Need advice and itinerary help - Amalfi Coast and Rome

Max, step one would be to get some tour books. I’d recommend Rick’s Snapshot: Naples & the Amalfi Coast or one of his other guides for Italy or Rome. It will answer your questions as well as giving time and travel advice as well as hotel, restaurant and tour recommendations and costs. Most are available as ebooks that can be downloaded.

Hey Max,

Amalfi and Positano are great places to stay. Here is a link that will give you the pros and cons for each Amalfi coast towns.

https://www.walksofitaly.com/blog/amalfi-coast/amalfi-coast-towns-guide

Some places to stay:

http://www.hotelpasitea.it/?lang=en

https://www.vrbo.com/8094836ha

Restaurants:

https://www.cntraveller.com/gallery/amalfi-coast-best-affordable-restaurants

Hi Philip - I have already ordered the following books:
- Rick Steves Snapshot Naples & the Amalfi Coast: Including Pompeii
- Rick Steves Rome 2019
I was hoping to get some feedback/advice from the community

Thanks!

Whoa -- you asking for a guide book. If you are trying to keep it a surprise (I would not) it will be difficult because you should be consulting guidebooks and travel DVDs. Just some broad responses to very broad questions.

- arriving on May 29, 2019 in Naples and departing Jun 9
Suggest arriving Naples and departing Rome

• we would like to visit the Amalfi Coast (Positano, Ravello, Capri etc) and Rome. Sorrento would be a convenient base. Easy to get to from Naples and depart to Rome. There is a direct bus from Sorrento to Rome that is very convenient. You can hit the others parts of the coast via bus or boat from Sorrento.

- where should we stay so that we can commute easily.
Sorrento. See above. Where do you want to commute to?

- itinerary help will be greatly appreciated
With 11 nights, I would divide five in Sorrento and 6 in Rome with a couple of day trips from Rome.

- tours we should book will help
We rarely book tours in advance preferring to use the local TIs -- but that is us. That provides flexibility especially if the weather is bad. We have never had a bad tour from the local TI.

- son likes a sandy beach (will it be too cold)
Probably a little early. Most Italian beaches tend to be gravelly. Florida style beaches are out.

- any place you can suggest to stay (prefer to have a pool)
Pools are hard to come by -- just not the style. But five stars hotel will have a pool from time to time.

- special place for dinner I can book for my wife's 40th?
Check with hotel once you arrive.

This site works best when you can ask specific questions that we can respond to rather than generic questions that generates all kinds of answers. You have a number of misconceptions that would benefit from reading a good guidebook on the area.

You've ordered them, but have you read them yet? It was all be SO much clearer, and any input so much more helpful, if you get a sense of things first.

Three tour ideas to prebook::

1. Gaetano Manfredi (a Rick Steves recommenced guide) for Pompeii. The guides available at Pompeii do not compare. This would be a private tour.
2. Walks Of Italy’s “Pristine Sistine” tour of the Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s. This is a small group tour.
3. Sonia Tavoletta for the Colosseo, Forum, and Palatino. Soniatavoletta63@gmail.com. She is a colleague of Eick’s pick, Francesca Caruso, and very very good. Again, a private tour of this complex and historical area. A splurge, but so worth it. She can also guide at the Vatican, if you like.

With three people, a private tour for 3 or 4 hours won’t cost much more than a good small group tour.

I echo Frank's comments.

With respect to beaches, the Bay of Naples is short on really good sandy beaches, being composed of gravel and pebbles, and almost mandating the use of water shoes (years ago, I was wading on another beach in the north of Italy which was relatively sandy with concealed rocks and managed to break my toe on the hidden rock) when using the beaches.

While the island of Ischia is an exception to this, with beautiful sandy beaches in many spots, it is a bit of an inconvenience to get there just to hit the beaches, which are largely private with designated spots to sit under umbrellas.

My son (14 yrs), my wife and I are travelling to see the Amalfi Coast and Rome

A bit off topic perhaps, but still important-- "my son"... does that mean your wife is not the mother? If so, you will have written permission from the mother approving of the travel?

celebrating wife's 40th birthday (its a surprise for her)
You can be sure her passport is current?

The AC does not have sandy beaches; it would be a gross waste of time to go to one from Rome, given your limited time.
I suspect a hotel with a pool is just a matter of having and being willing to spend the necessary money to have it.

If the beach/pool is important to your son, perhaps a beach trip after you return home would be a solution.

I spent a day at the beach on the Amalfi coast in Positano. You need water shoes because of the stones and expect to pay to rent a chair unless you enjoy laying on stones (some young people did). It was an enjoyable rest from all of our activity. However, you should not go to amalfi coast expecting great beaches in terms of sand. If that is important to the success of the trip, I would go to Greece instead. We went to the island of Naxos this year as a stop in our two week trip to Greece. The beaches were gorgeous (and I am from Florida). I loved the amalfi coast as well but not the beaches particularly.

The Hilton in Rome has a pool but it is a little ways outside the main center. Check under booking.com and look on the map

There are hotels in Sorrento with pool, I came across a few while searching for our stay there.
Try booking.com, filter for pools.

Rome- stay in the historic center, we like near the Pantheon.
Check Walks of Italy - they offer lots of tours - they have a sale going thru tomorrow 30% off- nice savings
We did 3 while in Rome and all were fantastic- Pristine Sistine, Crypts & Catacombs and the Colosseum

https://www.walksofitaly.com

Frank's suggestion of 6 Rome, 5 Sorrento sounds good to me.
If you are flying into Naples I'd probably stay there the first night then head to Sorrento for the next 4 w/day trips Pompeii, Capri, Positano/Ravello- all can be done easily on your own.
Then off to Rome for next 6 by bus or train. I think 5 nights in Rome is needed just for Rome sights - if you want to take a day trip somewhere Orvieto would be my choice.

