We are going to spend a week in a villa outside of Cortona with some friends. We have done Tuscany numerous times, so we're thinking we may try venturing south of Rome. If we have about one week where would people recommend?

My first thought was three nights Positano, two nights Capri and two nights Rome. We tend to not like moving around a lot so is Capri worth it or because it is so close should we just do a day trip? Is there anything else we're missing or should consider swapping out?

Have you been to Rome before?

What time of year is your trip?

Do you have any interest in seeing Pompeii?

How will you travel from Cortona?

In May last seat61.com/italy 1 hour fast FrecciaRosa train to Naples 4 euros Circumvesuviana to Sorrento. www.booking.com Majestic Palace for Pompeii visit then Hotel Delfino overlooking Capri and Best Western Paistea Positano all for $100 or so sea view nice rooms.Might do something like that we had a blast easy pretty cheap.

If the pleasure you have taken in your repeated trips to Tuscany has been using a car to visit many small towns, realize that driving and parking is much more of a challenge along the Amalfi coast, and if you are going in the nice-weather-months, it is usually best not to have a car at all. But that means sightseeing by public bus and ferry and being tied to their schedules, or hiring fairly expensive taxis to take you around.

There are lovely places outside of the Amalfi coast where you could explore with a car, and they can be especially fun for people who are tickled to escape the tourist crowds. However, if the joy you take going to Italy is seeing the most famous tourist sights and making friends with fellow tourists from "home", then you won't want to be anyplace else but Positano or Capri.

In a similar vein, Rome is huge city, nothing at all like the experience of a Tuscan village, so you may want to skip it entirely. However, if you want to see the great tourist sights, that is extremely hard to do in just 2 days, even if you are the kind of tourist who is on the go from dawn to past midnight.

If you'd like to get off the beaten track south of Rome with a car, read some trip reports on Cilento, and this article for the Latium:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/200...familyholidays

Thank you for the advice. We are going in September so weather should be OK with a little less crowds. Planning on driving or taking train south and then ditch the rental car and use ferries and buses. I'll check out some of the off the beaten path towns as we did like Cortona better before Frances Mayes' book.

Regarding Rome, we have also been there three times so have seen most of the key sites. Thought on two days inRome at the end is we can revisit a cople favorite spots and also it makes it much easier catching the morning flight home.

Anzio, Ponza, Sperlonga, Gaeta, Terrazina, and all the inland villages as well.

"We are going in September so weather should be OK with a little less crowds." I wouldn't count on Positano and area public trans being less crowded (than where?), especially in good weather, especially on weekends. That's not to say you shouldn't go, just be forewarned.

You should investigate the ferry timetables for your week in September. Service was reduced this year for economic reasons, and I don't know when the timetables will revert to off-season in fall 2012. It used to happen in mid-October, but things could have changed. As far as I know, bus service has not been impacted (yet).

Hope nobody minds a small spelling correction: It is not "Terrazina" but Terracina.

If you look on the left hand side of this website, you can find a lot of information about all the towns mentioned above.

http://www.italyheaven.co.uk/lazio/terracina.html

Last question and thanks for the advice so far. If we have four or five nights would you operate the entire time out of positano or maybe do three nights positano and two nights Capri? We're not big on moving too much but it sounds as if Capri is much nicer in the evening when the day trippers leave. It reminds me of when we stayed in San Gimignano. We would do day trips away when the crowds descended on the town, but then at night it was charming and almost empty.

Also, I don't mind some down time but we're not huge pool/beach people so what else is there to do on Capri?

I thought it well worth spending a night on Capri - it was magical once day trippers left! I'm not a pool/beach person AT ALL, so that's not how I spent any of my time on Capri. I hiked a bit, took a boat around the island, went to the top of Mt. Solaro, visited the glorious Villa St. Michelle, admired the tile floor of the church of San Michele....

Enjoy!

i liked capri, but didn't find it all that different at night than during the day. fewer people, of course, but still the same shops (many not local) and not like being in an ancient tuscan town after the tourists leave. we had a lovely time in capri-- but if pressed for time, i would do a day trip. -kawh

Jean's advice is critical. I was on the Amalfi Coast for the last week of this past September, most of the time without a car. Still teeming with tourists. (Did not visit Capri)

The buses were overloaded and infrequent so choose your home base carefully to reduce the time you have to spend traveling.

I highly recommend spending a couple of days on Capri. We spent three nights and two full days there and liked it better than Positano. We visited the last week of September of 2010. The crowds weren't awful and the busses and ferries were running regularly. The only time we had to wait for a bus was on a late afternoon return from Positano to Sorrento. We stayed in Sorrento as it is an good base for visiting Naples, Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast.

Thanks all. I think we will do a couple nights in Capri (may just cut back Rome since we've been several times).

Mamcalice - we were leaning towards Positano as a good home base as we heard Sorrento was larger so Positano may be a little more charming. Any thoughts?