Planning a trip, our 2nd, to Italy in mid to late Sep. We have been to Venice, Florence and a large part of Tuscany. (Although could do it all over again.) We would like to spend a total of 14-16 days beginning in Rome. My question is do we navigate south towards the Amalfi Coast, Poisitano, Sorrento etc......OR do we go north and do Portofino, Lucca and the Cinque Terre? Where is a good choice to be on the coast to use as base? Conversely, where to stay in the north to use as a base and take day trips? Love to explore small towns, art, culture, history, architecture but especially good food and wine. We learned the hard way last time that we can't do it all - we're better off to slow down and enjoy what we can. Any suggestions for lodgings, sites, restaurants, wineries would be most helpful. Thanks in advance.

Hi T,

It doesn't matter.

Check the Italy part of what we did in 2009

Ira Returns From 22 Loverly Days in Europe - Sep, 2009
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-in-europe.cfm

Both good at that time of year; I wrote a food focused report on the Ligurian Coast after a late September visit in 2008, We based in both Camogli and SML and would recommend either.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-much-else.cfm



While the Amalfi Coast is superb (my personal preference is the town of Amalfi as a base) I would also like to point out that there is a lot more to southern Italy than that area. If youa re willing to drive a rental car, you might want to consider Puglia.



My report on a trip to Amalfi Coast, from spring 2008:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...and-naples.cfm

Hi Tina go a lot just got back.

Lots of beautiful country.

You could zip down to Naples/Sorrento

for 40 euros goes hourly on the Frecciarosa

took me an hour or so

www.hoteldelfino.com Otel.com booked had a perfect

view over Capri Ischia great room best food of my trip

Paid $60(yes dollars) in late April 2011 plus 10eupp

seaview upgrade including an awesom breakfast.

After a couple of days head up to Tuscany by train

www.lucca.info is awesome hike/bike city walls then

Portofino/Cinque Terre area by train not far

www.metropole.it my fav paid 120 euros for a sea view

at the Red Lodge there also www.torrettas.com Manarola

is nice also... if you get bored train a couple of hours

more up to the lakes stresa.org bellagio.info my favs there

Happy Journey,

Thanks for the responses. Probably will head south from Rome. Whats a good place for a base Sorrento or Amalfi? With day trips to Capri, Positano etc is a week too long in this area? After the hustle bustle of Rome, might be nice to just drink in the sea views and take it easy. Any good B&B's for a base? Positano seems too expensive.

Take a close look at Sicily. The weather will be fantastic in late September. Very similar to the weather in San Diego California. Taormina is a beautiful city. Also, Siracusa, Sicily has incredible Greek Ruins!! Some say better than Greece. http://www.bestofsicily.com/siracusa.htm

A week is not too long. If you want to see Naples, Pompeii, Capri and the Amalfi Coast, you might consider splitting your time between two towns to cut down on time spent on buses, ferries and trains.

And if you want helpful suggestions for hotels/B&Bs, you need to tell us your budget.

Sicily is great, but it's quite a different experience from Naples/Capri/Amalfi Coast. First, it would probably make the the most sense to fly to/from Sicily (or open-jaw into Sicily and out of Rome). Second, it's best seen driving a car rather than relying on public trans.

All above are good suggestions (although I'd caution you about driving in Sicily if you haven't driven in Italy before).

What about Umbria?

I'm going to plug the area i just spent a week in - southern tuscany specifically south of Grossetto. the area is just fabulously beautiful; Orbetello, the town i stayed in is in the middle of a lagoon with many long sandy and deserted beaches and in September the water would be much warmer then it was in May and ideal for swimming.

the food was terrific and very reasonable in price, and it was relatively easy to get around as there are very few non-locals around.

you could easily spend your time there and in Rome [which is a mere 150 ams away] and fill 14-16 days with no difficulty.

Tina - personally, I'd pick Amalfi over Sorrento any time - some 100,000 visitors a year, mostly Italians, as against almost half a million, predominantly from my own country!

Although Pompei would be a little harder to reach from there, and Capri a few minutes further by sea - if about the same cost - but the Amalfi Coast stretches away in both directions... and places like Paestum and Salerno are much easier to get to!

What and where are they? Try the photos here...

http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/tele

This may help you understand how much of an influence the geography has on the journey times ashore - at least with public transport, although in places cars don't travel much faster!

http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/image/132567370

But there are many other villages and towns you could consider. Although it's well due for an update (so do crosscheck the times, prices etc, and ignore all references to the 'Metro del Mare'), there's a useful 'Travel Directory' to the Sorrento Peninsula and Amalfi Coast areas - which includes accommodation listings - to be downloaded from the official tourism website, here...
http://www.costiera.it/weben/index.htm

...or, directly, here..
http://www.costiera.it/images/pdf/Tr...rectory_En.pdf

For an idea of the weather, and a look our little island - where we've probably more sandy beaches than the whole peninsula, try...

http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/pics_sept

Peter

PS - One thing though, mid-September is very much part of the season in this part of the world - so don't build up too many hopes of finding a repeat of the give-away prices offered in the dismally quiet run up to this year's late Easter!

Since you have been North, consider either Sicily or the Amalfi area. We preferred Sicily which is much less resorty and more fascinating. But if your go to Sicily, plan to spend at least a week. We enjoyed the Amalfi coast where we spent 4 days and preferred Capri where we spent 3 days. If you go to Capri, plan to stay a couple of days. A day trip to Capri gives an entirely different picture of this beautiful island - crowded and noisy. Mornings and evenings are lovely.