I am going to Italy for 9 days, arriving by plane in Rome (FCO) on March 25th (at 9 p.m.) and departing from Rome on April 4th (10 p.m.). The family plans to stay 5 days in central Rome and other 4 days in Sorrento or the Amalfi Coast (including a visit to Pompeii and the Archaeological Museum in Naples).
The problem is the Easter holiday in the middle of our trip, which is making me insecure about crowds and whether sights, restaurants, shops and other locations will be open. I was thinking about the following itinerary:
In Rome from March 25 to Mar 31 (Easter Sunday). On March 31, we take the train to Naples in the morning, and I was hoping that it would be possible to include Pompeii and the Archaeological Museum, plus a stroll in the markets in Naples, in this same day -- but I don't know if it will be open during Easter Sunday.
We would be travelling lightly to Naples, leaving our luggage in storage in Termini Station in Rome.
In this scenario, we would return from Sorrento/AC directly back to Rome and the airport. Do you think it is safe to do so, or should I allow for problems regarding the trains back Rome?
The other option would be to fraction the stay in Rome like this: March 25th-28th (Holy Thursday) in Rome, then from the 28th to April 1st in Sorrento/AC, then Rome again from April 1st to April 4th.
Would you rather stay in Rome or in Amalfi Coast during the Easter Holidays (considering we wouldn't attend any Easter festivities)?
Do you know if traveling to Naples/Amalfi Coast on the Easter Sunday is a good choice?
Any tips and other knowledge about spending the Easter holiday is also accepted.
Thank you!
Posted by
San Diego, California
5409 posts
Are you talking about 2023 or 2024? If it's this year, you will have difficulty finding accommodations in the AC. Look at booking.com and research what's available in your price range. Then book directly with the lodging.
I did the week before Easter in Venice one year, and it was packed, starting on Good Friday. In addition to tourists, the locals are on vacation. Many businesses are closed on Easter Monday, also, so check the websites directly, those are your best, up-to-date sources.
It's too much to do Pompeii and the Archeology Museum in one day. It is a long day to go from Rome to Pompeii in one day, and return.
The AC is packed about nine months of the year now, there's no shoulder season anymore. Easter will just increase the crowds everywhere.
There is no quick and efficient way to travel south from Naples. The infrastructure has been sadly neglected and the roads and commuter trains are very congested.
Such a trip will take patience. Good luck and I wish you a great trip!
Posted by
Gettysburg PA
6990 posts
I would rather be in Rome over the holiday
At least there are places to escape the crowds
And I would be in Rome night before departure flight
No way would I try to get from Sorrento to FCO on same day
Go to AC first on arrival
End with all your Rome nights
No need to do split stay
Posted by
Bay Area SF & Uppsala Sweden
898 posts
Hi, I agree with @ChristineH, ending your trip in Rome is safer & she's right, crowds in small towns on AC will be, well, crowded! Have you considered basing yourself in Salerno? Easy to reach from Rome and many prefer it, do a search on main page, lots about how to navigate from Salerno.
I'm not sure where exactly you want to go on the AC? Many of these towns are prettiest when viewed from the ferry! My favorite town in the area is actually Ravello, high above the towns on the coast, fantastic Roman ramparts. Book Archeological museum Naples ahead of time, as well as figuring out the logistics for Pompeii.
I can tell you how we did it on 1 of 3 trips to the area - Stayed in Naples & saw the sights for 2 days, took ferry south to the town of Amalfi, stayed 2 nights & took bus trip to Ravello. Booked a driver from Amalfi (sorry lost to history who it was) who drove us to Pompeii, stayed with car & luggage while we wandered aimlessly (I would book a tour next time) and driver took us to Naples train station for trip back to Rome.
In case you’d like some slightly off the beaten path ideas for Rome, here’s my trip report from December NY, which unfortunately will likely be comparable to Easter, ie very crowded. But still lots of fun!! https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/rome-was-jammed-over-ny-but-still-fun#bottom
PS, I saw a good thread on booking taxi driver or guide for Pompeii. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/recommendation-for-taxi-driver-for-day-trip-to-pompeii-and-naples-from-sorrento
Posted by
Wyckoff, NJ, USA
7750 posts
Please give the departure time of your flight home from FCO. It is impossible to wake up on the Amalfi Coast, or even in much closer Sorrento and fly out of Rome that day. It is too much risk (for a 3 or 4-seat transit ride), even if you deceive yourself that it appears possible.
A big reason for selecting Sorrento over the more glamorous Amalfi coast is the far superior transit connections for daytrips. It's true that many people use the very reliable luggage checking at the ancient site of Pompeii, but we preferred to come back to Pompeii from our hotel in Sorrento as a daytrip.
I would think that your first research step would be to go to a Climate website and check that the March 31 historic average low temperature is 52, and the average high temperature is 64. If that is satisfactory, the next project is to find a hotel that is open Easter week. I can see that our nice luxury hotel, the Ambasciatori Grande, and its sister hotels on the cliff are closed for the winter, but open just in time for some Easter traffic, at the lowest rates of their year. But there are hundreds of accomodations in Sorrento, and you're only going to learn about, say, ten of them by posting here.
Are you aware that Sorrento has only one tiny, unattractive beach, and that the water is very cold in March?
Pompeii and the Archaeology Museum have websites where you need to transcribe the daily hours and last-admission times anyway, so that's how you find out if they close on Easter. We preferred (five nights in Sorrento) to return to Pompeii on the gritty Circumvesuviana as a daytrip from our hotel. I find taking less luggage to Sorrento/AC to be an extreme solution, but your "travel style" is none of my business. We did that for one night on Macchu Picchu, but it seems unnecessary for Sorrento. I will say that taking our luggage on the Circumvesuviana was so unpleasant that it was easy to spring for a car service when we left Sorrento!
I have not been there in March, but it seems to me that your main problem is visiting in the first week of the early Shoulder Season, following winter closures. The religious holiday is a peripheral issue. Prosperous Italians want things to do on national holidays. And as Rick tells us, Europeans "work to live", rather than Americans who "live to work."
Edit: When discussing Climate sites, I should have mentioned sunrise and sunset. One reason Pompeii has shorter hours and earlier "last entry" in March is because of the early sunset. Doing this research, I got the idea there might be a time-change on Easter, 2024, BTW. Of course that doesn't affect the number of hours of daylight.