urbaniteyork

I could use some advice. I am researching tours (around 8 days) in Italy for fall 2006, and will be traveling with an elderly friend (78). She wants to stay at least one night in Florence, as a family member is studying there. She also has her heart set on seeing Pompeii. We would rather NOT stay in Rome this trip. We need a tour so that our luggage can be handled (by someone other than ourselves). I can't find anything that includes Florence and Pompeii, but bypasses Rome. Please don't sing the praises of Rome to me, we'd rather not go there. If we stay in Florence, is it feasible to take a train to Pompeii? Can it be done in one day, or should we plan to stay over? All advice appreciated.

Travelnut

I've been dinking around with various scenarios myself regarding Pompei... I recall that a train Florence-Rome is about 3 hrs, then Rome-Naples is 1.5 hours, then you take the CircumVesuviani train for however long that takes...
Doesn't sound like a good daytrip by train.

Eloise

You won't find a tour that spends a day in Florence and a day in Naples or Pompeii that does not include Rome. You will have to travel independently, which is not difficult (except for the bagggage; pack lightly).

A day trip from Florence to Pompeii is not feasible, particularly not if you are traveling with an elderly friend who may tire more easily than you do.

If Pompeii is an absolute must, fly open jaw into the closest airport to where you are spending most of your time and out of Rome. Simply return to Rome a day early - you have to be in Rome the evening before your flight anyway; arriving only the day of your flight out is asking for trouble - so just add one night and take an escorted tour to Pompeii to minimize the difficulties. It will still be a long day.

tcreath

I agree with the others; I don't think it is feasible to do a daytrip from Florence to Pompeii. You would spend almost the whole day in the train. A better idea, perhaps, would be to fly into Naples, see Pompeii, and then work your way up to Florence.

Tracy

freiamaya

Hi there!
I have done this as a day trip and had no problems whatsoever. You can catch a Eurostar to Roma from Firenze -- time: 1.5 hours.
Transfer at Rome to Naples -- time: 1:45. Do NOT train to Pompeii -- take the subway from Naples to Pompeii - this will drop you off almost right at the front gates of Pompeii.
This will make for a very long day, but it is doable and I found that it was worth it. You leave around 6am, and will return around 8pm. The major factor for you is exactly how active your elderly friend is -- my mom is 80 and could do this trip without problems, but everyone is different.
Hope this helps.

Melissa5

I have a suggestion for you. You don't want to handle your luggage. Although we travelled independently, we did splurge and booked 2 full-day private driving tours in a nice air-conditioned mini-van with our own driver, and he handled the luggage. We also booked a half-day driving tour, again with a private driver. It was wonderful.

I can recommend Benvenuto Limos, a family-run business. We had Giovanni Benvenuto as our driver. He was polite, professional, friendly, spoke great english, and told us about the areas we were driving past. He can advise you by e-mail and help you plan your driving tour. The web-site is www.benvenutolimos.com Make sure you choose a driver who comes with recommendations, because we did have a driver from a different company who didn't show up! But Benvenuto Limos is very reliable.

In order to see Pompeii, you will need a base hotel. You can stay in Naples or Sorrento for example. We stayed in both Rome and Sorrento.

The driver didn't come into the Pompeii site with us. We decided not to hire a guide for pompeii although I regret that, it would have been more meaningful with a guide. I think you can hire a guide upon arrival at Pompeii. The driver picked us up when we were done in Pompeii.

I also highly recommend Roberto Bechi, a licensed guide who lives in Siena and has a mini-van. (Siena is an hour and a half drive from Florence.) You can join his excellent half-day or full-day small group tours. His web-site is www.toursbyroberto.com. He has an excellent sense of humor and is very knowledgeable about archaeology and history. He and his wife can also help you book your entire trip if you wish to do it that way.

Viajero2

urbanite-- is it doable to daytrip to Pompeii from Florence?....I guess. Is it wise?...not really. The idea of a private driver is probably the closest alternative that would make sense, other than an overnight in Naples and train back to Florence. I spent some days in Assisi and was able to take me a small bag and leave luggage at the hotel in Rome (Hotel Genio).

Also, HIGHLY recommend hiring a guide for your Pompeii visit. They typically are by the ticket booth and most likely will approach you. Worth every penny.

DejaVu

Personally, I don't think it feasible to see Pompeii as a daytrip from Florence. Take the one-way train times (1.5 hrs from Florence to Rome, 1.5 hrs from Rome to Naples [that's if you take the highspeed trains], 30 mins from Naples to Pompeii), factor in the amount of time you'd be actually waiting for each of those trains, and that's a heck of a long way. You wouldn't get to Pompeii early enough to make the trip worthwhile. It's a BIG site. I've done it as a daytrip from Sorrento, which was perfect. I've also done it as a daytrip from Rome, the second time, which was very rushed and I didn't really enjoy.

Considering especially that your friend is elderly, I think you should spend a couple of nights in Sorrento as a stopover. Then maybe you could also take a daytrip to Herculaneum (Ercolano) if your friend has a yen to see another ancient town. Herculaneum is wonderful and not as busy as Pompeii. (But I would not recommend trying to do Herculaneum and Pompeii in the same day.)

I believe Pompeii has audioguides available, but I'm not positive. I'm a Greco-Roman art historian so I give myself my own tour. ;-)

urbaniteyork

Thank you to everyone who replied. After further research, I am now considering a 6-night tour based in Florence. We could then easily bug out of the tour for a couple of days, and follow through on the suggestions to stay over in Naples or Sorrento, taking a much shorter hop to Pompeii. My older friend is quite adventuresome and has lots of energy. I want her to stay that way, so pacing ourselves is important. Thanks again for the excellent suggestions!