Meaghan_Beatty

10day itinerar w. 74 year old dad--rome to pompeii side trip ”

today, 19:35





Hello!




I am taking my dad, who is 74 and has Parkinson's Disease, on an Italy trip! He is mobile, able to walk a mile or two at a time, depending on the day, but he tires easily. I'd really appreciate some comments on this itinerary, and advice about how to logistically put together a side trip to Pompeii, which he really wants to see.




We will be traveling from Boston from Oct. 17 to October 27th.




10/18-10/23-ROME


10/23-10/24-POMPEII (&SORRENTO, CAPRI???)


10/24-10/27-FLORENCE




*As of now, I have not booked any part of potential pompeii, sorrento, capri trip--We have the florence hotel booked for this night, but ideally Id like to cancel that night in florence to stay in sorrento




DETAILED ITINERARY


10/17- afternoon leave boston




10/18- 8am arrive rome, pre-arranged shuttle to hotel near spanish steps; rest, spend time exploring area nr hotel (spanish steps, santa maria maggiore etc




10/19- breakfast at hotel, then 10:15am pick up ticket for coliseum, forum and palatine museum; rest, dinner and gelato




10/20- 8am- pre arranged half day vatican tour; lunch; MAYBE Castel San Di Angelo if my dad feels up to it (worth it??); dinner in Travestere??




10/21: NO PLANNED EVENTS (I'm thinking maybe appian way? or villa borghese? or capitoline museum? recommendations??)




10/22: extra day in rome? could also move the side trip here for extra day in either sorrento or florence......




10/23- check out of rome hotel; get to Pompeii somehow and do a tour; then down to sorrento n stay in a hotel there; dinner in sorrento




10/24: Capri for the day; here is where i get lost....possibilities...do a planned small group tour to pompeii, sorrento and capri, in which case we'd be ferrying it back to sorrento and roped into going back to rome. BUT It'd be nice for my dad , because it wouldnt be quite as stressful? However, then we would be doing a trip from sorrento to rome, then rome to florence all in one day. I want my dad to enjoy his trip, not be completely exhausted, and this may be too much for him. The other thougt I had was to do some sort of transfer from rome to pompeii to sorrento, then overnight, then ferry to capri, and take the return ferry from capri to naples. that way we could take a high speed train all the way from naples to florence without stopping in rome. BUT what do we do with luggage? my dad cannot lug all his things all day, and i dont think i can do mine and his...planning this trip is tougher than expected!




rest of days would be spent in florence, and we would be flying out of florence to boston at 10am on the 27th




thanks so much for any and all help...if i was doing this trip myself, or with other young people, i would be way more laid back, but its 20 times tougher with my dad...i guess this is how parents feel when they take their kids on trips!!




Happy travels!


Meg

greg

I seems you have identified the major issue with the itinerary yourself. You have slack time in Rome, then suddenly you have compressed tight schedule to visit Pompeii/Capri. Any reason why you cannot move days you don't know what to do in Rome to Sorrento?

Also, are you flying back home from Rome?

annhig

Hi Meaghan - good for you. I'm sure that you have the making of a great trip.

I can't really help with the pompeii/sorrento bit, but so far as Rome is concerned, I would suggest that you don't plan anything else for your Vatican day - the museums are VERY tiring. once you have been round them, with a bit of luck you can then get into St. Peter's without having to walk all round the walls again by using the "groups" door at the back of the sistine Chapel - this avoids having to go through the security lines again as well.

then if the queue isn't too bad, consider paying to go up to the Dome, but don't go any further than the top of the lift level [unless you want to of course] there is a cafe up there, plus loos, and the roofs of the Basilica are fascinating. i would much rather do this than bother with the castel san angelo, which we didn't like at all.

one way of avoiding the long Sorrento to Florence journey is to re-arrange your trip so that you go immediately from Rome to Naples [you can recover from jetlag on the train] and thence to Sorrento, on the day you arrive - you'll be at termini anyway. then you would only have to get to Rome for the next pat of your trip, and from Rome to Florence for the final bit.

Michael

Get the three day Roma pass and arrange your visits in such a way that the Forum/Colosseum and the Borghese are the first museum visits, as they are the most expensive. The first two museums using the card are free. You must call the Borghese and make a reservation without paying for it with a credit card. The Vatican museum is not part of the pass. If you decide not to purchase the card, you still need to make a reservation for the Borghese.

