Family Trip in Italy

i can't answer your question about hiring a driver, although I suspect it would be expensive. However, as far as having a lot of luggage is concerned, I think that could be a big mistake. Unless you use trains, the luggage is going to be an issue for the rest of the month.
You should plan on taking one week's worth of clothing per person, and two good pairs of shoes, in a carryon bag or at worst one check suitcase per person. Any time you have to pack and unpack and lug the suitcases around you will regret your decision.
I also suggest into looking for apartments as your basic stay for four or five days at a time, from where you could make day trips. Apartments will provide washing machines most of the time and that would take are of your dirty laundry.
I too am planning a month in Italy in Sept/Oct, using trains exclusively, with extended stays in Venice, Lucca, Florence and Rome and shorter stops in between and day trips. We've reserved apartments for even two night stays, as they give us more room to relax.

The cost of a private driver from Rome to Sorrento is 300-350€ for up to 3 passengers.

If you ask them to make a stop in Pompeii and wait for you outside, they would charge you additionally at least 50-70€ for each hour they stand outside waiting.

If you rent a car, I paid this past month approximately $200/week for a compact car, all inclusive of full no deductible insurance. I used a consolidator:
www.autoeurope.com
www.kemwel.com

Diesel fuel costs approximately 1.45€ per liter currently (=$6.25 per gallon), regular gasoline costs 15% more than diesel fuel and diesel cars also get 25-30% more mileage for each gallon (I was averaging 5.2 lt/100km or 47 mpg with a Fiat500L diesel), so renting a diesel is a good idea (most cars in Europe are diesel so that won't be a problem).

So the fuel costs from Rome to Sorrento would be just over 15€. Freeway tolls also add to the cost, but for that distance it wouldn't be more than another 15€.

I don't recommend to over pack regardless of mode of transportation, however I like to have a car outside of big cities, including in Campania. Rent a car after you are done visiting Rome. Having a rental car in big cities like Rome is a big hassle. If you return to Rome before coming home, return the car upon arrival or stay outside Rome in a smaller location.

To drive in Italy you need to have an International Drivers' Permit (IDP), obtainable at any AAA office for $15+2 passport photos.

Nearly all cars in Italy have manual transmission, therefore rental companies tend to keep manual transmission cars in their fleet. If you require automatic you need to specify that and probably rent a more expensive size vehicle. I don't recommend large vehicles in Italy, especially along the Amalfi coast.

Car rental is cheaper, but you have to deal with parking. Driving is no problem. Here are a couple of references for you to look at:

http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/planning/carservice.asp

http://www.starlimousine.eu/index.php/services

I certainly recommend a car and driver for the Amalfi Coast towns. Or, SATA buses. Not worth driving yourself. It costs 100 euro to go by taxi from Sorrento train station to Positano a few years ago.

Like Ralph, I don't see how you're going to manage with a lot of luggage for a month if you can't manage to get it to Sorrento. I'd plan to go straight to Sorrento with the luggage and take a day trip to Pompeii by train in any event. That way you can get an early start.

If you want to rent a car, get one large enough to hold all the people and ALL their luggage in the trunk. You shouldn't leave items visible in a parked car. Another reason to go straight to Sorrento.

Hi
We went to the Amalfi coast last September and because we did not want to drive on the coast, we hired a driver from Pompeii to Ravello and then again from Ravello to Rome Airport. If I am remembering it cost $100 from Pompeii to Ravello and $100 from Ravello to Rome. It was a splurge, but it allowed us to stay in Ravello an extra night, because we did not have to travel to Rome the day before our plane took off. For us, we felt it was worth it. But yes, it is expensive.

You don't say how you plan to get around Italy for the 3 weeks beyond this week you are addressing in your question. As others have already said, if you have so much luggage that you can't take a train from Rome to Sorrento, how are you going to get from place to place in the rest of the country?

I know it's hard to imagine, but you can pack for a week and travel for a month. You can rent apartments with washers as others have mentioned. You can drop your laundry off at a lavanderia and have them wash and fold it for you. The price is usually about 1 Euro per kilo. You can use self-service lavanderias which will probably cost about the same as having them do it for you.

