Honeymoon in Rome & Amalfi coast in May - Help Please!

Diana, as for a day trip from Rome, I would choose Orvieto. Orvieto is a wonderful little town that offers a variety of interesting things to see. It takes approx 90 minutes to get to Orvieto by train and it's a nice change of pace from chaotic Rome! I suggest the underground tour which is an hour long. You can also climb down the bottom of St. Patrick's Well or climb to the top of the Torre del Moro (the tower) for the incredible views. The Duomo there is also beautiful. As for the Amalfi Coast, you should check out Positano, Capri, Amalfi and I've heard that Ravello is nice due to the incredible views. Do you plan to visit Pompeii or Herculaneum? If so, you could base in Sorrento & easily visit Pompeii as well as the other towns as days trips from Sorrento. Sorrento has good transportation options/connections. Have a great honeymoon!

Thank you! I appreciate the honest feedback and will definitely look into orvieto and ravello (i've heard both are great via other posts on this site).

Answer to number 2. Fast train from Rome to Naples about an hour or a little more. Commuter train to Sorrento about another hour. We stayed in Positano although most people prefer Sorrento, we were there for wedding so had to stay there. The coast is magnificent.

Day trip from Rome to Orvieto would be terrific, for all the reasons already stated. Train from Rome to Naples is about an hour and 15 minutes. At the Naples train station (Napoli Centrale also called Porta Garibaldi), go downstairs to the Circumvesuviana platform - trains for Sorrento run every half hour, it takes a little over an hour to get there. I would take the bus down the Amalfi Coast (or take a boat) and from the city of Amalfi, go to Ravello for some days to relax. Daytrippers during the day but you'll have it to yourselves in the evening/night. You'll have all the little towns along the coast to choose from for excursions: Positano, Praiano, Minori... If you want to venture further south, there's Paestum, which has a sandy beach, fabulous Greek temples, and a good museum. The weather in Rome and along the Amalfi Coast should be fine, perhaps you'll want a sweater (or a wrap) at night.

Diana, I assume you're working with a 14-day holiday, with 2 days allocated for travel? Will you be using return flights to and from Rome? Splitting your time between Rome and the Amalfi coast should provide a nice pace. I'd highly recommend picking up a copy of the Italy Guidebook, as that has a LOT of good information to plan your touring in each location. The 2013 edition will be available shortly on October 30th. For the trip from Rome to Sorrento, I'd allow at least 3 hours. The trip via Freccia train to Napoli Centrale will take about an hour. When you arrive there, walk downstairs and buy tickets on the Circumvesuviana and that trip will also take about an hour. However, you'll also need to allow for waiting times, trip to the Hotel, check-in, etc. Regarding your two destinations..... > Rome - I agree with a previous suggestion that Orvieto would be a good day trip. Be sure to visit the Duomo and have a look at the incredible Signorelli Frescoes in the Chapel at the end (on the right as I recall). The double-helix design of St. Patrick's Well is also interesting. If you plan to visit the Colosseum on your own, be sure to read the info in the Guidebooks on how to avoid the queues. > Sorrento - there are a LOT of places you can see in that area, and with only a few days you'll need to prioritize so that you don't spend all your time making day trips. The transportation is not as well-developed in that area, so getting to each place will take time. Pompeii is one "must see" for many people. You could also take a day trip to either Positano or the isle of Capri. Be sure to spend some time relaxing in Sorrento. If you need a suggestion on a great restaurant (not cheap though), post another note. Congratulations and happy travels!

Diana, A few final comments (ran out of room in the previous post)..... If you like art, another great location in Rome is the Galleria Borghese (reservations compulsory). You'll have no shortage of sights to choose from in Rome. If your return flight is from Rome, you'll want to consider returning there for one night prior to your flight. Although it would make for a LONG travel day, one option would be to go straight to Sorrento when you arrive, and leave Rome for the end of the trip. The Guidebook also has suggestions on good and reliable Hotels and restaurants in both locations. Cheers!

I think your 73 -75 is a bit off for Sorrento According to a couple of databases, the absolute high might be in the mid-seventies but the low is about twenty degrees less for mid-May. I grew up in Walterboro and we were well into skiing and sailing by then so the temperature would have been maybe 85 in the late afternoon and around 65 at first light. Rome might be a couple of degrees warmer due to the thermal mass of the structures, but it won't be significantly so.

thank you for all of the information everyone!!! Really, your tips have been invaluable in my planning and I really appreciate you taking time to respond to my post. "Hey!" to all of the southerners! i'm thankful someone else knows what it's like to be cold at 73 degrees F. ha! I have been checking flights and there seems to be just a nominal difference between flying into or out of rome vs naples, so I will just talk to my fiancé and see what he thinks he'd like to do (hustle and bustle of rome in the first leg of the trip, or the second). I loved all of the suggestions regarding orvieto, ravello, and boat rides between sorrento and other places on the coast. when i went to italy years ago, the water was too rough for the ferries to capri, so hopefully i'll get to that this trip! thank you everyone!

If you can, maybe the slow pace of th coast would be great to start with, and you could schedule a flight into Naples and out of Rome.....Naples airport is horrible to get to from anywhere not Naples, so maybe flying in (its really easy, compared to big Rome) there and out of Rome, which is easier to get to, is a great idea.... I am WAY more partial to the Amalfi Coast compared to the Sorrento Coast.....Sorrento seems really big to me, I much prefer the boats and hiking around Amalfi, and definitely visiting Ravello..... after you relax and de-stress down south, you can go north to Rome to tackle the sightseeing full of energy!