Suggestions on best place to spend 3-4 days, Naples, Sorrento, Positano or Salerno

Sorrento gives you beautiful views, great restaurants, easy access to all the places you’ve listed.
Just a really nice easy place to be

Skip Blue Grotto, huge time suck tourist trap
Take a boat ride around Capri instead
We used
Www.sharedtours.com for a fabulous day (also used for Pompeii tour)

Salerno is also nice with direct trains north but too far for Capri

Since you have RT Rome you might consider going straight to Sorrento then north etc and end in Rome so all your Rome days are together

Let me be the first to ask-
You can't fly into Rome and out of Milan- or the reverse?
Safe travels!

Rome for 4 days

Does that mean 5 nights? Or is it 4 days and really only 3 days?

If you still have the flexibility, consider this: Fly into Venice, then Florence, then Sorrento and end in Rome for the flight home.

Not sure you have the time to include Milan

Sorrento gives you beautiful views, great restaurants, easy access to all the places you’ve listed.
Just a really nice easy place to be

Christine nailed it.

The easiest and fastest option is to take a train from the Fiumiciono Aeroporto station (Rome’s airport) to Salerno that involves a connection at the Roma Termini station taking a total of 2h 30m. From Salerno you can take direct ferries to Amalfi (45-minutes), Positano (1h 15m) and Capri (1h 45m).
To get from Salerno to Pompeii, take a direct train (1h 15m).

For what you want to do, Sorrento is where you want to be. Capri and Pompeii are both very easy from there. And yes, Christine nailed it! Skip the Blue Grotto. If there's a tourist trap on Capri, that's the one. We stayed on the island 2 nights, skipped it based on reviews, and didn't feel like we'd missed a thing. IMHO, there are better things to see and do, especially if you're doing Capri as a day trip! And yes, if you can fly into Rome, go straight to Sorrento - via Naples + either ferry, commuter train or private transfer from there - then north etc and end in Rome so all your Rome days are together, that's the itinerary I'd go with.

https://www.capri.com

Extra note: skip the touts for tours ON the island as it's not really very big so you don't really need them if you do a little reading in advance. And the shared tour in the link Christine provided for Pompeii (the 2-hour walking tour) has seen umpty positive reviews from RS posters who have taken it. Same with the boat tour.

Another vote for Sorrento. And a suggestion you relook at your flights. Italy is very easy to get around by train but you will save lots of vacation time by travelling from north to south. That would mean Milan - Venice - Florence - Sorrento - Rome. Ok, the last one is south to north but it would allow you to spend your last days and nights in Rome. Getting to the airport in the morning (am thinking you have a morning flight back home) is very easy by train or taxi.

Now about Sorrento: For the past decade or more I have made il Nido (ilnido.it) my home base. It's 3 miles outside the city but they have an hourly shuttle bus. The views, the restaurant (breakfast and dinner), comfortable rooms, delightful staff, and did I mention the views!?! Other restaurants: da Gigino, the Meating, Inn Bufalito, anything on the Marina Grande. I'd suggest taking the ferry from Sorrento to Positano and Amalfi. The views are spectacular. Then take the bus back from Amalfi (sit on the driver's side for the best views of the cliffs). Amalfi is where the bus begins its route so it's much easier to get a seat than at the Sorrento train station. If you are staying at the il Nido, the bus stops right by the hotel. You probably won't be able to get on the bus there but anyone who is standing will be glad that you got off there! :)

Before the pandemic my husband and I would spend 2 weeks every fall in Naples. The bad reputation that the city owns is undeserved, except maybe for grunginess. There is much to see (300+ churches, excavations, museums), the food is spectacular, and costs are much less than Sorrento Capri, Ischia, etc. It is also easy to get to other sites (Baia, Cuma, Casserta) via the Circumvesuviana, Trenitalia, or one of the many bus companies. And, at the time you are going Naples celebrates one of the festivals of San Gennaro, when his blood re-liquifies, AND the Quattro Giornali, when the citizens rose up against the Nazis in WWII.
Just posting this is making me want to return. . . .

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/amalfi-coast-for-5-days-where-to-set-base-from

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/herculaneum-and-pompeii-questions
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/pompeii-and-vesuvius-69e8366c-1e75-4a14-a0bc-0677269492d1
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/pompeii-salerno-capri-recommendations
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/surviving-naples
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/one-week-on-the-amalfi-coast
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/amalfi-coast-day-trip

I’m in Sorrento right now for four nights, using it as a base to see Capri, Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast. I could not be happier with my choice. It’s a great transportation base and has great restaurants and hotels. You can also visit Naples from here, although that would probably make for a hectic day. I’m staying at the Hotel Tourist because I was prioritizing price per night but there are lots of hotels in the old city center that are very nice.

We have stayed in Sorrento twice and love it as a base station. So many interesting places to see for day trips. Highly recommend Paestum. You must check out Marina Picolla 73 for a place to stay.

Actually Mary Pat nailed it with her suggestion of changing your flight. Can you fly IN to Milan and OUT of Rome?

We are going for 20 nights in Sept as well- flying in to Milan, out of Rome and I’ve been able to change my flights twice without change fees (United).
We are going different places but similar-
Milan (actually Stresa)- Verona- Bologna- Florence then down to Naples/Sorrento and ending in Rome.
North to south will make for a better flow and puts Sorrento/Amalfi towards end of your trip for some relaxation after big cities.
If you can’t change flight then I would change my advice above and say go to Venice on arrival- then Milan-Florence-Sorrento, ending in Rome.

The Blue Grotto is great, use Sorrento as a base

If you can’t change flight then I would change my advice above and say
go to Venice on arrival- then Milan-Florence-Sorrento, ending in Rome.

Yep, that would work too.

I have stayed in both Sorrento and Salerno. From Salerno, it's an easy day trip to Paestum by train. Pompeii is a little tougher because you have to take a shuttle or taxi to the main entrance after you get off the train. You can take the ferry to Positano, Amalfi and even Capri but be forewarned...if the seas are choppy, the ferry will not run. We spent 4 days in Salerno (May 2019) and the ferry didn't operate for 3 of those days. The views from Sorrento are spectacular but it's getting to be a very crowded town. Getting to Pompeii is a breeze and the ferry to Capri is much shorter ride than from Salerno. You can easily take the bus from Sorrento to the Amalfi coast towns. In Salerno, we stayed at La Tartaruga B&B, a small B&B near everything and about a 10 minute walk from the train station. They only have 3 rooms but our room was spacious (with a nice bath) and Paolo was very helpful in getting our itinerary lined up. In Sorrento, we stayed in the Hilton on points. It's a bit of a walk up the hill to the hotel but the views are fantastic.

Thanks everyone for all the good advice . I think we’ve decided against Naples/Sorento until another trip where we can do the Southern part of Italy.
We’ve decided to go to Cinque Terre on this trip instead since it will fit better into our route with Florence and then Milan .
Currently looking for a place to stay and deciding which town .

Any thoughts or hotel /room suggestions?

Vernazza makes a nice home base.

La Spiaggia, Monterosso. We've stayed there as well as several other couples we know, and all of us would give it a thumb up: family owned and operated (Maria is great!), easy walk from the train station, practically on the beach (for the view even if not sun bathing/swimming), elevator, balconies, easy walk to some nice restaurants, decent price for an expensive area (or used to be decent, anyway.) Request a sea-view room. It does book up early and quickly, though.

https://www.booking.com/hotel/it/la-spiaggia.html

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