katiem210

Hello!
My husband and I (early thirties) are taking our honeymoon in 3 weeks! I know, I am behind on planning. We are flying into Rome, staying for 3 nights, then heading to Positano and then onto Florence. Right now our travel agent has us staying in Positano (staying at Marincanto) for 3 nights and Florence for 3 nights. She mentioned taking one night from Positano and allocating it to Florence, giving us 2 nights Positano and 4 nights Florence with a day trip to Tuscany. My husband and I are expecting the coastal part of our trip to be relaxing. We would love to see the village, maybe take a private boat ride around the island and over to Capri and get some pool time. Could all this be done in 2 days? We would arrive Positano on a Monday at 10am and leave Wednesday at 11am. Would the extra day/night be better spent in Florence?
Any advice would be helpful. Thank you in advance!

paris1953

I hope I don't double-post. My first comment went into some abyss.

But what I was saying is that the Marincanto is lovely and that I would not want to spend only 2 nights there! It is lovely and hard to pull yourself away from the beach! The good news is that you really can't go wrong with any decisions in Italy.

My little tip when at the beach at the bottom of the stairs from Marincanto is to get a bucket of ice and two bottled waters from the cafe--it's a bargain and so refreshing. Also the food there is very good.

Have a wonderful honeymoon!

katiem210

Thank you Paris! Any good restaurant recommendations? Maybe something casual and then something upscale?

paris1953

You are so welcome. I did a trip report...just skip down to the end and you'll see the Positano portion:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...a-positano.cfm

greg

Capri takes a whole day even if you started from much closer Sorrento with more boat options. If you are looking for a relaxing time in Capri, you would have to stay on the island itself.

You are traveling during the high season and in only 3 weeks. I am not sure if there are good options left at this point to allow you to do what if you want to do if they were not already integrated into your original bookings.

If your agent thinks you still can move things around, here is a thought on coming up with more usable time. How are you ending your trip? If you are backtracking to Rome, stay over one night to catch your flight home, one way to produce almost one day at potentially less cost is to put all your Rome stay at the end eliminating a one nighter at the end. This requires you to go straight to AC somewhere upon arrival. This is possible when your flight arrives early in Rome. Think about it. If your flight into Rome is early like 7am, what are you going to do if you cannot check-in? You can drop luggage at the front desk, but you still cannot get to your room. Would you rather have gone directly to AC, eliminating one check-in/out cycle?

katiem210

Hi Greg-
we are flying into Rome and out of Florence. We are trying to decide now whether to stay 2 nights in Positano and go to Florence or 3 nights Positano. I have never been to Italy so I don't know what to do in Positano besides relax and eat! haha

Thank you Paris

tuscanlifeedit

Does the Marincanto have a pool? I thought that I once passed on it because it didn't, but I'll leave it up to you to find out. I mention it because you say you want to spend time at the pool.

If you're looking to relax, I suggest leaving your itinerary as it is. Florence will be warm and crowded. It's a wonderful city with great food and tons of things to see, but I wouldn't call it relaxing.

What there is to do in Positano is soak up the scenery, beach or pool if there is one, a little shopping, take a ferry to Amalfi and before you know it, your 2 and a half days there are over.

As much as I love Florence, if this were my honeymoon I wouldn't want to leave Positano after such a short time.

tuscanlifeedit

Just looked, there is a pool. Please stay; you won't regret it.

katiem210

Thank you Tuscanlife! Appreciate all the advice

WWK

Stay in Positano as long as you can! Florence is broiling hot in August, so I would definitely not add more time there.

In and around Positano, these are some of my favorite restaurantsUCA DI BACCO, on the beach. LO GUARACINO, on the way to Fornillo Beach ( about 1/2 mile out of town, just follow the path that starts at the hotel COVO DEI SARCENI, at town dock). IL CAPITANO on Via Pasitea, also SARCENO D'ORO on Via Pasitea.

