There are hundreds of wonderful towns and thousands of sights between Sorreno and Venice but you only have 4 days. I would fly and spend the 2 days in Venice.

What will you miss? For starters, Rome and Florence, each of which deserves four days. You cannot really see anything on a two-day drive from Sorrento to Venice, except out the car window, as it will take all day for two days to get there.

Without knowing the rest of your itinerary it's impossible to say. Please provide more details - how many days total and where starting and staying.

I agree with nytraveler, more information will help us to help you.

Hi Karen,
I did the opposite drive whilst on honeymoon back in '05. We'd spent 4 days in Venice before picking up a car at Piazzale Roma and spending two days driving down to the Amalfi Coast for a further two weeks in a villa.

We split the journey in Spello at that worked very well indeed. It's a delightful town and I can strongly recommend the Palazzo Bocci hotel and the restaurant opposite.

Here are my thoughts on the trip. First day drove from 11am till about 3.30pm. Not difficult, not particularly memorable either. Generally struck to the autostrada - the first stretch up near the Ventian Lagoon, past Choggia and for the next hour southward across the Po Delta was a slog: busy, single lanes (E55/SS3309), hot and generally disheartening. Once we'd picked up the E45 outside Ravenna it all got a lot better, more interesting and enjoyable. The downside was feeling as though we couldn't drop into Ravenna (or other spots along the way as being unsure as to how long the first leg would take). The upside was - arriving at 3.30pm we had a good portion of the afternoon to explore Spello, unwind and relax (which we did in spades!). I suppose we could have visited Assisi had we been of a mind to (it's only 10 miles away) but to be honest the point of the journey was to enjoy it not try and pack in as many sights as possible. I don't think it's always appreciated on these boards that the journey can be of value in and of itself, with out reference to "sights" and ticking boxes of things seen and done.

The second day we started at a similar time - hey we were on honeymoon and not inclined to rush anything, besides we both had pretty heavy hangovers as I recall, and, above all, we wanted to do righteous justice to the frankly magnificent breakfast at the Bocci. We got to the Amalfi coast closer to 6pm and didn't really break the journey so were pleased to finally get there. Had we been driving to Sorrento we probably could have been there 45 mins earlier by my reckoning. That day's driving was faster, the roads emptier, more interesting (in the high Appennines in places - crossing some quite amazing feats of engineering) but also much more tiring since we drove less autostrada (the route was SS3-SP3-SP1-SS4-SS17-SS87-E842-E841) which, whilst making for some truly spectacular scenery, was probably a mistake not least due to the length of time we took - we could have easily shaved an hour or more off the drive time by sticking to the autostrada.

So, in summary - and recognising you're doing the trip the otherway round from that outlined above - if i were to have the chance to do it again I would - though I'd change the route somewhat! With good planning you should be able to schedule in a couple of decent lunch stops and have enough time to take in a couple of sights. Don't try and drive into a big city and keep your expectations realistic. Have a good map reader and know your route in advance. There will be sections which are less than ideal - and traffic will be heavy in places.

Having said all that though would I allocate 2 of 4 Venice days to the trip? In your position no, not unless you're already very, very familiar with Venice. (You'll note we had a three week honeymoon and had alotted 4 days in Venice plus driving time.)

I hope this helps you make your mind up, being a voice speaking from actual experience. Whatever you choose - I hope you enjoy your holiday!

Dr D.

With others driving, and with stops, I've done drives from Venice to Florence and reverse.

No, I would not take time from Venice to do that drive. I would fly from Sorrrento (Naples) and have four days in Venice.

Thanks for the replies and advice. We've decided to forget the drive and fly to Venice to take advantage of our limited time in Italy. Hopefully I can return for a more leisurely trip in the future.