Very excited going on the Rome City tour starting late Dec. We are coming in a few days early. Family with two older teens. Wanted to see another area of Italy. I posted a few months ago but have now secured tour & flight.
Thinking Sorrento. Been to Florence & Venice. Thinking a smaller city since we will be In Rome for the tour. Two nights. Thoughts? Suggested hotels? Thank you
If you by chance are on the upcoming Rome trip that is cool too. I know very few tour mates see this forum. Thank you
I'm interested to see the response from knowledgeable travelers re: Sorrento in December as I have gotten some feedback that Sorrento is pretty quiet in the winter.
I'll be in Rome in late December. We are extending our trip by going to Naples, primarily to see Pompeii. My teens are very excited and so are we. There is a fast train between Rome and Naples (1 hour 10 minutes) and if you book your tickets 3 months in advance it is very affordable. We will stay in Naples 3 days as I also want to see the Archeaological Musem there (with Pompeii artifacts) ,go to Naples Underground, and a few other things.
You could also take the train north from Rome and stay in the (quiet) ancient town of Orvieto to get accustomed to being in Italy. It is about 1 hour north by train and Rick Steves speaks about it in his books and his TV shows---but it is very quiet. Based on how many days you have, you also could take a train from Rome to Venice, which is very easy to do, and I think about 3.5 hours. http://www.trenitalia.com is the railways website. But beware of spending too much time in transit going back and forth!
Enjoy your trip.
Thank you. Looks like we are traveling the same time. We have been to Venice and know there is more to see since we were there a short time. We were hoping to see another town in this trip since don’t know when we will be back to Italy. Enjoy your trip
Hi LA -
Thinking Sorrento. Been to Florence & Venice. Thinking a smaller city
since we will be In Rome for the tour. Two nights.
These two nights include the one on your (jet-lagged) arrival day? You're flying into Rome? And you'd need to be back in Rome in the early afternoon of day 3 to begin the tour? If so, that leaves you just one full day to explore a pre-tour location. I'm thinking Sorrento isn't a great choice as most ferries will not be running that time of year, and getting there could eat up most of arrival day, depending on what time your flight gets in. Late Dec. weather could also be wet and the coast isn't a great spot to explore in the rain.
Orvieto might be a better choice. The duomo and other churches will be open, and underground tours (http://www.orvietounderground.it/index.php/en/) run all year except for Christmas. With just one day and a short amount of daylight hours, it's not as if you're going to have a lot of time to fill.
https://www.orvietoviva.com/en/
Editing to add: you might also consider Naples...which is probably as far south as I'd go on arrival day. Depending on weather, you could opt to take the Circumvesuviana to Sorrento and back from there the next day, or go only as far as Herculaneum or Pompei and back, and then follow it up with the excellent archeological museum in Naples if it's a day the museum is open (closed Tuesdays).
Hi thanks it is not our arrival day. We are staying in Rome that first night after landing. We then Have three more nights before our tour starts. We want to be in Rome that last night before the tour so have two nights. Thinking we have one full day and part of two other days. We know weather can be iffy. We would like to see Pompei if possible. We are used to cold & rain. With four nights before our tour we were hoping to see another area of Italy. Thank you for the insight
