My husband and I will spend 4 days in Italy arriving on overnight flight from US on June 30 and departing early morning July 4. I thought about flying to Naples to tour Amalfi Coast. I know we won't do much on June 30 because of jet lag. We can tour July 1 all day. Not sure if we should overnight again in the Naples area and take an early train to Rome on July 2 spending the afternoon/evening of the 2nd and all day on the 3rd touring Rome or take an evening train to Rome on July 1 to have all day on the 2nd and 3rd in Rome. Any recommendations/suggestions?
Posted by
Forest Grove, OR
11852 posts
I am not clear: Are you flying into Naples or Rome? With only four days, pick one locations: The Amalfi Coast OR Rome. Each is big enough for four full days of touring fun.
A key to making good use of your arrival day: go to your hotel (ask in advance for early check-in), shower, unpack, then get outside, have something to eat, walk around. (Do not go to a museum.) Try to make it to an early dinner and stay up until about 9:00PM. You will sleep like a rock and be more-or-less on local time by 6:00AM, allowing you to seize the day!
Posted by
OP
36 posts
I thought we would fly to Naples and out of Rome. I know we could spend 4 days in either place, but I would like to see a few places if possible in case we don't make it back to Italy. We have so many cities we want to tour in Europe but not enough money or time!
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23676 posts
I completely disagree with Laurel on how to fight jet lag. But everyone has to find the pattern that fits their internal clocks. For years we tried the gut-it-out approach as recommended by Laurel and many others. We would be so exhausted by later PM that it was struggle to stay awake for dinner. By accident one year we took a nap between 2 and 4, 3 to 5, and found it complete recharged the batteries so that we were good to go for dinner and normal evening. Now we set the alarm for two hours but generally wake up between an hour and a half and 45. It works great for us.
Back to your question. With four days, I would stick to Rome. On a short schedule of four days, changing hotels is waste of precious time. You will lose at least a half day if not nearly a full day just changing locations.
Posted by
Toledo, Ohio, US
11613 posts
If you want a glimpse of a couple of places, you could do both Roma and the Amalfi Coast, but my question is, will you be satisfied with that, or will you be frustrated at not being able to see/do some or many of the things these places are known for?
Posted by
316 posts
I agree with Frank. We are in our late 50's and took a 2.5 hour nap in the afternoon the day we arrived. It was just enough to recharge us. We were able to go out around 6pm for dinner, walk around and went to bed around 10-11pm. Woke the next day and we were ready to go. However, everyone is different so this may not work for you. If you have never dealt with jet lag then it's trial and error.
Also, I would pick one area and spend all four days there. 2 days with traveling really wont get to see much.
Enjoy Italy, it is amazing.
Posted by
Montclair, Virginia, United States
93 posts
We almost didn't do the Amalfi Coast. It was a last minute decision as we were already staying in Sorento. I will never for a minute regret it. I LOVED it. It was amazing and you'll probably never forget the beauty of the sea, the mountains and the entire view, Positano and the town of Amalfi have wonderful shopping and friendly people. I'd say do it!