Shore Excursions out of Cinque Terre and Amalfi

Joe, For your shore excursion in the Cinque Terre, one possibility would be to take a Taxi from the docks to La Spezia Centrale, and then take the local train into the five towns. When you arrive there, buy a Park Pass or Cinque Terre Treno card (the Guidebook has information on the cards). The trip from La Spezia to Riomaggiore is only about 9 mintues. Have a look at the town and then take a stroll on the famous Via dell'Amore to Manarola (it's mostly flat and paved, so not strenuous at all). From there you can take the train to Corniglia. It's up on a bluff but you can take the small shuttle up the hill (I believe the C.T. Treno card covers the Shuttle). If you don't want to stop in Corniglia, go directly to Vernazza. After you've had a look there, continue to Monterosso. You can return to Riomaggiore by train or boat (if they're running) and then back to your ship. I'd suggest allowing a bit of a "safety margin" with the time getting back to La Spezia. Transportation in Italy doesn't always run on schedule, so you wouldn't want to miss your ship! I'm not sure about the transportation time from Amalfi to Pompeii (would have to do some research on the options). Hopefully one of the others can answer that. Happy travels!

Thanks Ken!

For Amalfi to Pompei, you are about 90-100 minutes away using public transportation. A round trip on public transporation would provide you about 90 minutes or so at Pompei. That's not a lot of time there.

You don't have enough time to see Pompeii from Amalfi. You DO have enough time (if you keep an eye on the bus schedules) to see Ravello, which is situated in the hills above Amalfi, if you don't want to simply spend the 4 hours exploring Amalfi/Atrani itself.