Naples to Paestum

Easy peasy. www.trenitalia.com will show you a train schedule from Naples to Paestum. It's an 90-minute train ride on a Regionale train. No reservations permitted on the Regionale. Here's a link to show you a sample morning schedule. http://orario.trenitalia.com/b2c/nppPriceTravelSolutions.do?car=0&stazin=naples&stazout=paestum&datag=18&datam=05&dataa=2011&timsh=08&stazin_r=Staz_DA&stazout_r=Staz_A&timsm=06&timsm_r=06&lang=en&nreq=5&channel=tcom&npag=1&lang_r=en&nreq_r=5&channel_r=tcom&npag_r=1&x=24&y=9 Now the difficulty. You are on your way to Sorrento and Paestum is about 45 minutes south of Salerno on the coast. A couple of ways to get to Sorrento. 1) take the train back to Salerno and take the ferry from Salerno to Sorrento. Depending on when you do this, you could be on a hydrofoil (nice). You might want to follow this active post on this subject: http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/helpline/index.cfm/rurl/topic/67721/hydrofoil-ferry-naples-to-sorrento.html 2) On your way down to Paestum from Naples, you will stop at Pompei. Note, however, that it is not the Pompei Scavi stop on the Circumvesuviana train. There are TWO train stations in Pompei - one for each train system. You can get off the Trenitalia train at Pompei, take a taxi to the Pompei Scavi stop (about 1.5 miles I think) and then get on the Circumvesuviana train to Sorrento. 3) Go back to Salerno and take the SITA bus to Sorrento. You will change SITA buses at Amalfi as they don't go all the way in either direction. Beautiful scenery if you sit on the water side of the bus.

Trains connect Salerno to Paestum, where there is a short walk (1/2 mile) to the ruins. I do not know whether there is luggage storage at the Paestum station, which is a pretty small building. You might want to get to Sorrento first, where the hotel can fill you in on ferry service (and the weather) versus a bus all the way to Pasetum (sounds miserable) versus a train/ferry combo route via Salerno versus a Circumvesuviana/train combo route through Pompei. Paestum definitely is worth seeing. The ferry ride anywhere between Sorrento and Salerno is spectacular. Paestum is buffalo mozzarella territory. Although touristy, the restaurants at the ruins may have some made that morning.

Sounds like i may want to reschedule my time in Sorrento. Would it be better to stop by in Pompeii on the way to Sorrento? then my time donw there would look like... day 1 rome > naples (eat pizza) > pompeii (sights and museum) > Sorrento day 2 Sorrento > Paestrum (sights and museum) > Sorrento day 3 Sorrento >Amalfi coast bus ride (???) > Sorrento day 4 sorrento > Capri > Sorrento Then I'm off to Venice.
Does that sound more doable than trying to to Paestrum in that first half day? Does the Pompeii station have a luggage holding area or lockers? Thanks for the help!!!

If your arrival time in Naples permits you might consider Naples > Sorrento > dump luggage > Pompeii via CircumVesu (1/2 hr). Then day #2 could be Sorrento > Capri > Naples for pizza and the Acheological Museum followed by a canoli > Sorrento via boat > free samples of lemoncello in Sorrento's old district.

That sounds like a good plan. would I need to purchase those tickets ahead of time or should I wait and get them when I arrive? If I can get them ahead of time, is there a website I can go to?

Except for the trip from Rome to Naples, you won't be able to buy many of the other tickets in advance as they are all Regionale type trains. They are very frequent (like buses) so you don't have to worry. For Paestum, you could take the ferry (hopefully the hydrofoil) to Salerno and then take the train to Paestum. The train station is very near the boat dock in Salerno. Or, you can take the SITA bus down the Amalfi coast. You will need to change buses at Amalfi. Sit on the water side and watch the road disappear once in awhile (the road is narrow with lots of curves).

The Circumvesuviana is a commuter light rail so there is no need to buy a ticket in advance. Just show up, buy a ticket and join the huddled masses on hard plastic seats. If you do the Salerno-Paestum train be sure to look out the window when the train crosses the Sale River. Historians believe that the Sale River plain is the site of Spartacus' final battle. fyi here is somebody's YouTube of the Amalfi-Sorrento bus ride
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5cugLK8oug

thank! That is all really helpful. I'm glad that I can get tickets while I'm there...One more month and I will be in Italy!! :)

A couple of things I haven't seen mentioned yet. 1. The regional trains to and from Paestum are covered by the ArteCard (27 euros), if you're purchasing them. Individual tickets from Naples to Paestum are 6.2 Euro, each way (I've got 4 of the individual regional train tickets, unused, $5 each with no payment required until used). 2. Have a backup plan for leaving Paestum in the late afternoon by train. Be sure to write down bus and ferry times so that if needed, you'll know what to do and where to go to get back. Maybe we just hit a bad day but when the train stopped in Paestum at 16:10 for the return to Naples, the train was PACKED and their was only 1 more train after that. One family was split up with the mother and 1 child left at the station while the grandmother and 1 child were able to squeeze on board. We had to stand for half the trip back before enough people got off here and there that we were able to sit. It was a great way to meet new friends, though, since misery loves company! 3. Paestum station is unmanned and has no ticket machines or lockers. There are moderately faster ways to get from Sorrento to Paestum involving multiple transfers between trains and/or buses and/or ferries. Be sure to get there as early as possible, which means a VERY early train from Naples or early start from Sorrento using the multiple transfers approach. We missed the early train due to a delay on the way to Naples in the morning and so the 2nd train of the day leaving Naples wasn't until like 12:38 PM! We only had 3 hours to spend at Paestum and spent every last minute of it and didn't have any time for the museum. Regardless of the effort to get there, we loved Paestum and it was one of the highlights of our trip and thanks to our scheduling snafu and the packed train, was a great adventure, too.