2 Week Honey Moon Rome & Amalfi

Are you already aware of the Jubilee year in Italy (activities centered in Rome) , and the May 1 holiday? Just so you wont be taken unawares by crowds. You will want to have all your reservations for the major Rome tourist sites well in advance.

Many people will recommend staying in Sorrento if you want to do a lot of day trips in that area. Naples and Pompeii are reached by train (or car service). There are ferries to Capri and the AC towns. The towns are also reachable by bus. Rick's guidebook as well as numerous threads on this forum discuss the difficulties of transportation on the AC. You can find them using the Search function. A car is not recommended during the tourist season due to congestion and lack of parking.

There are very few sandy beaches on the AC. Most are of the pebbled variety. Water temps in early May will likely be around 18°C, so not condusive to long swims. And air temps will likely be in the high teens to mid twenties (Celcius). Not sure if that is warm enough for sunbathing.

This all sounds negative, and I dont mean to dump on your dream trip. ALL of these places are wonderful to visit. You just need to know what to expect so you can plan accordingly.

Congratulations on your marriage. Italy is such a lovely place for a honeymoon.

It is Jubilee year in Rome and there are also some holidays to be aware of, 25 April is Liberation Day and 1 May Labour Day. Just something for you to be aware of in factoring in your planning.

Without understanding your budget, for Rome, I would choose a centrally located area. We particularly like either the area around the Parthenon (which is convenient to many of the Tourist sites) or the Trastevere area which a bit more residential, but still easy to get to most of the tourist attractions.

For the Amalfi Coast, in early May, you have a couple of options. Transport on the Amalfi Coast is a bit challenging ( you don’t want to drive) and the buses can get crowded. If you really want to go to Capri, Naples, and Pompeii, then Sorrento is a more central transport location. Not a beach town, but great transport options, food is amazing. For the Amalfi Coast, we have stayed in Positano before and loved the B&B we stayed in, however, it is very hilly and transport is a bit more challenging and it is very expensive. Amalfi is a bit flatter and a better transport hub, but not great beach options. Since the beaches on the AC are not your traditional sandy beaches, if a beach is important to you, then look for hotels with a private beach option.

Note that when you plan, weather can be a factor on the Amalfi Coast. We were there last May (end of May). It rained most of the time, ferries were cancelled and our beach vacation morphed into something else. However, even in the rain Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast was magical. They have wonderful wineries, local food tours, cooking classes. We will be going back as we still want our beach vacation.

You will get some amazing advice here on the forum. As your plans continue to evolve, happy to help with any specific recommendations.

Thank you all for the input and advice! Very helpful.....We're aware of Jubilee but aren’t as familiar with the other holidays or any potential issues they might bring (other than crowds). Here's a general itinerary we've been considering at this point. We understand it won't be ideal beach weather, but that's okay—beach time is lower on our priority list for this trip. Do you think this is a realistic general plan? (We understand we may need to add a day or two to account for the longer travel days at the beginning and the time needed to fly in and out of Rome, but this is just a starting outline).

Itinerary:

Day 1: Leave Home>>> Fly into ROME >>> Get to SORRENTO (4/28)

Day 2: Naples via Sorrento (4/29)

Day 3: Pompeii via Sorrento (4/30)

Day 4: Positano via Sorrento (5/1)

Day 5: Ravello via Sorrento (5/2)

Day 6: Leave Sorrento >>> Arrive in Capri (5/3)

Day 7: Capri (5/4)

Day 8: Capri (5/5)

Day 9: Leave Capri >>> Arrive in Rome (5/6)

Day 10: Rome (5/7)

Day 11: Rome (5/8)

Day 12: Rome (5/9)

Day 13: Rome (5/10)

Day 14: Leave ROME >>> Get Home (5/11- 5/12)

Overview:

Sorrento = 5 nights

Capri = 3 nights

Rome = 5 nights

I just wanted to clarify something from my original post and now replies: Initially, we had a preference for beach time and swimming, but we now understand that may not be ideal. So we've adjusted our expectations accordingly.

Congratulations!

It’s a good plan
You can easily combine Positano and Ravello on same day-giving more time to Ravello
That would leave you a free day at beginning to recover from flight and travel to Sorrento
And one less day traveling around AC which is time consuming and chaotic -maybe consider a private driver ?

