My husband and I are taking a Rick Steves tour in September, and plan on extending our trip to visit the Sorrento area. We need to figure out how to get to Naples from Florence, how to get to Sorrento, and then we need some advice on where to stay in Sorrento. We want to visit the other areas of the Amalfi Coast, i.e., Positano for example. Do we rent a car, or take public transportation? This is our first trip to Italy. We only have 4 days, so what would be the best areas to focus on?
Posted by
Massachusetts
847 posts
From Florence to Naples you take the regular trains. Probably have to change in Rome. There are faster trains and slower trains, you need to check the schedules at www.trenitalia.com The faster trains are usually more expensive than the slower ones. From Naples to Sorrento is a local (commuter type) train. Takes about an hour and is very cheap. When you arrive in the Naples train station you just go downstairs to get the local train to Sorrento.
Look on booking.com for places to stay in Sorrento, but I would suggest you try to stay as close to the center of town as possible. So you will have 3 or 4 days to sight see, depending on how you are counting days (does four include the travel day from Florence?). You can take either the bus or a ferry from Sorrento to Positano/Amalfi - or take the bus one way and the ferry the other. You can also take a ferry to Capri for the day.
Here's my photos of the region. https://andiamo.zenfolio.com/p266655284
Posted by
10 posts
Awesome... following this. My hubby and I need to be in Barcelona on Sept 15th. We fly in to Rome on Sept 9th so we could spend a few days in Italy before heading to Barcelona. We think this area looks amazing and are interested in checking it out!
Posted by
NorthCarolina
1060 posts
4 days for Sorrento? We spent 4 days there too. Don't rent a car-- the roads to the coast are narrow and winding and scary if you've never driven them, plus, you won't be able to enJOY the views. We used a company Rick Steves recommended for a guided tour to the Amalfi Coast - it stopped in 3 towns -- Positano was one of them. We highly recommend them - sharedtours.com
From Florence we took the fast train to Naples and then the regional train to Sorrento as mentioned above. RS tells you how to do this in his Italy book, which you should buy. We stayed at an incredible B&B in Sorrento which was fabulous. Feel free to PM me if you have questions. We also did a day trip to Herculaneum which was fabulous - we followed RS book directions.
I hope you meant 4 days for Sorrento - if you meant 4 days for Italy, then stay in one town, don't try to do more than that as it takes SO MUCH time to change towns and you'll spend too much time traveling and not enough time savoring Italy. If you only have 4 days total for Italy, then do Rome, Venice or Florence only.
Posted by
Edmonds, WA 🌨 ☂
11869 posts
What is your departure airport? ( presumably to the US?)
If Rome is your departure airport you need to be in Rome the night before your flight.
Does 4 days = 4 nights?