I love to go to Sorrento to just chill and have great food...the best in Italy im my opinion!

the best pizza...the best seafood...the best pasta...I love sorrento!

Rome is a close 2nd

There is no "easy" commute on the Amalfi Coast. There is one, often narrow, two lane road (not a highway) along the Amalfi cliffs. There are two bus lines, one from Sorrento to Amalfi town (1.25 hour ride), the other from Amalfi to Salerno (1.45 hour ride). There is also a bus that runs between Amalfi town and Ravello, which is high on the cliffs. The current bus schedule has buses about once an hour, in June there may be more. The scenic area is pretty much from Positano to Salerno. There are several ferry options between Sorrento and Salerno, that stop at most of the AC towns. When there are lots of tourists, the lines for both buses and ferries can be long. I don't know what it's like in early June.

Your two best options for a base are Sorrento and Salerno. I've stayed in both and liked them both very much.

It's easiest to get to Capri from Sorrento since it's closest. There's a local train (really a metro) to Naples - takes 1-1.5 hours and runs about twice an hour, and stops at Pompeii and Herculaneum. So if those are high on your list, Sorrento's a good choice.

Salerno is closer to the AC towns by sea. Look at a map. Boats have to go around the cape from Sorrento to the AC. Buses take an inland route to the AC, arriving at the coast a little before Positano. Salerno is connected to Naples and Rome by fast trains. Salerno has an interesting historic center and a large sandy beach. While the water may be cold, it should be warm enough on the beach to enjoy basking in the sun and going in the water though maybe not for staying in more than a few minutes at a time.

We did 6 nights Rome, 5 nights Sorrento--just as you're proposing--but in Feb/March of last year. Totally different ballgame in off-season.

First, let me say that 6 nights in Rome is perfect, only bettered by 16 nights! It's that good. Find a strategically-placed base within walking distance to lots of stuff, but more important near the bus lines. We stayed at an apartment on the perimeter of Piazza Campo de' Fiori, and loved it. Where we couldn't walk, we took the bus. Again, in March the buses were half to three quarters full, probably will be more crowded end of May.

As described above, Sorrento has some of the best cuisine in Italy. Not foo-foo fancy, just great pasta and seafood dishes at reasonable prices. I have also stayed, like Chani has, in Salerno, where you won't have the sometimes-people-gridlock you would on the A.C and Sorrento in high season. And you can ferry from there to Amalfi-town or Positano no problem, although those do get crowded as well.

Sounds like a great trip. Enjoy your planning!

We arrived in Rome and drove to Pompeii, where we spent the night and were able to get into the site when it opened. That afternoon we drove to Positano and stayed in a VRBO for 4 nights. We liked being right in the midst of the Amalfi Coast, and we had plenty of time for Amalfi, Ravello, and Capri. Then we spent 8 nights in Rome, and never ran out of things to do. I'd suggest one night Pompeii if that's on your list, 4 Amalfi, 6 Rome.

I just got back from this very region.
Naples was too dirty and gritty for my taste. I'm glad we had just one night there.

Positano was stunning. But know this: you must climb up and down hill on foot. There is only one lateral, mostly horizontal road. It leads one way through town. This is not a town for the faint of calves. Many, but not all hotels are on this road. We stayed at the Hotel Califronia. Absolutely charming. Phenomenal views of the town and ocean. Excellent small restaurant at the hotel too with views.

BRAND NEW HIDDEN GEM: In Positano you must go to Mar Positano. This is a museum under the main church in town. These are archaeological ruins which opened to the public only 6 months ago in the summer of 2018! Access is "brand new" but what you'll see dates back to the era of Mount Vesuvius' explosion. The church under the church and all its wall paintings were buried. That preserved them. The colors seem as bright as they were when they were painted. You'll also see rows of special "chairs" where archaeologists found the remains of mummified priests. (Their remains are gone now, whew.) Amazing, fascinating place.

Advice from a friend who visited there recently and from a local warned us about unreliability of the local buses leading farther up the Amalfi coast. So we opted instead for the ferry for a day trip to Amalfi and back. That worked out just fine. The paper museum in Amalfi is interesting, but the English of guides varies. The woman who leads tours is very understandable. The man who led us was impossible to understand. They still make paper on the site and sell handmade papers and cards.

We also hired driver Francesco del Pizzo recommended in Rick Steve's Italy book to drive us from Naples to Positano with stops at Herculaneum and Pompeii en route. This was a great move. The driver was very friendly, spoke great English and taught us so much about the Napoli region. This car service also offered a local tour guide for a personal tour at Pompeii. This was another good move. She got us in past some lines and shared so much more with us than we would have learned from an audio guide.

Beaches: I agree with others: bring water shoes. No soft sand to walk on here. Just small rocks.

While Positano was quaint and charming, Sorrento may have been a better home base.

Check the Mondo Guide for tours in the coast area, RS recommended:
https://www.sharedtours.com/

Mondo Tours do Amalfi Coast and Pompeii. We went on the Pompeii one and it was just OK, not very good. Perhaps it was just our guide. We met her there when we got off the train from Sorrento.

For a hotel with a nice pool in Rome, Parco Dei Principe is set next to a park, lovely hotel but up on a hill above the Villa Borghese, not walking distance to major sights.