We are first timers planning a two week 30th anniversary trip to Italy June 29-July 14, 2018. This trip is being planned around the opening weekend of the Umbria Jazz Festival because we are big jazz/music fans. While the festival dates have not been confirmed, we are fairly certain it will begin July 6, and so we will be in Perugia July 5-9. Seeing the ruins in Pompeii and Herculaneum, and the Naples Archeological Museum is important, and I would like to spend at least one day on Capri, if it makes sense.
Initially I was planning to make Sorrento our base for Naples because most travel forums say it is much nicer than Naples Metro. But the Pompeii, Herculaneum and Capri seem equally easily accessed from either location and traveling to Perugia from the city might take less time. We do not plan to rent a car for any of our trip if we can avoid it. We plan to use the trains a lot, but don't think we need a Europass.
Our itinerary so far:
Rome 3 nights (Fri-Mon)- arriving on Friday afternoon and doing the Vatican by Night tour
Naples 3 nights (Mon-Thu)- Rome to Pompeii to Sorrento day 1, Herculaneum Museum day 2, Capri day 3
Perugia 4 nights (Thu-Mon)-ballooning early Friday morning in Umbria (weather permitting) and the UJ festival
Florence/Tuscany 4 nights (Mon-Thu)
We are open to a small group tour in our first day in Naples to maximize our time, but are wondering if going it on our own is just as sensible. We also realize that July is high season for tourists, but that when the festival, and our annivesary is. We hope to mitigate the crowd issue with careful planning. We are ok with a fast pace on the first half of our trip, knowing that we will likely slow down in and after Perugia. We are also open to other iteneraries, and flexible with what we do, but Pompeii, Herculaneum and the Umbria dates are a must.
Thanks for your thoughts.