We are planning our fifth Italian journey, this time to southern Italy, in soring of 2021.
We are thinking of a road trip from Rome, south to Atrani, Maratea, Tropea, then east to Matera and Lecce. We are trying to keep our drive between towns to 2 hrs, making stops along the way.
What would be a good place to stay on the leg from Rome to Atrani? Any town worth staying in for the night or two?
Unless you are talking extremely early spring, I would use transit for Atrani, then pick up a car in Salerno for the rest. It is such an easy trek from Rome to Salerno by train, to a bus or ferry for Atrani, and parking is an issue on the Amalfi coast, as is traffic. The rest is easy (though for Lecce make sure your place has parking). Be careful about stopping with luggage in the trunk--too many horror stories about theft to count.
If the car is a must, I'd stay closer to the mainland end of the Amalfi coast, and somewhere like Gaeta might make for a nice stopover.
Plan is end of April arriving in Rome. We are planning on coming in on a transatlantic cruise and heading south.
I like the advice of train to Atrani. Looks like about a 3-4 hour ride, with 1 change. I wanted to avoid going through Naples train station, and it looks like Trenitalia goes straight to Salerno. Might have to consider that.
Yeah in April the traffic could be wall to wall--and ferries will be running (they depart close to the Salerno train station).
Sounds like a dream trip---want to get to Calabria one of these days. The Cilento coast area south of Salerno is really nice also.
Italo also has trains that go from Rome to Salerno with no changes and they're a little faster than the Trenitalia trains (about 2 hours). Another option.
Charlie, just a note that many "friends" may have a memory of an old Naples train station that has been gone for almost ten years. There is nothing wrong with the current Naples train station. Even the surrounding bus and surface transit "plaza" area is barren and new. The worst thing I could say about the new station is that it's a long walk to the pay toilets.
(This post is not intended to address the shortcomings of the Circumvesuviana train.)
Now we are planning to train from Rome to Salerno as suggested.
We would like to visit Atrani and Vietre Sul Mare while there. Would it be worth staying in either or both towns for a night or two, or are they better for day trips? We figure to stay in Salerno the first night, then ferry to the other towns.
Suggestions??
I'd stay in Atrani--it's close enough to Amalfi to walk, so you can use bus or ferry to visit other villages like Ravello, Positano.
You might visit Vietri while you are in Salerno since it's just a short bus ride away.
