Travel from Rome to Sorrento to Palermo

Have you made your air reservations already? The reason I ask is that on our last trip to Italy, it was the same price RDU-PMO as RDU-FCO, so the Rome hassle could be avoided if you can connect through to Naples. Otherwise, I would take the train FCO to Termini, and then a high speed train to Naples, connecting to the Cirmumvenusia(?sp).
Flying from Naples to Palermo, we have done Alitalia--you take a bus(about 1 hour)from the train station in Sorrento to Naples airport. Be aware that the bus that goes from the Palermo airport is usually pretty full; during my last trip to Palermo, there was a couple joining the Rick Steves' tour and they couldn't get on the bus they had planned and had to wait for the next one and missed the beginning of their tour. Have fun!

Posie, you didn't mention whether Sorrento is a tourism objective, or Pompeii, for example. Sorrento is not as interesting as Sicily, but it's nice enough, and easy to do on your own. Jerry gave superb air advice. All our rail travel last year (five nights in Sorrento, then fly home from Rome after three nights there, our third time in Rome) went fine, but there is much to be said in avoiding possible hassles - including the hot and crowded Circumvesuviana commuter train, with luggage. (Grrrrr!) June is hot and crowded around this area.

I haven't used Alitalia since they cancelled a prepaid domestic trip (not our transatlantic flight, that was another airline, thank goodness) just four weeks before our departure - costing me much more to buy last-minute arrangements. Since Alitalia is still subject to, well, financial stresses, I would make very sure your travel insurance will cover both a new air ticket, and possible bankruptcy of a provider!

You can get better advice here by putting your home city or country in your profile. We don't know where you're coming from.

I haven't made any reservations yet, there is still room on the RS tour to Sicily so i can figure things out at my leisure. I have been to Italy several times, but never to the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii, so I thought I enjoy a pre-tour trip there.
Good point about the airlines, perhaps I should book a ticket a day before the start of the RS tour. And I will have travel insurance!

Tim. Etihad now own 49% or Alitalia. With backing like that they won't be going broke anytime soon.

As for a flight cancellation... well, the same thing can and does happen with airlines around the world, including the US.

mph, I appreciate the additional information. To be more specific, when I said cancelled our flight, I meant, eliminated the existence of that flight, any day, any month of the year. It was not a single equipment breakdown. And Alitalia refused to make other arrangements for us, or assist us in finding another carrier. In fact, I had to use my credit card company to get the refund: The Alitalia phone bank (This was years ago. Imagine trying to get a live agent today!) said I would get a check, but it never came. So I had to use "Failure to Deliver Services", under the time limit for doing so.

As far as Etihad is concerned, I'll just say that while Hilton Hotels was under Private Equity ownership, penny-pinching was evident at all levels of the brand. It is interesting that Emirates' competition on the Milan run has driven (Coach) prices down. While Etihad might start offering private apartments across-the-pond to compete with Emirates, I don't see an incentive to improve domestic (i.e. Italy and EU) flights to that level.

Not to mix apples and oranges, when I complained to Emirates that they had moved without notice our long pre-booked Business Class seats (Nairobi-Dubai) from two at the window to two in the 4-across center section, they told me, in effect, pound sand. So I don't have high hopes for Coach service from Etihad either! Note that I don't mean to sound whiny. We're talking about airline customer service here.

Tim, I appreciate you have had a poor experience with Alitalia. I live in Australia and once had an appalling customer service experience with United Airlines on a flight to the US. In contrast, one of the best experiences I have ever had was with Emirates when I missed a connection. Excellent hotel room provided and an upgrade.

I guess my point is that we can find someone to tell a horror story about any airline in the world.

As for Etihad customer service, I have only flown them once and it was average. However, I will be off to Italy again shortly and will be flying Etihad. For a 23 hour each way flight it is just over $900USD return to Rome. At that price I would just about travel in the cargo hold.

Are you planning on spending any time in Rome? If your main objective is getting to the Amalfi
Coast, why not fly into Naples. You would then take the Curreri Viaggi bus to Sorrento, then bus
or ferry to the town of your choice. Once done on the AC, take the same Curreri Viaggi back to
back to the airport for your flight to Palermo.

Since I am traveling from a small airport the flights to Naples take a LONG time. I'm better off going to Rome. I think the best way to do this trip is to take the train to Rome, then the fast train to Naples. My hotel will send someone to pick me up at the airport which will make it easy.