the thin cakes made by the Pompeians from grains"; when explaining the "volcanic refuge" to Southeast Asian tourists, it would mention "compared to the traditional refuge methods in volcanic regions of Southeast Asia, the Pompeians relied more on stone-built structures to avoid disasters".
After introducing the Yingmi system to the tourist center at the north gate of Pompeii last year, the multilingual complaint rate dropped by 80%. A Spanish tourist commented: "Previously, when listening to the English explanation, I always couldn't figure out the difference between 'temple' and 'palace'. Now, when listening in Spanish, the explanation said 'This is a temple dedicated to Jupiter, just like our Spanish church dedicated to Our Lady', and I immediately understood."
Ⅲ.Yingmi Solves "Rhythm Confusion": "Listen while walking" in ruins, no need to be in a rush
The most comfortable way to visit Pompeii is to "stay longer when interested in something" - perhaps spending a long time pondering over the oven in the bakery, or taking photos and打卡 at the mosaic paintings. But regular self-guided tour machines require manual input of the site number， and tourists need to hold a map and camera， and also have to use one hand to tap the screen. Sometimes， if they input the wrong number， they will hear the explanation of "temple"， but they are standing in front of the "bakery"， which seriously affects their mood. The i7 ear-mounted self-guided tour machine of Yingmi is perfectly adapted to the "scattered ruins" scene of Pompeii.
It uses RFID-2.4G automatic sensing technology. When tourists are within 1 meter of the ruins， the machine will "ding" and automatically play the corresponding explanation without having to take out their phones or input the number. For example， when visiting "Pompeian Square"， as soon as they step on the stone slab engraved with patterns， the explanation starts： "This is the heart of Pompeii. Every morning， the council members will walk through this stone slab road into the temple to hold meetings"； when reaching the mosaic painting of the "mysterious villa"， the explanation will automatically switch： "This painting tells the story of the Bacchic revelry in Greek mythology. It uses over 2000 colorful stones to be embedded，and was protected intact by volcanic ash during the volcanic eruption". If they don't understand and want to listen again，they can simply touch the "replay" button on the side of the machine， without affecting the "walking and viewing" process.
The local guide Mario from Pompeii said： "Nowadays， many tourists use Yingmi. I often see them looking at the ruins slowly， without having to 'run after the numbers' like before." A French tourist told me that she spent 20 minutes in front of the ruins of the bakery, listened to the explanation three times, and took notes, saying, "Finally, I understand how the ancient Romans baked bread." - This was something that was very difficult to achieve without hiring a tour guide, because the group couldn't wait for one person.
Ⅳ. Yingmi's Addition "Inaccurate Details": Let each stone "speak", not just telling "big history"
The charm of Pompeii lies in the "small details": the traces of dough remaining in the oven of the bakery, the children's graffiti on the walls of the houses, the coins in front of the shop counter - these details, ordinary tour guides either didn't notice or didn't have time to explain. Yingmi's self-guided tour has just dug out these "ignored histories" and made "zone-specific explanations" based on the characteristics of Pompeii's ruins.
What's more considerate is that Yingmi used the MC200 multi-channel zone system, dividing Pompeii into "square area", "house area", "temple area" and "handicraft area", and when tourists visited a certain area, it would automatically play the explanation for that area, without any interference. For example, when listening to the explanation about "pottery workshop" in the "handicraft area", it wouldn't suddenly come up with "temple" content. The experts of the Pompeii Archaeological Research Institute said, "Yingmi's explanations turned 'dead ruins' into 'living life', many tourists said after visiting, 'The Pompeians were just like us, they also loved bread and shopping' - this is exactly the historical view we wanted to convey."
Ⅴ.Making Foreign Tourists "Relaxed": Compliance, after-sales, localization, all included
For foreign tourists visiting Pompeii, especially European tourists, "relaxation" is more important than anything else: Can the equipment be used in the EU? What if it breaks? How accurate is the explanation content? Yingmi's preparations in these aspects have just dispelled their concerns.
First, regarding compliance. Pompeii belongs to Italy, and within the EU, electronic equipment must pass CE and RoHS certifications to be used. Yingmi's self-guided tour products passed these two certifications as early as 2010 whether it was brought in by the tourists themselves or purchased by the scenic area, there was no fear of being detained by customs. Before, a German tourist brought an other brand of tour guide device because it didn't pass CE certification, and it was confiscated at the Naples airport; after changing to Yingmi, with the certification documents in hand, it was smoothly cleared through customs throughout the process without any trouble.
Then, regarding after-sales support. If there is a problem with the equipment while visiting Pompeii, such as the screen cracking when it falls on the stone road, or the battery running out suddenly, what should be done? Yingmi has a 24-hour international hotline , providing services in Italian, English, and Spanish, and tourists can call to consult.
There are also localized content updates. Pompeii has temporary exhibitions every year， such as "The Jewelry Exhibition of the Pompeians" and "The Ancient Roman Mosaic Art Exhibition". Yingmi will update the explanations of these exhibitions for free. Tourists can simply click "Update" on the guide machine to hear the latest explanations without having to buy new equipment.
Conclusion： When visiting Pompeii， there is no need to worry about "whether to have a guide".
For tourists visiting Pompeii， the core of the visit is not "how much distance was covered"， but "how much history was understood". The Yingmi self-guided tour system does not have those fancy functions. It only focuses on the "ruin characteristics" of Pompeii and the "pain points of international tourists"， and does a good job in "language， rhythm， details，and reassurance" - it enables Spanish tourists to understand the "Pompeian advertisements" in graffiti，enables Chinese tourists to understand "Ancient Roman life" in bakeries，and allows everyone who wants to stroll slowly to no longer be troubled by "whether to have a guide".
For tourists, choosing Yingmi is not about selecting a "machine to replace a tour guide", but rather opting for a "more informative way of visiting Pompeii" - without the pressure of keeping up with the pace, without the fear of not understanding, every step on the broken stones of Pompeii allows one to hear history "whispering softly" in one's ears.
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