My husband and I typically travel for a month and do laundry once a week just like at home. If we rent an apartment, I might do it more often so that we have clean clothes when we move on to the next place. We pack for a week and a day. My typical list including what I have on is 3 pairs of pants, 6 tops, 2 completer pieces (vest, cardigan), 2 pairs of shoes, accessories (like jewelry and scarves), 1 pair pj's, 3 bras, 3 shapewear tanks, 4 pair compression socks, 8 pairs of panties, 1 rain jacket with a hood. My husband's is the male version of the same, without the bras and shapewear.

I use a 22x14x9 spinner. He uses a Rick Steves convertible backpack. We carry those on the plane along with our personal items, a tote that my purse fits in for me, and his CPAP machine. We put our meds, electronics and a pair of clean underwear in those personal items so that if we should be forced to check our bags and something happens to them, we can survive for a day if needed.

Our requirement is that each of us must manage our own luggage. There will be no one to help you do that unless you take taxis everywhere, and even then, you will probably have to schlep it up and down the stairs, and there will be stairs. There are always stairs. Many hotels have elevators, but they often start on the 1st floor (our 2nd floor) or stop before the last floor.

For tips on packing, go to Packing Light under Travel Tips on the left side of this screen. There are lots of other very important tips there that you should read and take to heart before you go, especially if you have never been to Europe or if it was a long time ago when you went.

You don't need a different outfit for each day of your long trip. The Vivienne Files has good information and visual illustrations of how you can coordinate your wardrobe so that you don't need much to make plenty of different outfits. This is the link: http://www.theviviennefiles.com/?view=classic. Janice, the person who does that blog, chooses much more to take and the pieces are much more expensive than I can afford, but it's the ideas that are important -- especially under the Packing and 4x4 Wardrobes links below the picture at the top of the page.

As a very famous participant on the Travel Forum once said, the answer to every packing question is layers. That works for us, even though I hate wearing layers. I should add that we are both XXL size people, so our clothes are not small. I'm 69 and my husband is 67. Sometimes we are slow going up lots of stairs with our bags, but we are always able to get on and off trains and buses with them because they are small and light. In the Rome airport last fall, we weighed them at the end of our trip to see just how heavy they were. Each was less than 10 kilos and that was with a few souvenirs inside them.

Great advice from Lo. I pack about the same for three months. Hauling luggage around will be a pain.

An another vote from me for significantly reducing your amount of luggage. We DO each check a bag on our 3-week trips but they're not HUGE ones, and are packed as lightly as possible. You're going to end up having to muscle them around for your entire trip, and not all hotels have elevators. Having to carry them up stairs SOMEWHERE is inevitable.

We do laundry at laundromats just as we do in the U.S. during long trips, and pack lightweight clothing that can be rinsed out in the sink and drip-dried overnight to keep those trips to the laundromat to a bare minimum.

And yes, how do you intend to get around during the rest of your month? Trains are THE way to travel in Italy so I can't imagine you aren't intending on taking any at all? For Sorrento, I wouldn't consider a car service from Rome: at the very most, take a train to Naples and then car service from there directly to Sorrento. Do Pompeii as a day trip from there: it's only 30 minutes or so by local train.

If your itinerary is mostly Italian cities, I wouldn't recommend renting a car. There can be too many challenges with restricted driving areas (ZTLs), and parking can be an expensive hassle. Some places - like the villages of the Cinque Terre - allow no vehicular traffic at all. As mentioned, leaving luggage in the car while sightseeing is risky, and the trains are great because they usually dump you off right in the middle of the city centers: very efficient.

Italy in general does not have the sort of accessibility we're used to in the U.S. as a lot of their structures are simply too old to accommodate the addition of elevators and whatnot. For instance, restaurant restrooms are often in the basement, down a steep flight of steps. Be prepared to have to manage lots of stairs ranging from long/multiple flights to just an easy couple of steps.

I didn't see how many "our children" is. Does that include any of their spouses or kids?

You really have a dilemma carrying all that luggage because European cars are much smaller than usual American ones and there is usually much less luggage storage.

If your party is 4 - 2 seniors and 2 adults - for example that means a pretty big car if you have a 5 in the car including a driver plus luggage for 2 plus your very large luggage.

Renting a car for the 4 is also a pretty big one - do you want comfort in addition to storage? - but for going around the Sorrento peninsula you want a smaller more maneuverable car or a driver.

Congrats on the upcoming anniversary, by the way. Mazel Tov.

When will you be going, Fran? I know that as we get a bit older the heat is more difficult - and Pompeii is hot, Hot, HOT.