I am pretty sure there is a bus direct from FCO to Sorrento-don’t have info handy but a search here should find it

Have you looked at flights into or out of Naples?
That would save a ton of travel time

Don’t say where you are flying from in US but there are direct to Naples flights from Philly and NYC
Possibly from Miami as well?

okay wonderful! Yes, we can definitely alter our trip and try to fly into Naples First, as well as combine the Positano/Ravello into one day in order to give us an initial day of relaxing in Sorrento to catch up on rest from travel.

Your itinerary certainly works and you’ll have a wonderful time I’m sure. There are some folks who are dead set on staying on Capri, but I’m not one of them. It’s too easy of a day trip and imo suited to a day trip to commit nights there. And if you’re not staying on Capri, then splitting those 8 nights between Sorrento and an Amalfi Coast town is an easy task.

As it is, you’re lining up a series of day trips out of Sorrento: to Naples, to Pompeii, to Positano… that equates to a lot of time on busses or ferries. Transportation and the crowds involved (though a bit lesser at that time of year) are the big challenges. It can make a leisurely trip feel a lot less leisurely. Staying in an Amalfi town when your objective is to see Amalfi towns is a big advantage. You’ll get to enjoy these places in the quiet times. It’s wonderful. And when you do want to move around, you’re moving opposite the day trip crowds, so you’re much less likely to get stuck in traffic. Not that you can’t enjoy that tranquility on Capri, but on the Coast you’ve got options.

I am finding Capri VS Amalfi to be the most challenging planning portion of this itinerary for sure. We could consider alternative plan where we take a day trip to Capri VIA Sorrento and then just spend the three nights originally planned in Capri on the Amalfi Coast instead.

Should that be the route we go, what would you recommend as the best town to stay in on the Amalfi Coast? Are there any quieter, more relaxing areas that might be a good fit for us?

Ravello or Praiano maybe seems to be the way to go but not sure what it's like getting to those locations- need to do some more research more.

Amalfi is the best town transportation wise
Atrani is an easy walk from Amalfi

Ravello is high up in the hills-great view but not good for getting around

You want to be in a town with both ferry and bus
Positano has ferry but a very small dock which is affected by weather cancellations moreso than others
No ferry in Praiano

Take a look at Maiori

https://search.ricksteves.com/?button=&query=maiori&utf8=%E2%9C%93

You don't indicate your budget. But public transportation for daytrips is easiest and cheapest from Sorrento. So if you want to make daily visits, give up the idea of a remote village with no streetlights and only two restaurants. Sorrento is a post-war, purpose built resort town. But it has superb transportation connections. That's why we slept five night in Sorrento, at a luxury cliffside hotel, the Ambasciatori. One plus is that Sorrento has larger ferries on the slightly rougher open gulf waters to Capri, and more than one company making the run. But you are slightly ahead of season, and the adjust ferry size to the volume of passengers.

https://weatherspark.com/m/76507/4/Average-Weather-in-April-in-Sorrento-Italy

You have not filled out the home-area field of your public profile. I wonder if you understand that the Amalfi Coast is not like the Carribean, or Virginia or North Carolina beaches, at all.

This newsboard has dozens of posts every month on your questions. You may find a lot of information with the search box top left. For example:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/amalfi-coast-for-7-nights-itinerary-help

Spent the month of November, southern Italy, solor, F and public transpo.

April 20 and 21 is Easter and Easter Monday and both are holidays as well as May 1 as noted.

I originally booked Sorrento and then realized all my day trips were to the AC. Unbooked that and stayed at Hotel Fortuna in Amalfi. Perfect, incredible breakfast and right where you want to be. Buses and port were almost at the front door of the hotel. Extremely easy to travel the AC.

Actually not that crazy about Sorrento. Have been to Capri years ago and Blue Grotto tours end on Oct 31 so less need for me to stay in Sorrento. Stop at Fuore on the way to Positano as the cove beach is lovely and even in Nov people were in the water.

Ravello was lovely as was Vietri. Atrani is walkable from Amalfi. Watch as many youtube vides to get a sense of the AC towns.

I love Rome but avoiding until next year but was there 3 years ago so not in a hurry.

Pompeii was nice, Villa dei Misteri fabulous but also go to Oplantis as part of your Pompeii ticket although extremely similar to Misteri. Be aware also that the first Sunday of the month various museums are free which brings enormous amount of nationals to various sites that are now free.

I always use booking.com to book my apt and usually do it 8 -9 months out so you might want to get on that before you even finish reading my post! Enjoy!