LSUvetgirl

Hey: As I've said before, planning our Christmas Italy trip...planning on spending 5 nights seeing Naples, Sorrento and the Amalfi coast, from 22-27 December.

I had initially planned on staying in Sorrento the whole time and making day trips, including to Naples, +/- Capri, Pompeii, Vesuvius.

On Dec 24th there is a big Christmas Eve celebration in Amalfi that we also wanted to go to. We are not planning on having a car.

Anyway, I'm starting to get nervous about the whole public transportation thing limiting how long we can spend at certain places before we have to catch the last bus or train back(e.g. I don't think there's any way we could get back from Amalfi to Sorrento after Midnight on Christmas eve via bus). We're not super early morning people and tend to have late dinners and stay up until at least midnight.

So, my new idea is below (city names are where we would spend that night)

22nd - Naples (Visit Arch. Museum, city tour)
23rd - Naples (Day trip via train to Pompeii or Herculaneum +/- Vesuvius)
24th - Amalfi (Bus or boat tour of the coast, Christmas eve festival)
25th - Sorrento (Quiet day, enjoy scenery, walk around)
26th - Sorrento (Capri? another day of Herculaneum or Pompeii?)

Other options might be
Sorrento/Sorrento/Amalfi/Sorrento/Sorrento
Naples/Sorrento/Amalfi/Sorrento/Sorrento
Sorrento/Sorrento/Amalfi/Naples/Naples

One other question: I'm debating between the Hotel Savoia in central Sorrento (http://www.savoia-hotel.com) and the Domus Porto salvo in Sant'Agnello (http://www.domusportosalvo.com/en/). The Porto Salvo looks like a much more lovely place to stay, and it's cheaper, but I'm concerned about how out of the way it is. Any words of wisdom from anyone who stayed in Sant'Agnello and went into central Sorrento for dinners/evenings, and did day trips without a car? Loved it? hated it/never again?

Thanks again
Carrie

nessundorma

I think if you really want to be at that feste in Amalfi, you should omit Sorrento completely and divide your time between Napoli and Amalfi. That way, you are certain not to encounter transportation problems due to weather or holiday schedules.

Stay in Amalfi on the 24 and the 25th.

Return to Naples and visit Pompeii.

You cannot rely on boats and ferries in December in that area.

If you want to do something very special for Christmas day, see if one of the famous five star hotels in Ravello is serving a special lunch. It will cost you an arm and a leg, but if the day is sunny, you will have spectacular views. (If it is not sunny, don't go.)

But otherwise you could go to mass in the cathedral in Amalfi and perhaps take a taxi or bus to Positano and have a drink at Sirenuese. I understand Praiano also puts up quite a Christmas display.

Also, you should be aware that Napoli itself really goes all out for Chirstmas, and that it is famous the world over for the Christmas angels and figurines made by local craftspeople. I'm sure your hotel can help you find the best places to enjoy the festivities.

MyriamC

Moving to three different places for 5 nights would be too much for me.
That being said, I don't know what public transport is like in winter time. We spent two weeks in Sant'Agnello (much preferred the quiet location over Sorrento) in September last year and did all our trips by public transport. The ones on the Circumvesuviana (Napoli, Pompei) were easy and quick, but getting to Amalfi in the morning was a real pain. Sometimes there were so many people waiting for the bus that we had to let go 2 buses before it was our turn. In time this means 1 hour waiting! Also, the day we had planned to take the bus from Amalfi to Ravello it never showed up. On those days I felt that we would have been better off with a car.

Mimar

We didn't find Sorrento noisy. We stayed at the Bellevue Syrene and our room overlooked the Golf of Naples. Personally, if you're going to be doing a lot of public transportation, I think an in-town hotel would be better.

The Amalfi Coast is pretty quiet off-season anyway. LSUvetgirl, you do know not to expect glorious sunshine and busy outdoor cafes?

And did you hear about the American tourist beaten up in Naples when he chased thieves who stole his camera?

