4 nights in Rome, 4 on Amalfi Coast

That is a nice trip, but depending on your arrival time, I would go on to the Amalfi Coast the day you arrive so you can put all Rome time together at the end (saving you time and from having to do the airport hotel).
I would also see Pompeii when traveling back to Rome, as it is a very long day trip from Positano.

The walk from Ravello to Amalfi is nice, but I would actually prefer walking up--going down can feel harder on the knees in my experience but I may be weird that way!

I agree with you, and Valadelphia. Do Rome in one shot
Don't overbook, prepare another trip which will include Florence, Tuscany Venice and maybe Cinqueterre if you have time
If you love ruins, Pompei should be something to visit when you are on the coast.

Thanks valadelphia.

Have to be in Rome the first few days.
Good idea about seeing Pompei on the way back.
I wish I could have rented a car. But scary stories about driving in Amalfi Coast and big fines in forbidden areas took that option away.
I am planning on taking hiking sticks. They make going down much easier on knees. But may be it is better going up. We shall see.

My wife wants to see Venice and/or Florence but I am trying to convince her that there is not enough time to do it all

You are 100% right.

Italy is a loooooong peninsula. There are good things in the far north (Venice, Florence and more). There are god thinigs in the far south (Amalfi Coast and more). On a short trip (and yours is definitely a short trip), it's just not possible to do them all. The #1 mistake inexperienced travelers make is trying to "do" all of Italy in a trip as short as yours. Conversely, the smartest thing one can do on a short trip, is to limit the number of "places" to just a couple. So good for you, and kudos for being smart enough to get it right.

You and your wife should plan another trip to the northern destinations.

also, the tip above from valadelphia is a good one: upon arrival, that day is mostly going to be a fog of jetlag and exhaustion. You are not going to get a lot out of that day, so you might as well use that time to press on all the way to the Amalfi Coast. That essentially buys you one more usable day for your trip right there, and you save "wasting" a day before your return flight traveling back to Rome - so you basically re-gain two full days that would otherwise be lost to jetlag and logistics. Another smart move.

Edited to add: just saw your reply about need to be in Rome. OK.

You really do not want to drive on the Amalfi Coast. I've driven in crazy places all over the world and would not drive that road - you'll enjoy it much more as a passenger. Hiking poles are not a bad idea. If you don't have any yet, Costco sells some good ones for a great price.

Oh no worries then, enjoy! You really would not want or need a car.
Now that you have posted the daily plan, note you can also take the train from Rome to Salerno and then take a ferry to Positano--much more pleasant. And it's great you actually meant four full days (there is no standard and people can mean all sorts of things)--lucky you!

Your itinerary looks fine. You'll enjoy your time in both places.

I agree with valadephia, train from Rome to Salerno. The ferrys should be running on the 2nd. But in case of cancellation, the bus ride on this end of the coast is beautiful.

Ferry & bus timetables here.

https://www.positano.com

Have a great trip.

Thanks for the tip to travel through Salerno and take the boat.

Looks like there are frequent trains to Salerno and also a boat from there every hour for several hours to Positano.

It is showing about 2 hrs to Salerno and another hour or so to Positano. So if we leave Rome by 9, we should be in Positano by 1 and have much useful time there that day.

On the way back, I think we'll go through Naples and see Pompeii on the way to Rome.

I read somewhere that there are different types of trains in Italy. Which will be best to Salerno?

Checking out the Trenitalia schedule, there are multiple trains each day from Rome to Salerno with no changes, and they can be bought in advance (Super Economy) for as little as 16,90 Euro, an absolute steal, taking a total of about 2 hrs, 30 min. Make sure it's a 'Frecciarossa' train, but be advised that not all Frecciarossa trains go straight through to Salerno, with some changing at Naples.

Also if taking this route, make sure that the ferries are running from Salerno to Positano, it being very early in the season. Otherwise--and this is not such a bad option--you can take the SITA bus from that same Salerno station to Amalfi, which takes about an hour and is a spectacular drive (as Gerri says), as long as you aren't doing the driving! Tip: sit on the driver's side of the bus. Then you'll have to change buses there for the 45 minutes left to Positano.

Enjoy your planning!

