Fine tuning 4 weeks in Italy, summer 2023
 

Now that it’s May, I’m wondering if I should make advance reservations for trains, ferries and attractions. Here’s the itinerary - ignore the first two nights of a single night in each location. I intentionally set it up that way so I could acclimate by staying a night in two locations with which I’m familiar. We’ll be hitting these spots (Naples and Rome) again later in the trip.

Naples - 1 night at Orsini46
Rome - 1 night at a friend’s place
Lerici - 4 nights
Lucca 3 nights
Florence - 7 nights (3 nights solo/4 with my guy)
Rome - 3 nights
Ischia - 4 nights
Naples - 4 nights

I plan to take the train or bus between locations. Should I book tickets in advance? The shorter trips (Lerici to Luca, Luca to Florence) seem like they’d be managed spontaneously, but what about the longer journeys?

We’ll likely take a day trip or two out of Florence to visit wineries or perhaps an agriturismo. Any favorites to share?

For Ischia, should we prebook the ferries?

From Naples, we’d like to take a day trip south to the coast. Would a route by land (bus?) or water (ferry?) be better? Maybe one method of transport south and the other west to make a loop?

Any tips or advice you might share would be welcomed. FYI: plane tickets and all accommodations are already in place. Thanks!

naples is on the coast...

I'd pre-book and reserve the longer train journeys

June, July, August?

I appreciate that Naples is on the coast, but I apparently should have been more explicit - Amalfi Coast. As a teacher, my travel schedule is both generous and limited, so my dates are mid-July - mid- August. I'm traveling solo for the first 2 weeks, accompanied the last two.

Fast trains Naples - Rome (1 1/4 hrs journey) have to be booked up to a few minutes prior to departure. If you book them in advance, you can get up to 50 per cent discount (24 EUR instead of 48 EUR).
Regional trains Naples - Rome (2 3/4 hrs journey) cannot be booked in advance. The fare is always the same (13 EUR).
Same answer for Rome - La Spezia:
Fast train 3 hrs, 65/35 EUR; regional train 6 hrs, 30 EUR

South of Naples:
if you mean Amalfi Coast, take a local train to Sorrento and a bus to Positano.
There are also 4 (faster) hydrofoils from Naples up to Amalfi.

Ferries and hydrofoils of the 8 different companies which run between Naples and Ischia run about every 20 minutes. I wouldn't book in advance.

BTW: As you spoke about May, I tought you would travel within the next weeks.
In the top high season (mid July until end August) there will be much more boat and hydrofoil connections and some fast trains may get fully booked up to 1 week prior to departure.

Thank you - that's very helpful. I'll definitely get busy with Rome to Rio and start making reservations/purchasing tickets for our fast trains.

You can now reserve a specific regional train, but not a specific seat on that train. The reservation means you can be assured that the train won't be overcrowded. However, few people bother to reserve regional trains, so you can usually find a seat even if you don't reserve well in advance.

I wouldn't use Rome to Rio to get train tickets. It's a confusing, and sometimes inaccurate, site. On the Rome to Naples route, for some odd reason, it proposes some solutions involving a change of train at a small station along the way, which makes no sense.

I always use the Trenitalia site, www.trenitalia.com . A good alternative is Trainline, www.thetrainline.com . Both have English language options. Trenitalia shows you the number of available places remaining on the reservable regional trains. Trainline also shows tickets for Italo, Trenitalia's competitor. Either one is reliable.

Trains in italy
 

Always remember if you on a regional train and it is cancelled & you miss your fast train say from Naples to Florence,you will get 60% back but it goes into a European bank account, it happened to us last October and we are from Australia, luckily my daughter’s boyfriend was from Europe so was able to have it put into his bank account,it was around €700 not cheap if it’s lost, check the fine print

rome2rio only really gives you some basic data, don't use it for the fine detail

seat61.com explains the trains

I've been transferred to a later train gratis, more than once, when this happened to me. Where did you buy your tickets?

I also don't understand how train tickets from Naples to Florence could cost €700. That amount would cover the cost of tickets for 8-10 people, depending on what class you chose. If you bought well in advance, taking advantage of discounts, €700 would buy 30 or more tickets from Naples to Florence.

I’d be a fan of a ferry trip along the entire Amalfi coast, stopping for a while at whichever town intrigues you most. Don’t know if you would have time for a bus trip Amalfi- Ravello-Amalfi with that, but there are certainly fabulous views. Ferry all the way to Salerno, train home to Naples.

Thank you for all these suggestions and I’ll definitely be cautious with Rome2Rio. I’ve done my due diligence and downloaded the trenitalia app and have purchased tickets for a couple of the journeys - Rome ➡️ La Spezia and Florence ➡️ Rome. Now stalking the site for tickets from Rome to Naples, but it looks like there aren’t any fast trains available on August 7th for that trip. I assume they haven’t yet been released? I don’t want to purchase our ferry tickets to Ischia until I’ve nailed down our arrival time in Naples, but am looking at landing at Forio, instead of Ischia Port since we’re staying on that end of the island.

I see that Trainline has fast train bookings for August 6, so the 7th might come up to book in the next day or so.

That's odd. Usually the regional train schedules are the last to be released. I see a news release from a few days ago saying that 230 Frecciarossa trains can "already be purchased " for this summer. It doesn't say why the schedules are being released so late, or when the others will be available.

I tried some other routes, and can't find any that show Frecciarossa trains after the 6th of August.

Glad it isn't just me not having luck beyond August 6th! I checked Italo and it's the same situation. I guess I'll just keep looking and hope that the schedule becomes available soon.

For wineries around Florence, a top-excellence is Cantine Antinori, a modern and beautiful wine cellar. I like also Castello di Brolio, a traditional wine cellar.

Updated: Snagged tickets yesterday on Italo Treno for journey from Rome to Naples. Still no fast trains available on Trenitalia for my date. Next up is booking our ferry to Forio!

FTOttawa - that sounds lovely! We have three nights in Naples and I hope to see the Amalfi coast. Doing it as a loop with train/bus and ferry would be ideal.

Gibbetas - Wow, that Antinori facility looks spectacular! Thank you.

Antinori is a large multi-region producer with a large portfolio of sub-brands. Despite being a little too industrial a producer for me they are good value and I certainly buy them in the UK and in Italy if I don't know a better wine on the list or I don't recognise/want a local DOC/DOCG. I've never been but I think they should give a good tasting

I went for the tasting + guided tour of the cellars + lunch at Antinori's a few years ago and it was a nice experience.
Their wines are very good. Their prices are not cheap.