My husband and I are just starting our research into a 14 day trip to Italy. We want to spend 2 days in Rome and then 12 days in one or two places on the coast. I would appreciate guidance in narrowing down our search based on the experience we are looking for. We would like to stay in a coast town with rooms with terraces, quaint shops and restaurants within WALKING distance of our hotel. And yes we are ok walking stairs. Hopefully a beach near by and lots of friendly local people. Good food, wine and locals are what we want to experience. Thanks!

My experience is in staying in Sorrento and Capri. Sorrento is a good base for seeing Pompei and some of the other coast towns - many of the hotels have large terraces with great sea views. The surrounding coutryside is lush and full of lemon trees - you can bus or hire a driver to Positano. The bus seems to get mixed reviews - can be quite crowded - we hired a driver for a day and it was a nice splurge. In my "next time" possibilities file is to stay in Positano. You can day trip to Capri or better yet spend several nites there. Capri is lovely and we have stayed there twice but it can have a bit of a snooty feel in some of the restaurants and hotels and shops. There whole coast is not exactly beachy - usually small rocky places to rent chairs. But plenty of good food and nice shopping - most hotel employees are friendly but you might encounter a few "burn outs".

Sorrento is probably the biggest town on the Amalfi coast and is very active at night with several streets of shops and many restaurants. I have found it to be an ideal base for visiting other Amalfi coast towns and to be an easy point from which to visit Capri.

Hi P,

With 12 days on the AC, I think you would enjoy a few nights on Capri.

What's your hotel budget?

Is a villa rental OK?

princesslba, you posted a similar question yesterday and have several responses, including mine. I'm not sure if this one is supposed to be different, or if you merely couldn't find your post from yesterday. If that is the case, when you come here, just click on your screen name next to where it says "welcome" (upper left hand corner of screen). That will bring up all the threads you have either started or have posted to. It is best to only have one thread going, and then you can come back to it and post more specific questions as people offer responses.

Here is the best trip report I have seen on the Amalfi Coast---enjoy !
http://www.onelittleworld.com/campania_1.html

Here's another trip report on a trip to the Amalfi coast. It's from 2000, but it's still full of useful information:

http://www.travel.stv77.com/amalfi.html

Princesslba, I highly recommend 4 nights in rome giving you a full 3 days. Plus if you are flying into rome, you will be adjusting to jet lab at the beginning of your trip.

Choose a centrally located hotel in a fun walkable neighborhood with atmosphere. REcommend something near the Pantheon.

We visited Rome, Sorrento, Amalfi coast, Florence, Venice, and Siena last summer. Rome was our #1 family favorite! Stayed in the Hotel Nazionale a Montecitorio in rome on piazza montecitorio close to the Pantheon. there are several other hotels with similar names, we stayed in the one on Piazza Montecitorio. classy 4-star hotel with perfect location.

ttt

I like Sorrento as a base to rour the area. If you just want to get into the flow of the area and relax, I would suggest Positano or possibly Praiano. I'd check around on the board, there are many great posts about Amalfi area. I especially like the one from Ira. Its a magical part of Italy. Enjoy