And... in Montepertuso, a mountain village that hangs over Positano ( about 15 min by taxi/car) LA TAGLIATA or DONNA ROSA.
Beautiful views at sunset, amazing food. Ask at your hotel desk about round trip transportation. Some of the restaurants in Montepertuso offer it for free to guests staying in Positano.

katiem210

My travel agent just told me, because we are booking late, we can only get a room at Marincanto for two nights. So we either need to move along to Florence or find another hotel to stay at. Would you recommend finding another hotel in Positano or maybe trying another city on the coast.

katiem210

My travel agent just told me, because we are booking late, we can only get a room at Marincanto for two nights. So we either need to move along to Florence or find another hotel to stay at. Would you recommend finding another hotel in Positano or maybe trying another city on the coast???

WWK

Tough call this late in the season. I would go on to a booking site like tripadvisor or hotels.com, type in your dates, see what's available, then post back here so we can advise you.

You can also look at Praiano, Amalfi, and in the other direction, Sorrento or Naples. But do you only have one more night to stay along the coast? If so, you might consider moving on to Florence, after all.

And next time... skip the travel agent and come here for advice! Sorry if that's rude, but I find so often the TA's book according to their priorities, not the client's.

greg

I would want my travel agent to be more creative.

Beside the option you laid out, taking 2 days at Marincanto as is, why not explore additional options that might perhaps accomplish your goals better?

When is your flight arriving in Rome anyway?

What if, if you move to AC on arrival, if you are arriving early in Rome? Then put Rome between AC and Florence/Tuscany.

Why this might make sense. Your heart seems to be in AC and Tuscany. What is in Rome for you? If your Rome arrival is early, use that "idle" time before you can check-in to move to AC. Accomplish two things at the same time. Then because Rome is in the middle, you can arrive Rome late from AC and leave Rome early to give more time at two destinations you seem to have your heart set on. By putting AC earlier, your availability picture "might" change and enables you to book 3 nights instead.

ekc

Stay as long as possible in Positano. I consider 3 days to be a minimum. It is one of the most relaxing and beautiful places in Italy IMO.

I can recommend Tre Sorelle for dinner, right on the beach. Great food, good service and fantastic people watching.

For a wonderful romantic dinner, I recommend Hotel Le Sirene at Laurito Beach. They will send a boat to pick you up at the dock in Positano (and take you back after dinner). Sipping prosecco on the terrace while watching the sun set over Positano was one of the highlights of my trip in June!

lilyclaire

I agree about staying in Positano for as long as you can, and second the restaurant recommendations in Montepertuso. We stayed in an apartment above Positano, walking distance to those restaurants, it is so high up, the views are outstanding. It is so beautiful there, you will love it.

nytraveler

Yes, but if working with a TA it's likely that all of these hotels are paid for already (so the TA got the commission) and it may be difficult/expensive to move things around.

I would make the decision based on what YOU want to do. Do you want more time to relax - or more time to see art in Florence and the hill towns of Tuscany?

vincenzo32951

How about spending the 3rd night on Capri?

I would stick with the three nights on the Amalfi Coast. You'll need some down time between Rome and Florence, and the AC is the place to do that.

greg

Another way to look at the itinerary is how they are sequenced. I am still not sure about the role of Rome to you, but following your posts, it appears AC is #1, Tuscany is #2, and Rome <i>seems</i> to be #3 on your list.

The current structure:
Rome-<b>AC</b>-<b>Florence</b>

is a zero-sum game. By putting two priority items next to each other, increase in stay at AC to the end side can only be done by taking away the same amount from Florence. Of course, one way to avoid the zero-sum game is to extend AC at the front end.

Another structure is:
<b>AC</b>-Rome-<b>Florence</b>

This avoids the zero-sum game by splitting your <i>apparent</i> top priority destinations. You can extend both AC and Florence without eating into each other but at the expense of Rome.

I don't use travel agents for this type of trips where I can easily find accommodations meeting my needs and ways to travel between destinations on my own. The travel agents only seem to want to spend least amount of time making commissionable bookings instead of looking after my interests. This is not a indictment of the travel agents, but a natural consequence of the revenue model that came about after the airline deregulations. If you search the internet for TA revenue sources, tour group packages, hotels, cruises, and service fee levied corporate travels are the key income sources. Custom trips can also invite tire-kickers, and the TAs don't want to get involved investing much time into these type of clients.

katiem210

Thank you everyone for all your replies! We are flying into Rome and staying at the Artimede Hotel, which has great reviews, then heading to Positano for 3 nights and then onto Florence. Everything ended up working out. I am definitely going to check out those restaurant recommendations!
Cheers to all!