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Campania Region

Posted by on

Hi,
I'm looking for some opinions for the campania stretch of my honeymoon in early April 2017. We will be leaving Rome the morning of April 6th, and need to return to Rome the night of Sunday April 9 (early morning flight home the next day).
I've been going back on forth on the best place to use as a base, and am leaning towards Salerno area rather than Sorrento given that I'd love to see Paestum and that is much harder to reach from Sorrento. Does this sound like a good mix of activities and use of time for early April, or should I be using a different base point and schedule? I'm not inclined to go to Capri or Naples, nor to stay in super touristy towns along the coast. We will be relying on public transportation for this part of the country.
- Morning April 6: Travel from Rome through Naples to Pompeii, spend several hours there, leaving our luggage at a storage facility
- Take Trenitalia onwards to Salerno, use that as our base for the region (vs using Vitri del Mare)
- April 7: Day trip via SITA bus to Amalfi, Positano, other little towns along the coast
- April 8: Day trip to Paestum, mozzarella farms
- April 9 (Sunday): lazy day around Salerno and nearby towns; pm train back to Rome

Also, I was reading a bit about the Campania Arte Card, is that worth it for transport and visiting the archaeological sites that we are thinking of?

Posted by
11613 posts

Why not stay in Paestum? There is a hotel, Hotel dei Templi, at the entrance to the ruins. It has a very good restaurant. Paestum also has a beach, and a very good museum.

Posted by
9 posts

I'd like to have one base for the region; wouldn't it be a lot more back and forth to go see the Amalfi region from there?

Posted by
755 posts

You might like Vietri Sul Mare. Centrally located for day trips to Paestum, Salerno, Amalfi, etc. by public transportation.
We stayed in a nice little hotel with private beach access which was very nice.

Posted by
11613 posts

A couple of other thoughts: Salerno is nice, has a pedestrian area and some nice hotels near the train station and tourist port; Vietru sul Mare; and the beautiful hilltop town of Ravello (no beach and a bus ride down to Amalfi).

Wherever you stay, it will be a schlep to get to your furthest points (Sorrento/Pompei and Paestum).

Posted by
1949 posts

First off, early April might be about the very best time of the year for a combination of decent weather and lack of tourists.

Salerno's an excellent base. We stayed there 5 nights a year ago March at a B&B and it was 20 minutes to Vietri sul Mare, and less than an hour (by bus or train) to Paestum, Naples, Pompeii (Nocera gate), and Amalfi. If you change buses at Amalfi, it's another hour to Positano. Another 3 to Sorrento, however.

I don't know what the Campania Arte Card covers, but keep in mind that public transportation around there is dirt-cheap & that time of year you shouldn't need reservations at the museums either. Check it out to be sure, but you should be able to be spontaneous and go somewhere when you feel like it. A joy!

As I've championed before, I love Salerno because of its size (110,000 inhabitants) and the ability to just watch Italians living their lives. Late afternoon, you will see couples walking arm-in-arm on the lungomare along the sea, having after-work cocktails, very chill, especially without the tourists. Old Town is beautiful, quaint with some wonderful restaurants, nice little shops, and the 10th century Duomo with relics is definitely worth a look-see.

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