rough itinerary for Salerno, Almafi and Sorrento

You should be very concerned about the two Italian holidays. Speaking from experience, there will be people everywhere. Italian people like to get out and see new places on their holidays, and places like Pompeii and Herculaneum will be packed and with extremely long lines at the entrances.

Hmmm. Thank you. We are not planning on visiting those sites in the holiday- Pompeii is closed on May 1st. I was speaking in general terms of being in Italy that week. Should we plan for another time and avoid Italy all together that week? The way our itinerary is now we would most likely be in Sorrento for most of the week April 26-30

You should do Paestum, NAMM both easy train from Salerno and I would do Pompeii as well but you can also do it from Sorrento if your Salerno schedule gets too crowded.

You should do Herculaneum from Sorrento and can do Pompeii from there as well. You can do Capri from Sorrento or Amalfi you so really do have some options in your schedule if you want to be flexible with weather or days.

Pompeii from Salerno lets you off further from the main entrance but coming in the southern (Arena) entrance also means you will enter with fewer people into less of an anthill situation. If you are going to make a day of the park - and you can spend a whole day - I think you'll see all the same things from either entrance. If you are looking to do a 2 hour visit the main entrance is better.

Salerno has a wide pedestrian shopping street Corso Vittorio Emanuele that runs from the train station to downtown. I reccomend staying anywhere in this area for easy access to strolling and the train station. Once you hit the old town it breaks down into a series of old streets, alleys and passageways. Restaurants and bars are scattered all over in this area. The cathedral - especially the basement - is worth touring and search the oldest parts of old town for murals and art alleys.

If you're in Salerno for an extended period of time do not miss the eté Prime at 174 Corso Vittorio Emanuele tucked away between the clothes shops and bank. The front opening onto Corso Vittorio Emanuele (the wide pedestrian only shopping street) is small hallway but set back from the street is an amazing grocery store worth knowing about. The store is kind of like Conad meets Whole Foods and one in Salerno has high end goods at really good prices. I saw 6 kinds of local specialty Buffalo Mozzarella for 2-6e, selection of bakery breads, and shelves of Barolo starting at 12e and topping out at 23e.

The many fruit and daily needs places that dot the street are fine for everyday things but if you have a kitchen or want to put on a real spread and a nice bottle of wine this store is a great place.

Enjoy sud di Italia,
=Tod

Thank you Tod, this is really helpful information. Would you have any concerns about being in these areas during the holiday week?

I don't know about any concerns. If I was planning complicated travel and you might just leave those days open rather than plan something extensive on those days. Attractions may be closed or more crowded than usual or maybe less - just enjoy the holiday. I'm accidentally going to be in Easter next year and extended leaving by a day because the Monday after Easter is also a holiday and I didn't want to deal with having to travel to the town with an airport on the holiday.

Looking at your schedule I would tend towards longer in Salerno versus Sorrento unless you were absolutely sure you were going to do Pompeii and Herculaneum and NAMM from Sorrento. But if you are going to do some of those thing from Salerno I'd shift some more days there.

For hiking look at trails that come out Vietri Sul Mare - although they may be further to reach from the town proper. Also look at the Trail of Lemons on the AC. VSM is easily reachable from Salerno since it's the first town on the AC and you can practically see if Salerno.

The best sfogliatelle in the world is 5 minutes from the Naples train station. Antico Forno delle Sfogliatelle Calde Fratelli Attanasio Vico at Ferrovia 1/2/3/4. Walk over, show up, grab a number right away and wait your turn. The sfogliatelle come out of the actual fire oven. So worth it.

Have a great trip,
=Tod

We based in Sorrento for two weeks in late April 2023 and it was busy but I wouldn't say overcrowded because of the Italian holidays. We came across more Brits than locals.

Since you'll be staying in 3 locations, plan ahead for how to get you and your luggage around, transportation in the region is chaotic, confusing and unreliable. In hindsight we would have spent our arrival day in Rome after an overnight flight and tried to get some sleep before having to deal with trains. Other than that, it was one of our favourite all-time trips. You mention that you have no desire to spend extra time in Naples, we wish we would have spent more than a day there. I've got Naples on the radar for a multiple day stay next time we visit.

Does this itinerary look reasonable?

Yes.

Concerns- the 2nd week of our trip is April 25- May 1. Should we be
concerned about the two Italian holidays?

Are your dates/flights changeable?
You have 13 nights? Can you add nights?

Both holidays fall on weekends so both will be busier than mid week although many will take the whole week off. It will be crowded but it will only get more crowded going in to May. I don’t think changing dates will make much difference- too much earlier you have ferry issues (can be anytime really), weather, later- more crowds.

The tightest most crowded place you are staying is Amalfi. I would try to slot that on weekdays as much as possible.
Both Sorrento and Salerno have more room to move.

If flights can be changed move arrival to 4/17- depart 4/29
It may only be slightly less crowded anywhere. But that eliminates 1 holiday.

4/17 Salerno 4 nights/2 day trips F, S, S, M- visit Paestum, Naples
Weekend passeggiata is delightful in Salerno

4/21 Amalfi 3 nights T, W, TH- visit Ravello, Positano (skip or see from water), hikes, other AC towns

4/24 Sorrento 5 nights/3 day trips F, S, S, M, T - Pompeii, Ercolano, Capri

4/28 Rome 1 night

I don’t think you have much to worry about as far as closures but avoids any travel on either holiday.
Wherever you are for the holiday- enjoy it.

You could do 4-4-4 as well. You have to really fine tune your daily plans before you commit. Try moving dates around if that is possible.

If you can add a night - stay in Rome arrival night and flip the itinerary-
Go to Sorrento first, end in Salerno. Much easier and less expensive to get to Rome from Salerno

Since you'll be staying in 3 locations, plan ahead for how to get you
and your luggage around, transportation in the region is chaotic,
confusing and unreliable. In hindsight we would have spent our arrival
day in Rome after an overnight flight and tried to get some sleep
before having to deal with trains.

This^^

Ferry from Salerno to Amalfi.
Ferry from Amalfi to Sorrento (or driver)
Driver Sorrento to Napoli Centrale, then fast train to Rome

Sometimes you just have to throw money at transportation, especially in this region.

Thank you all for the very helpful suggestions. This is the 3d time trying to reply. I keep getting an application error message.

If this goes through I will try again

OK, trying again.

We have decided to take Christine's advice and spend 4 nights each in Salerno, Amalfi and Sorrento. We cannot change our dates.

Following the most logistically sound route puts us in Amalfi April 23-26, which is the holiday weekend. Should we consider the less

popular towns of Atrani, Maiori, or Minori? We don't mind being of the beaten path a bit. We mainly will be doing scenic hikes. We

would avoid Positano or Capri on the weekend. We only need to be in Rome on the evening of May 1st for our flight home on May 2nd, thus have all day to get there. Strongly considering hiring a drive from to get us from Sorrento to Naples Central.

Thank you all again for this very useful information and for being so very generous with your time.

Kindest Regards

KCD

Amalfi will be very crowded. If you stay in Atrani you can walk over to Amalfi and catch the bus to villages at higher elevations, such as Pogerola, avoiding the steep ascents. No matter which town that you mentioned to stay in, it will be a steep hike out. I always take the bus.