Given your father's age and health issues, I do not see a trip from Rome to Pompeii (with a change in the Naples train station) and then on to Sorrento. That will be a long day. Where do you anticipate keeping your luggage while you tour Pompeii?

bobthenavigator

Hmmm ! A man 74 with Parkinsons---that would be me too.
After 17 trips to Italy I agree that the Pompeii/Capri excursion is the pressure point here. If Pompeii is a must---and it would be too much walking for me now---then do it as a day trip or bus tour from Rome. Too much hassle to move 3 times in your short time.

uhoh_busted

The Borghese gardens is a huge park surrounding the museum, lake, etc. It is a fantastic place to sit and watch families with little kids peddling around or pushing babies in prams while the kids ride bikes, feed ducks, etc. Rome is so busy and packed with tourists, take your time, and don't worry about keeping to a schedule. Take breaks when you need them. There are some wonderful Nero- themed exhibits throughout the forum, which gives you time to get out of the sun or elements. One of the best things about Rome is the availability of good drinking water..spigots where you can safely fill waterbottles so that you don't dehydrate.

Jean

The first suggestion I have is to book your Rome hotel from the night before your arrival (Oct. 17th) so that you can immediately occupy your room/s in the event your dad would like to lie down for an hour or so, take a shower, whatever. If you do this, make sure the hotel understands you're booking the night of the 17th, not arriving until the morning of the 18th and expect to be able to access your room/s immediately.

We found the Castello in Rome very interesting, but seeing it in its entirety means a fair bit of walking. There was no elevator to the top when we went there a few years ago.

The Galleria Borghese in Rome is my favorite museum there. If you and your dad love art, I wouldn't miss it. You need reservations for a timed entry, and you're only allowed two hours to view the collection (the best of it, IMO, is the sculpture).

I think how you do Pompeii depends on your dad. You can train to Naples, connect to a train to Pompeii (30 minutes), store your luggage at the entry, and continue on to Sorrento when you've seen enough. When you get to Sorrento, you'd likely taxi to your hotel. But that's a very long, very eventful day. There are one-day tours out of Rome, but then you'd be at the mercy of the tour schedule. No bailing out if your dad's energy flags unless you want to incur more expense in leaving the tour.

Alternatively, you could train to Naples and hire a driver to take you directly to your Sorrento hotel. The next day, take the commuter train to Pompeii (30 minutes) and back to Sorrento. If you can afford it, another option is to have the driver take you from the Naples station to Pompeii, wait while you tour and then take you to your Sorrento hotel. Even this could be too much for your dad, but that's something you would know, not us.

FYI, if the weather's poor, I don't think you'd enjoy Capri, and walking around Pompeii in the rain could even be a little dangerous if your dad's balance/footing is compromised from the Parkinson's. The walking surface is unpaved and very uneven in most of the excavated areas.

But if you make it to Capri, buy day passes on the city bus. You can see quite a bit of a island just riding around.

If you wanted to re-allocate your days to give more time in Sorrento/Capri, I'd take a day from Rome rather than Florence. Florence is basically flat and very compact and will probably feel a relief after the previous week.

bobthenavigator

Good input from Jean---as always.

Steveontour

Sounds like you have the making of a great and memorable trip Meaghan. If you decide to include the Florence leg of your journey I would have a look at the slow day in Tuscany http://www.slow-days.com which may be just the thing for your father. They pick you up and drop you back at your hotel/B&B so I doubt you'll find a less stressful day.

nytraveler

I'm not sureyou're being realistic about how much your dad can do and how much walking/tanding will be involved. Being busy for one day is one hting. Being busy for 10 day sin a row is another - and can be very tiring form someone 74 even without health problems.

I would not sign up for anything that commits you to someone else's schedule. You need to be in a situation in which is you dad want to go back tothehotel and lie down - or just sit in a cafe for an hour - he can do it. Ignore tours and arrange everything yourself.

And take cabs whenevery you can - so his energy is focused on the walking he has to do.

Meaghan_Beatty

Thank you all very very much for your thoughtful replies. I appreciate the suggestions, and I've played around with the dates so that there will be much less transportation time.

Here is the edited itinerary that I ve come up with

Oct 18, 19, 20, 21--Rome (only planned events in rome are the vatican half-day on the 20th, where we can rent/borrow a wheelchair at the museums if my dad feels tired...great that this is an option!!, and the forum/coliseum on the 19th, on our own, so my dad can rest on a bench when needed. I also think he'd love borghese museum, so maybe we can do that on the 21st??)

