Atrani or Salerno as a base?

If you use the search box top left, you will find posts by people who stayed in Salerno and liked it. Be aware that the train on the way to the Salerno station stops some distance from the ancient site of Pompeii Scavi. You might need a taxi from the modern-Pompeii City station.

the main concern for me if I were to stay in Atrani would be that you are stuck with buses for transport, or a walk to the ferry at Amalfi to go anywhere else. I don't love the buses on the coast just for the time it takes and possibility of having to stand (or not fitting on it). The ferries are easier, but their schedules are even more infrequent than the buses. Salerno would give you more options for transport, and if you're JUST using this base as a chance to go to Paestum, and one of the two coasts, Salerno makes the most sense. I actually have never visited the Cliento coast, but I know that many Italians head south from Salerno to the beaches than go to the Amalfi Coast. I am sure it is pretty and charming, hopefully you have done your research for places to visit.

Trains to Paestum aren't VERY frequent, I think I recall last time they were spaced generally an hour apart (spaced from about 45 min-an hour or so) but then sometimes large gaps of 2 hours. I would pick your trains (and buy your round trips at the Salerno station) and then have backups.

Salerno has GREAT restaurants, my favorite being Cici Rinella for a more special evening, but for normal dining my favorite pizzeria is Trianon, Spunzillo and Pinocchio are other fun ones along the lungomare.

The only crazy crowds will be locals walking along the lungomare or corso, I wouldn't suspect you would see many tourists (or at least in proportion to the amount of Italians) along your walks.

6 nights is a lot though, did you have ANY set in stone places you want to go on the Amalfi Coast? I have spent 4 and 5 nights in Salerno the past two trips I was there, doing day trips out of town (Vietri, Paestum, Capri, Herculaneum, Amalfi, etc) and if I hadn't lived there before, I might have gotten bored with another night. There are only so many times you can wander around the corso and Via Mercanti to shop or walk along the lungomare to take in the views. I would say Salerno is a good base for trips outside of town, but I would only be able to do one full day in town for sightseeing, with the Duomo, maybe a museum or two, the gardens, and possibly Castello Arechi above town. I normally combine my Paestum day (where I have lunch in Paestum) with a visit up the hill to Vietri for the ceramics. Herculaneum and Caserta are other options (though Caserta would be easier from Naples and the Herculaneum stop IS about a 20 min walk from the SLOW train from Salerno station) for daytrips if you would like.

It might behoove you to stay in Atrani for at least 2 nights (with a nice ferry ride to Amalfi and back to Salerno, its less than a km to Atrani from Amalfi, so if its safe you could walk) if you wanted to go to Ravello or Positano, though that would give you only one full day on the coast proper. You could very well do most of the day you leave on the coast and take a 4pm or later ferry to Salerno as well.

I liked spending 4 nights in Salerno back in March, but I confess the massively-cheaper hotel rates (compared to the Amalfi Coast) were a factor. I took day trips to Paestum and the Operation Avalanche (WWII) museum in Eboli while staying in Salerno. I also took a quick hop over to Vietri, which was dead at that time of year. I plan to return to Salerno on another trip, a bit later in the year, to visit Amalfi and some of the other villages. If money were no object, spending a few nights in Amalfi, Atrani or Ravello would be nice.

We stayed in Amalfi a few years back and walked back from Ravello through Atrani. I thought it would be a nice place to stay. It is only a few minutes walk to Amalfi, although probably 15 minutes to ferries and buses. Amalfi is the transportation hub for Amalfi coast which is why we stayed there.

It wouldn’t be as easy to go to Paestum though. So I would dividing your time as others have suggested.

I stayed in Atrani and enjoyed it very much. Atrani has a quaint, workaday, local feel compared to almost anywhere else. (I think the local school is here, I saw a lot of families dropping off their children in the morning) A lot of restaurants, including some very good ones. It has a public sand beach. I’ll say that again - a PUBLIC SAND beach. And perhaps Atrani’s greatest asset is its proximity to Amalfi, from which you can get just about anywhere. The only drawback to this is it requires a walk literally on the coast road for a few minutes to a tunnel that connects the two towns. This can feel a little harrowing at first, but after passing a non-plussed grandmothers strolling along with the traffic it gets normalized.

It’s a little counterintuitive, but if you want to see the coast, I’ll always argue for staying ON the coast as opposed to Salerno or Sorrento. Crowds are the biggest challenge here, but the majority of people are day trippers from Salerno/Sorrento and beyond. It’s a huge amount of people jamming the roads in the morning and then evening. If you’re staying on the coast itself, you’ll avoid almost all of this mess. Even busy towns like Amalfi are downright sleepy until around lunchtime when the crowds peak and the evenings are a joy. You’ll be relaxing at dinner while others are packed in a bus for a long ride home. In fact, day tripping from the AC to a place like Paestum is a great idea. You’ll always be moving opposite the flow of the crowds.

We have to assume that you have good reasons for devoting 6 nights of a 10-day stay to the AC. While we had to give up on seeing Paestum from our five nights in Sorrento, it just seems like a big time commitment. I should add that we chose Sorrento for its good daytrip/transit options, not because we thought it would be a paradise on earth. We did not devote 100% of any day to "Sorrento." So you might make sure you have the transportation you need in Salerno, or the more remote Atrani.

It seem like you already know to be in Rome for your flight home.