Help!! need advise on travel Umbria/Rome/Naples/Sorrento
 

We are already booked for 11 nights stay in Italy on September. Here's our itinerary:

09/19 --- We arrive in Rome FCO mid-day and we plan to travel from Rome to Umbria
09/20 to 09/22 Stay for 3 nights at Hotel Relais Ducale (Gubbio). Visit Orvieto, Spoleto, Pienza, Assisi & Perugia
09/22 to 09/24--- from Umbria, travel back to Rome for 2 nights stay at Hilton Cavalieri
09/24 to 09/30--- from Rome travel to Fiuggi for 6 nights stay at Grand Hotel Palazzo dela Fonte. Hotel guests are offered free daily shuttle to Rome city center.

For transportation, we plan to rent a car and pick it up in Rome FCO airport. On our return back to Rome, we plan to drop it off back at the airport and take a shuttle to take us to our hotel in the city center of Rome. The last 6 nights of our trip is in Fiuggi which is 1 hour south of Rome. Because the Hotel in Fiuggi offer free daily shuttle service from Rome city center to their hotel, we plan to catch their shuttle instead of renting a car. For the first 2 or 3 days of our stay, we plan to take advantage of their free shuttle service to Rome to see the rest of the sights that we missed. For the last days of our stay, we plan to visit Naples, Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast. At this point, we are not sure if it will be best for us to rent a car for our use when we visit Naples/Pompeii/Sorrento/etc... or is it best to use the train? If we opt to rent a car, can we park it in Sorrento and take the local transportation to visit Pompeii, Capri, Naples, etc....? Can anyone tell us what local transportation we need to use to visit the neighboring towns and attractions in Sorrento/Naples?

What is the best way to travel

Danor - Fiuggi to Naples/Sorrento/Pompeii etc. by public transport is a pain.

The nearest railway station is Anagni - which has an occasional bus service from Fiuggi - but it's only served by slow inter-regional trains to Naples, usually with a change en route. You'd spend more than half the day travelling ...

In your situation I'd hire a car for those trips.

You could park in Pompeii, Sorrento or Naples and use the train.
You can find timetables on:

www.massalubrense.it/circum.htm

Hope this helps ...

Steve

Why not finish your trip in Rome? Assuming you leave from there, it might be best to drive from Umbria to Sorrento. Stay there for a couple nights and return to Rome.

Hi Danor,

I'll be at the Relais Ducale in Gubbio myself on 9/21.

I would recommend seeing Orvieto on your way back to Rome. It's a ways from Gubbio.

Buon viaggio!

Thanks Steve,

I'm glad I asked the question. We decided we'll rent a car for the duration of our trip. Do you know where to park our car when we visit Sorrento? Can we take the ferry from Sorrento to visit Positano, Ravello and Capri?

Thanks!

Jabez--Unfortunately, the 2 night stay in Rome was a last minute decision. We originally planned to stay for 2 nights in Capri or Positano from Umbria, however, we thought it would be too long of a travel from Umbria to Sorrento. Besides, we wanted to stay a little longer in Orvieto which was on our way back to Rome.

Hi Dayle,

Thanks for the tip! We are actually planning to visit Orvieto on our way back to Rome. My sister raves about this little town. We are also taking a half a day private tour to Assisi, Spoleto or Perugia. Which one of those towns do you recommend we visit? This will be our first time in the Umbria region of Italy. We visited 2 years ago and went to the Tuscany region and stayed in Rome for 2 nights. This time, it is kind of special for us since we will be celebrating our wedding anniversary and my husband's birthday. Maybe we'll bump at each other --- wouldn't that be a coincidence!

Hi again Danor,

Yes, Orvieto is wonderful. We stayed in the town itself at Palazzo Piccolomini for 3 nights on our last trip.

Don't miss the underground cave tour and stay if you can for the evening passagiata with the locals. Orvieto is very special. Of course, the duomo is incredible. It is one of the most impressive I've seen.

Can't say about the other towns in Umbria. I am planning on visiting Spello, Assisi, and Gubbio on this trip for the first time.

We did visit Todi and Deruta last time as a day trip out of Orvieto. Todi was lovely and untouristed when we were there on a Sunday afternoon. Deruta was a little disappointing. Didn't care for the quality of the ceramics as much as other places we had seen.

Happy anniversary! If all goes as planned, perhaps we will meet in Gubbio!

Buon viaggio!

Danor

You can find Sorrento-Capri ferry & hydrofoil timetables on:

http://www.capri.net/salsa/lang/en/page/transport.html

The same site lists timetables between Capri and Positano/Amalfi.

For Sorrento-Positano timetables go to:

Oops - try again :)

For Sorrento-Positano-Amalfi hydrofoil timetables go to:

http://www.metrodelmare.com/l-mm3_b.html

(The Positano stop is currently suspended for technical reasons, but will hopefully be O.K when you go).

There's also a (slower) ferry service on this route, with 3/4 departures daily.

You can park near the port in Sorrento

Steve