LSUvetgirl

Heheh, of course I know, it's December! You will notice I dont have any beach lounging etc on the agenda. I was just nervous about spending two full nights on the Amalfi coast precisely because it is so off season and I didn't think there would be anything to do other than this festival on Christmas eve.

Myriam: Did you find dining options or other evening activities to be easily accessible from Sant'Agnello?

Yeah, heard about the Naples mugging, but this is pretty much not a surprise from what I've heard about Naples previously. Which is one of the reasons I was initially shying away from spending more nights there than I needed to....

Marianna

We have rented an apartment in Sant' Agnello for two recent trips to Sorrento/Amalfi Coast. I'm not sure exactly where your hotel is (looks very nice on the website), but from where we were it was about a 20 minute walk to get to Sorrento. The apartment was near the Cocumella and around the corner from the Mediterraneo.

nessundorma

You will find that on Christmas eve and on Christmas day, there will be very little going on anywhere it Italy. Italians spend that time with their families. It is a ritual.

You will be able to find good meals at the important hotels that never close. But you should minimize being "in transit" on Christmas eve and Christmas day because public transportation almost shuts down completely and private taxis are scarce and very expensive. And this will be even worse if the weather is not good.

So like I said, if you really want to see that festival in Amalfi, you should head out in plenty of time to get to Amalfi, and count on spending the night there. As for leaving, please realize your options on Christmas day will be rather slim, and when you get to wherever you are going, nothing will be open there either.

MyriamC

LSUvetgirl, I can see where the Domus Porto Salvo is. It's one block away from where we stayed (Mediterraneo), in a street just off Corso Marion Crawford. There are various bus stops on the Corso and buses run frequently. It takes less than 5 mins. to get to Piazza Tasso. We often walked it (20 mins.) because the weather was so inviting.
There's not much to do in the small centre of Sant' Agnello (the Limoncello was a lot cheaper there than in Sorrento, though!), so we usually went to Sorrento at night.

LSUvetgirl

Myriam: thanks for the information. Do you recall how late the buses ran between Sant'Agnello and Sorrento?

nessundorma: Do you know that about the public transportation for a fact? I've been looking online all over for information about bus and train schedules on christmas day, and all I can find just has a schedule for "Sundays and Feast days" which, while reduced, is not "shut down completely." If that is indeed the case, I would really like to know, so if you know where I can find a schedule that might tell us what we have to deal with that would be great.

And as you can see, all of our options included staying in Amalfi on Christmas eve, and not doing anything on Christmas day other than hanging out and walking around.

I'm afraid I still don't really understad why you recommend that we go back to Naples after Christmas instead of going to Sorrento; are you saying that we might also have transportation problems on the 26th or 27th?

The ? and +/- with Capri are there because we would obviously only be able to do that if the weather was beautiful, and there's no reason to expect or plan on that. But if we did have nice weather, it might be fun.

re: the Christmas eve festival, I am getting the impression from the tone of your messages that you think we are being silly for wanting to go to Amalfi for Christmas eve at all. I'm afraid I don't understand that, since you also say there is hardly anything to do on either of those days because everyone will be with their family, and this seems like a really fun thing to do and it might be the only fun thing to do in the whole area! Do you know something that I don't? Here is the initial synopsis I found:
http://www.giracostiera.com/eng/amal...ti_amalfi.html

I'm now thinking maybe it makes more sense to go to Sorrento for two nights, then Amalfi for 2 nights (Christmas Eve, Christmas day), then Naples for 1 night.

Allotting 3 or 4 nights to Naples seems like a big risk, given the extreme feelings people have about the city (either love it or hate it with a passion)

Well it seems like probably the best thing to do, since a lot of this hinges on what kind of transportation would be available on Christmas eve and Christmas day, is to e-mail the people at the hotel in Sorrento or Amalfi and see what they have to say on the matter.

Thanks everyone for all the input so far
Carrie

nessundorma

I truly do not think you are silly to want to go to the Xmas festival. I am only trying to tell you that around Christmastime you could experience some difficulties getting there and back. It is always time consuming to get to and from the town of Amalfi, and in December you have to factor in the chance of bad weather if you are trying to be there by a certain time. So the best guarantee of your getting your wish is to allow for plenty of travel time, and to plan to spend the night.