We just returned from a Rome/Amalfi Coast trip two days ago, so hopefully my comments will be helpful to you. We arrived in Rome and stayed for 4 days/5 nights, then headed to the Amalfi Coast for 3 days/4 nights, then returned to Rome for our last night. It was a great schedule! Given that it was off-season, we had somewhat limited choices on the AC for transportation, but it still worked out well for us. Here are some of our details:
We booked a direct train on Trenitalia from Roma Termini to Salerno in the morning. Since the ferry service starts late March, early April (according to their charts), we used the SITA bus system. On our way out of the Salerno train station, we purchased tickets from the tabacchi store for 2.60 euros each. We took a bus to Amalfi and transferred to a bus to Furore where we were staying at Villa II Mignale (perfecto!!!). For our entire AC time, we relied solely on bus transportation which ran smoothly and on time. There are "Fermata Sita" (bus stop) blue signs all over, not just what you see on google maps. If you want to get off at one of those stops, you press a "stop" button near your seat, or if your button doesn't work, just yell, "FERMATA" and the bus driver will stop and let you off! If you are not at a large, popular bus stop like Amalfi, we learned to just wave our bus ticket at the oncoming bus and the driver stops to pick you up. Simple. We did a fair amount of walking (70+ miles in 10 days), and found the AC to be quite steep in places, especially in Furore where we were staying. Much of the AC was just "waking up" for the season while we were there. It was still busy, and restaurants were open in Amalfi. We actually had delivery one of the nights from Agerola which was just up the hill from us. We are thankful we left the driving to the experts. Summary: Tourists in Rome, Resters in Furore. Just the right amount of time to experience the beauty and wonder of Italy.

Added: We took a direct train back from Salerno to Rome

Thanks for all the great tips. We are so excited. We are in for a treat!

Your trip sounds very much like our planned trip:
Arrive in Rome: March 23
Depart for Sorrento via Naples: March 30. We're planning on pizza in Naples and then train or ferry (weather dependent) to Sorrento
Depart for Atrani: April 1 (we're going to back track on the 31st and take the train to Herculaneum for the day) because we wanted to spend a couple of late afternoon/evenings in Sorrento
Depart to Rome via Salerno: April 5 (giving us 4 nights in Atrani) by bus or ferry (again, weather dependent) & then train to Rome
Overnight in Rome & head home April 6 (staying in the same place we stayed before)

We decided on this because we wanted to be in Rome first and then relax in Atrani and we wanted to see Herculaneum & Sorrento.

Thanks for all the info, SBB!

We returned from our trip to Italy.
It was a great trip and we had a lot of fun. Your tips proved very useful. Thanks.

We ended up taking the train to Salerno, ferry to Positano both ways. The train from Sorrento to Naples leaves a lot to be desired.
We had two unfortunate days of cloudy weather when we are in Positano. So we went to Pompei on one of the days.
On the other cloudy day we made the mistake to go to Ravello. Views were still great but we had a tough time getting back to Amalfi. Two buses got cancelled and there was no information why. We ended up pooling a taxi with others.

Great food everywhere. We are vegetarians but did not have any problem finding great options anywhere in Italy.

We did the Path of Gods. Wow! Amazing. We took the bus to Nochelle from Positano and then did the hike to Bomerano. We had taken the hiking sticks with us so this was an easy hike for us. Great views. Probably the best I have seen in my life.
If you are thinking of doing Path of Gods, do what we did. Do not try and climb from Positano or Amalfi and come back down. You still see the best views at the top anyway. Don't kill your knees. Save them for the walks in Rome and elsewhere :-)
Also, the portion nearer to Nochelle is the best. If you are starting from Bomerano, don't give up until you have completed about half way. Views of Positano are just amazing.

The ferry to and from Positano was so good. Relaxing and just superb views of the coast from the water.

One mistake we did was not to take the guided tour of the Colleseum. We got the Roma pass and did the tour ourselves. Don't know why they don't make it easy for tourists. It was difficult to find which line we should get into. We learned the lesson and did the guided tour of the Vatican. Amazing place.

Enjoyed walking around in Rome. Pantheon was wonderful. They did that 2000 years ago! Mind boggling.

The Trastevere neighborhood in Rome was great. Lots of great food and buzz. Did not like the Spanish steps area much. I can get all those brand name shops anywhere in the US.

Met many interesting people. Two Americans we met had rented a car and driven to Amalfi. They survived :-).
I wish I had done the same. Public transport is not our thing. As Americans, we are used to just going anywhere we feel like anytime. There were some rude people on the buses and trains.

Aww, your trip sounds like it was amazing!