Itinerary Help

Sorrento is the most central and best-connected home base for the start of your trip. The main road through town is long and level. There are lifts to/from the boat docks at Marina Piccola, otherwise a steep walk. Local Circumvesuviana trains serve Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Naples. Local buses run from Sorrento along the Amalfi Coast. See www.curreriviaggi.it for buses from Naples airport and www.marozzivt.it for the 6:00 a.m. direct bus to Rome (Mon-Sat). Rick's guidebook chapter on Sorrento has lots more detail.

To add to Laura's mention of Sorrento above, we visited the Naples/Sorrento/Amalfi Coast area over New Year's 2013/2014. We stayed just outside of Sorrento proper (in Piano di Sorrento) and had a car, but we also used the Circumvesuviana train some days. The owner at our B&B said if there was one time of year that he'd visit Sorrento (for the best combination of good weather and minimal crowds) it would be April, so your timing is perfect!

Wonderful - thank you!
Tracy

Walking in Pompeii is pretty difficult, like badly and unevenly worn paving stones with all the 'filler' long gone and inches deep ruts between them. You may find Herculaneum a better choice. There's a lot of incline to get from the train station to the sight, but it's a lot easier to walk through. The archaeology museum in Naples is superb.

The good news, Venice is pretty level except for up and down going over the bridges, so are the rest of your destinations except for a lot of the Amalfi Coast, and some of Rome (7 hills, after all).

When booking hotels, contact them and ask if it's possible to get lower floors if they (probably) don't have elevators. It's a downer to be in pain and have to face 2-3 flights of stairs to your room.

Thanks very much - love the advice regarding my poor knees and different locations.

In looking at Amalfi coast area I was focusing on staying in Sorrento (central), but now am wondering if staying on Ischia Island might be nice instead for those 4 nights. I realize there's not much there except a quaint and beautiful fishing town with good seafood (yum) - but it seems much cheaper for the AirBnB's than Sorrento and might be a nice finish to our 3 weeks (relaxing and gorgeous).

1. Any advice on staying for 4 nights in Ischia Island at an AirBnB with day trips to Naples & Herculaneum (for 2 of those days)?
2. Do you think we can easily get to Herculaneum for a day trip? Then Naples maybe for another day trip?
3. Do you think we'd be "missing out" big-time if we didn't stay in Sorrento or the "mainland"? The thought of a small fishing village that's not very touristy really appeals to me.

Thoughts?

Thanks!
Tracy