I didn't mean to give you the impression that all public transportation will be shut down. It will be running on a very limited schedule. What I was trying to tell you is that if you are worried there will be "nothing to do" in Amalfi on Christmas Day, there will be nothing to do in Sorrento, either in Christmas day, so it doesn't make a lot of sense to travel to someplace else.

You are right to observe that many people hate Napoli with a passion, so perhaps you would too. The reason I suggested you return to Naples and skip Sorrento is because what most people find charming about Sorrento depends on there being good weather: views, evening strolls, swimming. Perhaps some ferries to Capri will be running, but you can't count on that. And if they are running, they'll be running out of Naples.

If you get bad weather and you are in Naples, you can easily still go to museums or take the underground tour of Naples, or shop.

In addition to the Christmas festival in Amalfi, I do believe there are also Xmas displays in Praiano. When you e-mail your hotel in Amalfi, ask them what other Xmas festivities are nearby, etc.

You might want to read this about Christmastime in Naples:

http://events.skyteam.com/sisp/index...vent_id=147150

http://www.associatedcontent.com/art..._to_be_in.html

MyriamC

Carrie, do include a trip to Naples, even if only a daytrip. It's an amazing city, so very typical Italian.

Here's what I found re bus timetable:
Linea C (orange bus):
Sorrento (Harbour) » Sant'Agnello dalle 7.00 alle 23.30
Sant'Agnello » Sorrento (Harbour) dalle 7.47 alle 23.50

LSUvetgirl

thanks myriam, that's fabulous. Did you get that from a website or your own notes? I've been having a devil of a time finding bus info online.

nessundorma: Thanks for all the input. My mind is just going crazy right now trying to get hotel reservations nailed down for this trip while we can, and also trying to figure out this trip to meet my parents in Prague in October, I'm having a hard time thinking straight. I'll feel a lot better when one of them is taken care of; I just need to make myself focus on one and get it done instead of jumping back and forth...

MyriamC

Here's the website: http://www.sorrentomap.com/trasporti...&tr=circum (section Orange bus at the bottom of the page)
Note: this is the bus that operates within Sorrento (it's connected to the Circumvesuviana).
If you want to travel from Sorrento to Amalfi, ... you will have to take the SITA (blue or green) buses - http://www.sitabus.it

SeaUrchin

At that time of year I would stay in Amalfi or Sorrento which have more full time residents, they are regular small towns with working people. There are nice walks to take from both if the weather is nice. Of course naples will have a lot more going on but if you are not comfortable with its reputation just go for a daytrip for this first visit.

I know a regular poster who has been in Sorrento on Christmas Day, have you tried putting key words in the search box up above?

If you have self contained entertainment you will be fine over the holidays on the AC.

Jean

In addition to the sorrentomap and sitabus websites, here are a two more than may be helpful to you:

www.summerinitaly.com
www.amalficoastweb.com

Everyone has their preferences, but I would stay Sorrento/Amalfi/Sorrento. I'm one of those who like Sorrento. We stay at the Bellevue Syrene which is in the direction of the Domus Porto Salvo. Although the Porto Salvo looks very nice and has a fabulous view, considering the reduced transportation schedules and the possibility of poor weather obscuring the view, I'd stay in Sorrento.

I also like Amalfi and would love to experience the Christmas celebration you describe. One of our most cherished experiences in Italy occurred in Amalfi when we by chance came upon a paper-making "factory," although describing it as a factory is stretching the term. Antonio Cavaliere has been making paper in this tiny stone mill building since the late 1940s, and the machinery he uses looks ancient. Antonio doesn't speak English but will demonstrate how he makes paper. He doesn't press but hopes you will buy something. We bought a print on his paper depicting the the mill circa 1200 with the stream (now under the street) running alongside. You can easily walk to the mill from the main piazza in front of the Duomo; look for Via Fiume rising up from the square. I also recommend you visit the Duomo and adjacent Cloisters if they're open at that time.

Have a great trip!