Hello! I'm traveling at the end of October to Rome with friends! We are planning to do an overnight trip to the coast and wanted some advice. We will travel from Rome to Naples (to taste pizza!) and then from Naples get to the coast. The only town we know is a must is Positano as it's my #1 bucket list item! Any suggestions on where else we should visit? Ideas on where we should stay?
Thanks in advance!
If it works into your timeframe, I would definitely try to get to Ravello. It is a small village above the village of Amalfi. You must take a local bus to get up there (from the bus stop in the main section of Amalfi) but the views of the coast are breathtaking. You can tour the gardens of Villa Rufolo while you are there. It is a charming village, and our favorite place on the Amalfi Coast.
You can also visit Capri, Ravello, Antrani, Sorrento and Amalfi. Sorrento is the perfect location to stay because it is the center of the coast so you can have an easier option to travel to the rest of the other towns.
All this in one night? Naples and Positano would be plenty.
For me, it's not Positano itself but more where it is situated. I've related this before but two years ago in early March, we took a SITA bus from Sorrento to Positano, even after hearing that it was still pretty much closed for the winter. Unsure about where to get off the bus, we disembarked too early, like 2 stops early. Oh crap, what do we do now?
Not wanting to wait for the next bus, we observed that the winding shore road was slightly downhill, so we started walking. It took about 45 minutes, a quite pleasant walk actually, and I'll guess it was a little over a mile to the entry road to lower Positano. But what scenery! We got an up close & personal view of what you see in pictures or videos or movies. We kept saying that pictures aren't going to do these breathtaking views justice. And they didn't.
Frankly, the bus ride from outside Positano all the way to Vietri sul Mare--with a change of bus in Amalfi--is one of the great motor paths that exists. See the whole length of the coast if you can.
Enjoy your planning!
If Positano is " #1 bucket list item!", you need to spend at least 2 nights there, so you have one day to be there and experience it. Otherwise all you will be doing is 'coming and going' with very little 'being there'
Spending overnight in Positano with a stop in Naples, is akin to going from NYC to Baltimore ( crabcakes?) and spending the night in DC and returning to NYC the next day. Is that what you really want to do for a ' #1 bucket list item"?
This is a classic “reign it in” scenario. It all looks fine on paper and you’re riding the synchronicity highway, but the reality is you’ll get a fraction out of this that you hope to. You could totally do a Naples day trip (there’s so much more than the pizza there) but Positano for a one night stop is a stretch and wastes your limited time. Also, end of October is basically getting out of season, so you might find it even more difficult getting around there.
Reign it in. Save the Amalfi Coast for another trip with more days so you can enjoy it, not just glimpse it from a bus window. It deserves your time, and you deserve its time.
P.S. you can get great Neopolitan style pizza in Rome if you know where to look.
The Amalfi Coast deserves at least 5 to 6 nights and Sorrento, while not on the Amalfi Coast, is a great hub to see the Amalfi Coast, Pompeii, Naples and the Isle of Capri. The pizza in Sorrento is outstanding neapolitan (I like Frankie's) and the seafood is delicioso. So, hold off and enjoy the great city of Rome and plan to come back and enjoy the Bay of Naples and the Amalfi Coast on the next trip. I just love the rugged coastline of this region of Italy and it calls to me during the winters here in Missouri:)
Erin, I'll agree with the above that this is too much to take on for just one night. You'll spend too much time/expense getting to Positano just to have to turn around and retrace your steps the next day. Daylight will be short in late October and the weather could be a crapshoot as well. It's not an especially fun place for sightseeing on rainy days; not a big issue if you have 3-4 or more days to work with but if you don't...
