My husband, 16 year old daughter and myself are planning a 15 day trip to Italy in late July early August. We are interested in the beach, eating, Italian culture, lite hiking. relaxing, lite site seeing. We would rather not rent a car and don't mind train travel. We don't like to rush and would rather spend more time in one location with daily trips vs. trying to accomplish the grand tour.
I am looking for suggestions from the last 7 days of our vacation as well as any comments/suggestions on the Almalfi section I have already "planned."
We are flying in/out of Rome, which is probably not ideal but we got a great price on our tickets. My plan so far is to arrive in Rome spend our first day recovering from the flight, dinner in Rome. Day 2: take the train to Sorrento via Naples and stay in the city-center (Days 2-4) taking some day trips to Naples, tour of Amalfi Coast (Mondo or Red bus). Day 5-6 we have booked a hotel just outside Sorrento with a private beach and grounds for beach/hiking. Am worried about crowds so at this point I am not planning on Capri. I mentioned Pompeii and/or Vesuvius to my family and they seem less than positive because of the heat.
On day 7 we check out and head...?
We have discussed spending the rest in Rome with day trips to Florence and/or Siena but with no consensus. My husband and I spent 7 days in Rome previously so while we want to see the main sights, 7 days all in Rome seems like too much for us. However, we are flying out of Rome so I don't want to go too far afield and would like to hold all additional travel to 2.5-3 hours at the most and give ourselves a few days to recover before our flight home. Tuscan hill towns sound wonderful to me, but will they bore my 16 year to death especially in the heat of summer? Same with Sienna. Florence seems like a no-brainer, but do we just do a day trip or stay for 1-3 days?
I am open to suggestions...