Town Between Rome and the Amalfi Coast

Since your aunt had a bad experience going south from Rome, why not go north to Tuscany or Umbria?

Where on Amalfi Coast are you planning to stay?

Sorrento fits you’re description and is not actually on the AC
Or

Salerno
Easy to get to
Easy to get to AC from Salerno-ferry or bus

A real town
Lovely waterfront with sandy beach and great views
Pedestrianized center
Great restaurants, very good gelato
Less expensive lodging
A really delightful evening passegiata

Safe and friendly in our experience 2019

One hour easy train ride to Paestum and the magnificent Greek temples with buffalo mozzarella farms nearby

Please be specific about "Amalfi Coast." It is not really necessary to break up this trip, because a Frecciarossa train takes just over an hour to get to Naples. I don't recall Torre del Greco being mentioned on this newsboard, but the online photos are attractive. Do you understand that it is easy to visit Pompeii and Naples from Sorrento, if not from the Amalfi Coast?

Depending on your AC destination, it may be more important to plan for time to get to your flight home??

Make sure you find out the date when ferry schedules change to off season. I don't know it.

Edit: The weather is not so extreme in October, but normally I might point out that someone who plans to visit Pompeii might not "need" to visit Hadrian's Villa. They are both time-consuming, high-foot-mileage, sun-exposed visits. It happens that Hadrian's Villa was a must for me, but not for everyone. And we'd been to Villa d'Este decades ago, so it was a same-day bus runout from Rome.

I would vote Salerno! I agree with the folks that say that since its such a quick train ride you really don't need to break it up.

When I hear Torre del Greco, I think "can buy cameos, but not exciting and generic looking southern Italy town, not as many attractions as Naples if you're going to subject yourself to the unremarkableness, not much to recommend" at the very least....

Salerno has a few museums, a neat/interesting duomo, a great castle on the top of the mountain, the location of the first medical school in Italy, a GREAT historical center, a nice shopping street, an AMAZING lungomare, and a laid back atmosphere.

You can absolutely take a day trip or two to Naples/Pompeii/Herculaneum but another great option is Paestum, the most well preserved Greek ruins outside of the Acropolis! You could even do all of your "Amalfi Coast" visits from there as well, but it would at least be nice to do the "land" touring from Salerno before going to the coast for a different type of base.

Thanks for all the great replies and tips! I think the general consensus is that the trip does not need to be broken up (train ride is quick), but my aunt specifically wants to stay in a small town on the amalfi coast so it will be more difficult to visit Pompei/Naples from there. We may have a car but it will be away from train routes which is why I was hoping for some options near the cities that are cute and have good safety reputations.

This route is part of a larger trip where my parents will fly in later to meet my aunt, uncle, and myself in Rome for the last 10 days going to the south. I believe we will already see Tuscany and some of the northern cities/areas.

It sounds like Salerno would be a great place to stay for a couple of nights before going to a smaller town actually in the AC by car or bus. I will look more into the options around there!

Forget the car
Last place you will need or want a car is along the Amalfi Coast-even early Oct will still be crowded/busy

From Salerno there are ferries to AC towns
Or
Spend the money on a private driver
Here is who we used-very satisfied
www.topexcursionsorrento.com

I don’t know how many days you have for the Golf of Naples Naples/Amalfi Coast area, but if you have more than 5 or 6 nights you could split it between Amalfi/Positano and Sorrento. Sorrento is a nice town that can be a base for Pompeii, Capri. It can also be used to visit the Amalfi Coast unless you want to spend 2 or 3 nights on the Amalfi Coast proper (e.g. Positano, Amalfi). Actually Sorrento is not far from Naples either if you want to visit Naples without staying in the city. Naples is the 3rd largest city in Italy and the most densely populated metro area.

You don’t need a car for your trip.