Rick's Best of South Italy tour- how many days on front and back ends?

Some of us are not familiar with the tours. Where does it begin and where does it end?

Even without knowing that, I would stay as long as possible at both the front and the back. No time in Italy would be less than interesting and pleasurable. But how much extra time do you have?

It begins in Rome and ends in Naples. I'm retired so I'm flexible with time, but want to be somewhat efficient with money.

Hi Teresa, I like to have more days pre-tour than post-tour. Pre-tour, there’s so many places you could go before meeting up with the tour. Rome is always an excellent option, but it’s more expensive than other cities. I will let you pull up a quick look on TripAdvisor to see what’s your “must see” spots. Many need timed reservations ahead of time, so book what’s of interest as early as possible.

Here’s some other cities that are within an hour of Rome by direct train:
1. Tivoli - I really like the city, and the Villa d’Este gardens are spectacular! If you stay there, I highly recommend Regina B&B. His hospitality was amazing. I stayed in the B&B and also a small home while there. He told me to call, even when I wasn’t staying there, if I ran into any issues or questions. He’s also friends with the owner of Ristorante Sibilla. I know you mentioned you don’t care about food, but the setting of this restaurant is gorgeous! And they gave me the “friend’s discount”!
2. Caserta - this small city’s main site is the enormous Reggia Caserta. Buy a ticket ahead of time - timed entry. But once inside, the gardens keep going & going….after you’ve been through the palace. Take the €10 golf cart tour of the gardens to save your feet and see sculptures in the forested area, too. At Caserta, I ate at Basilico Pizzeria Neopolitano - an amazing Regina pizza! Buffalo mozzarella cheese, fresh, sweet Marzano tomato sauce, olive oil and fresh basil. An absolutely perfect crust - wow! And my little Royal Gardens Hotel (more like a B&B) is next to the palace. The food and B&B will stretch the value of your money here! I had an espresso & excellent pastry break at an outdoor table at a nice bakery for €2.50.
4. Orvieto is another option. I have only been there with the RS tour to see the cathedral, soI can’t give additional details.

Doing a round-trip ticket is fine if you would like to end with a day or two at Rome. I definitely recommend being in Rome or at an airport hotel the night before your flight home. Have a great time! I’ve spent a couple of weeks two different trips in the Puglia region - lovely! I’ve slept in a trullo in Alberobello & a modernized cave in Matera - both amazing experiences!

Ohh, if you like black licorice, you must go to Vizi degli Angeli’s in Matera! Their intense black licorice gelato is the best licorice one I have ever eaten - memorable two thumbs up!

We did 4 days pre-tour in Rome, although we had been there before. We flew out of Naples the day after the tour ended for a back to back RS Best of Greece tour.

How many days pre-tour depends on what you want to see in Rome. Research it, decide what you want to see and then plot it out on a daily schedule and that will tell you how many days you need pre-tour.

FWIW, since we had been to Rome before, we spent our four days with a tour of the Domus Aureas, an underground tour of the excavations at Piazza Navona and the fountains of Piazza Navona, a Vespa Sidecar tour (highly recommended if you don't have much time to visit everything! This tour will drive by and briefly stop at important sites in Rome) a second visit to the Villa Borghese museum, a visit to see the Turtle Fountain in the Rome neighborhood of Sant Angelo???, an evening food tour in the Trastevere neighborhood, the Cat sanctuary at Torre Argentina (now open to the public and the site of the murder of Julius Caesar), the Pantheon (again) and Trevi Fountain (again) and a visit to Castel Sant Angelo and the Villa Farnesina, with many gelato stops.

The RS tour does NOT visit the Coluseem or the Forum, so you book a day on your pre-tour to visit that. Visit the catacombs along the Appian Way. RS also does not visit the Vatican or the Vatican Museum, so you'll want to book a day for that pre-tour.

RS tours stay in Trastevere and we liked that area also, so I recommend finding a hotel in this neighborhood, if you don't have a favorite area.

We flew in and out of Rome for this tour, although check multi-city airfare flying into Rome and out of Naples. I think we had 3 days pre-tour in Rome, an extra full day in Naples and then train to Rome for 2 more days. We had been to Rome once before (and didn’t like it) but having those extra days made touring less frantic and we have fallen in love Rome. On the front end we stayed in Trastevere which was easy to take the tram or walk to major sites. In Naples, we stayed on in the tour hotel and then during our last days we stayed near St.Maria Maggiorie in Rome. We were joined on the tour by an in-law who had never done the Vatican/St. Peter’s, so we got a tour guide for a 3:00 p.m. entrance after we (tour group) went to the Capitoline Museum.

We had already seen the Colosseum, the Forum and the Pantheon, so we went to Domus Aurea, Borghese Gallery, Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona, Trevi Fountain, and wandered around Trastevere.

A group of us that stayed an extra day in Naples went to a donation-only concert at a nearby church that night.

Spend several days in Rome before the tour starts. Stay at the tour hotel. It’s easy to take a train back to Rome in the morning when the tour ends and spend at least one last day in Rome. Use the Leonardo express to get between the airport and the city.

For our own trip, we are arriving only a day earlier due to work but I wish we had more days in Rome. We have been to Rome before but it's our favorite city in Europe.

On the way back, we're going to spend 2 nights in Ischia (again, I wish we had more time but that's all we got).