Oct 22---- 9am-10:10am high speed train to naples and check into hotel here, which is 1/2 kilometer from the ferry to Capri, where we can visit noonish to late afternoon, or until my dad feels read to go back to hotel. relax all evening, go to bed early

Oct 23- pompeii for a couple hours---depending on how my dad feels we could do pompeii early in a small group tour ???? which would have transportation to and from naples hotel, which would be good for my dad. When we get back, we will pick up our luggage from hotel and take an afternoon high speed train from naples all the way to florence (skipping rome!) Arrive in florence, cab to hotel and go to sleep!

Oct 24- florence (nothing planned---Maybe just breakfast and walk around hotel neighborhood? It is in very central location in florence, close to duomo etc)

Oct 25- florence --early afternoon uffizi museum

Oct 26- florence--nothing planned

Oct 27-10am flight to boston

I will definitely look into the restful day tour from florence...prob would be just the thing for dad. Last suggestions anyone? Thanks!

Also, I booked the train ride from rome to naples already---should i book the train ride from naples to florence, or buy tickets at the station, so that we don't feel pressured to be on a rigid schedule?? I just wouldnt want train to sell out, and I want my dad to be able to have a good seat

Thanks again,
Meg

Meaghan_Beatty

Oct 23 will be the longest day, but hopefully the high speed train is not too cramped and awful---they have pretty good reviews, and its only 3 1/2 hrs all the way from naples to florence! amazing!




plus, with this change in itinerary, we will skip over extra travel time to and from sorrento, and we will not have to return to rome before heading to florence

Jean

I like your new itinerary!

You need to see if you can get reservations for the Galleria Borghese for any of the days you'll be in Rome. It would be better to have reservations you end up not using than waiting until you're there and finding your dad is up for it but no spaces are available. Most hotels will make these reservations for you, but some here have reported recently that their hotel charged a fee for this service. If you do it yourself, alert your credit card that you'll be making a foreign purchase by phone or internet (whichever you decide) so that the transaction isn't rejected. (You should also tell your credit card/s the dates you'll be using your card outside of the country.)

http://www.galleriaborghese.it/info-en.htm

Regarding Pompeii, I still think you want/need to be independent of any organized group, so you may want to book the transportation and then hire a personal guide at the entrance to Pompeii (very easy to do). You can tell the guide exactly what you want to see, what the physical and time limitations are, etc. Check the transportation rates and then either arrange for the driver to wait while you're in Pompeii or book two separate trips. Your Naples hotel should be able to identify a car service and may be willing to make the arrangements for you.

The train to Florence will not be cramped, even in 2nd class although I'd splurge for 1st class. The hardest part (honest) is climbing up the stairs from the platform onto the train. The stairs are steep, you'll be juggling luggage, and inevitably a large crowd will all be trying to board at once. If you just stand back for a couple of minutes until the mayhem subsides, you can board more easily. You can buy the tickets for Naples-Florence after you arrive in Rome or even in Naples. We've bought train tickets at the American Express office in Rome near the Spanish Steps (a block to the right as you're looking up the steps), but you could buy them at any travel agency that sells train tickets (your hotel can advise of one nearby) or at the train station when you're leaving for Naples.

On Oct. 26th, you could take a taxi up to Fiesole in the hills outside of Florence. Beautiful views, the ruins of a Roman theater, a small museum and a couple of restaurants. When you taxi back to Florence, you could have the driver detour to Piazzale Michelangelo and wait a few minutes there while you take in the stunning views of the city.

I think you're going to have a great trip!

mamcalice

Do you plan to see the David at the Accademia? If so, you should make reservations in advance to avoid waiting in a long line.

Meaghan_Beatty

Jean- Thank you so much for your comprehensive replies; my anxiety about the trip has plummeted since you have helped me!! Our hotel in Rome is very close to the Spanish Steps, so I will plan on buying the train tickets from naples to florence at the American Express travel agency there. I will definitely make a reservation for borghese as well.

mamcalice--thank you for the advice regarding the Accademia. I will look further into this, and I will probably make reservations for this through our florence hotel.

Now that the trip is more set in stone, I hope to catch up on sleep! Trip planning is tough!

Thanks again!
Meg