madamehp

I will be renting a car from the Termini station in Rome. What is the best way to drive out the city towards Naples... then I want to take the coastal road to Sorrento. Can anyone help???

SeaUrchin

put the route in mappy.com

The road from Naples to Sorrento is the coastal one.

Have fun.

ira

Hi M,

Wouldn't it be easier to take the train to Naples, and the Circumvesuviana to Sorrento.

I notice that you also want to drive from Florence to Siena, which is also easier by bus.

bobthenavigator

Are you sure?

madamehp

We're just taking a day trip from Rome. I thought about taking public transportation but we will be coming back to Rome at night and I didn't think the busses and trains ran very late. Am I crazy for driving?

tomassocroccante

Depending on the time of year you might definitely be crazy. In "season" the traffic will be nutty.

For just a day trip, the car might be a big hassle, figuring the time it might take you to get out of town. You can get on the GRA (the highway that circles the outside of the city) pretty quickly and then east a very short way to the A1, taking that south. But I'm guessing you're letting yourself in for an exhausting day.

I love driving in Italy, but this looks like work. And driving in at night your first time ... challenging.

tomassocroccante

I should have mentioned, once you've completed your rental paperwork, you'll have a good half hour drive to the GRA unless you have infallible sense of direction or great luck. If you're leaving early on a weekday you may be in rush hour traffic (which might last all day). If on a weekend, you can still expect traffic unless you're quite early.

GeoffHamer

There is a Eurostar train from Napoli Piazza Garibaldi at 2118 which gets to Roma Termini at 2315. Do you really want to be driving back later than that?

ira

Hi M,

>we will be coming back to Rome at night and I didn't think the busses and trains ran very late.<

Have you checked the schedules at www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html and www.vesuviana.it ?

madamehp

Thanks everyone so far for your input. We're planning to drive down there on a Tuesday morning September 18th. I figured that wasn't part of the high season anymore. We wanted the freedom of having a car to stop wherever along the way like Sorrento before Positano. and we don't mind driving back into Rome late at night. We basically just wanted to see the coast before leaving the country. Is rush hour traffic really bad on the A1? I checked trenitalia and the latest train from Naples to Rome is around 8:30 PM.

ira

Hi M,

When we were on the AC first week in Oct, the Coast road was still very crowded.

I've looked at a few alternatives, but I think that for what you want to do, a car is best.

Get an early start.

Enjoy your day.

LJ

There is no "low" season for traffic around Termini and certainly not late evening in September. You will need nerves of steel trying to navigate out of that area in the dark. It is your choice, of course, but DH and I wouldn't do it and we lived there.

bobthenavigator

I say again, are you sure you want to do that? Not a good idea. There is no coast road until after Naples.

charnees

What everyone is trying to tell you is that driving in Rome is not like driving in Los Angeles or Chicago or whatever. It is totally insane, and nothing like you think it is. It takes many hours to drive to and from the Amalfi Coast even on the Autostrada and traffic around the peninsula is very slow and crowded. Don't try to do what you plan.

Charnee