What am I missing?

Orvieto and Assisi should not be combined into one day trip, in my book. Assisi is a difficult enough day trip from Rome. The train puts you into Santa Maria Degli Angeli, which is sometimes referred to as Lower Assisi. You then have to wait a while to take a bus, or pay a fortune for a cab ride up to the historic part of Upper Assisi, where most of the sites are.

I love Rome, but if I were you I would consider venturing out and spending a few nights outside of Rome. It looks like you have 10 days in Rome. I would suggest making a list of the things in rome that are a "must do" and see how many days you need to do all those things. All the major Rome sites can be done in about 4 days. Then if you have the extra time, go spend a couple of days in Asissi or Sorrento, consider Florence for a couple of days if you have never been there. It would be well worth it.

Trying to visit Orvieto and Assisi in one day is not a good idea. Orvieto is about 90 minutes north and slightly west of Roma. Assisi is about 2 hours north and slightly east of Roma. Considering the distance between them would both be a better day excursion for each.

You could do the Ville de Este in Tivoli in the morning and Hadrian's Villa in the afternoon. Ostia Antico is the less popular version of Pompeii and very close to Roma. Enjoyrome.com offers no-frills roundtrip do-it-yourself busues to Pompeii. Castelgandolfo, the Pope's summer residence is about an hour outside of Roma in the Castelli Romani.

Perugia is a great place for a day trip and it is close to Assisi.

Buon viaggio,

RB

Nancy,

Travel to both Orvieto and Asissi on the same day would be a bit of a "challenge" and not something I'd recommend. Orvieto would be an easy day trip, however I'm not sure whether all of the usual sights would be open at this time of year? Some of the attractions in Orvieto are the beautiful Duomo (with the incredible ceiling frescoes), St. Patrick's Well (a marvelous feat of engineering when it was built) and the Underground tour.

A day trip to Sorrento along with "that bus ride along the coast" would be a VERY long day, involving train to Napoli and then the Circumvesuviana to Sorrento. Spending at least one night there would be preferable.

There were some good tips in the previous replies, so those would be something to consider also.

Happy travels!

I suggest that you book the Borghese Museum in advance.
It is one of our favorites in Rome.

I agree with the previous poster that a day trip to Sorrento and a bus ride along the Amalfi coast would be a LONG day. But its possible if you really wanted to do it; a bigger concern I'd have is what the weather would be like. The bus ride in the rain would probably not be very memorable.

As for logistics, from the trenitalia it looks like the 1st fast train is at 9am and gets you there a little after 10. You'd next need to take the Circumvesuviana for another hour to Sorrento, then at the train station buy your bus ticket and board the bus. Since trenitalia doesn't line its schedules up with the Circumvesuviana (nor the Circumvesuviana with the bus line) I'd estimate it might take 3-4 hours before you board the bus in Sorrentoto go to Positano and Amalfi. Be sure to look at what time the last time the buses heading back to Sorrento run or you'll be facing a very expensive taxi ride. On the other hand since there's 4 of you, the per-person cost of hiring one of the taxis that RS recommends in his guide book and doing the Amalfi coast that way might be reasonable. You'd get a personally narrated drive, and not waste any time waiting for the bus when you wanted to go from one town to another or return to Sorrento.

We enjoyed both Assisi and Orvieto but I agree with previous posters that trying to see them both in one day would not be recommmended as they are not even in the same direction from Rome. Do them on 2 different days if you want to see both. Sorrento would be a long day trip from Rome and I don't know what the weather would be like that time of the year. Have only been on Amalfi C. in warm weather and of course then it is stunning! Buon Viaggio!

I would personally leave Sorrento for another trip (and combine it with Positano, Capri, etc.). I would definitely visit Orvieto but as everyone else has indicated, you can not combine Orvieto with Assisi. You can easily walk around Orvieto for the better part of a day & there's a variety of interesting things to do there. We enjoyed the underground tour (only an hour) & would recommend it. Your boys might enjoy Ostia Antica so you might plan a half day or so there. Rome is really incredible; have a wonderful trip.

Thank you all for the replies. We've decided to do a day trip to Orvieto, another day trip to Assisi, and if we feel we need another day away from Rome we will go to Ostia Antico. Saving Amalfi Coast and points south for our next trip to Italy...so now we have to go back!

If you're taking the train to Assisi, there are other hilltowns in the area. It wouldn't be difficult if you're planning on spending the day out exploring to go to one town in the morning and stay until after lunch, then visit another one before returning to Rome. Spoleto, Perugia, Arezzo, Cortona, etc; you'd have to look at trenitalia to see if it works out, but it might be possible to pick a 2nd one to visit the same day.