My son gave us a week's stay in a villa in Positano for late September, we are thrilled but need some travel tips and is there any service in villas compared to hotels. Will fly into Naples and would like a side trip to Rome one day. We have never planned a trip like this and any and all tips appreciated

zee,
Number 1, DON'T rent a car to get to Rome. Take the Eurostar, first class to Rome's Termini station. It is clean, comfortable and convenient. Very economical. I would not recommend trying to drive in or around Rome.

Villas are typically do it yourself - unless very upscale when they may have live-in help. I would get the exact info from your son and contact the lessor directly for details.

I've never stayed in a villa but I think there should be some information available about your specific villa with regards to any services. Does your son have a brochure or is the place listed online where you could obtain information about it?

Hi zee,

You should have maid service at least every other day.

I suggest that with only a week in Positano that you visit
Naples
Pompeii
Sorrento
Ravello
Paestum
Capri

Save Rome for another trip.

You might find the Naples/AC portion of my trip report helpful.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34451044

You may be able to bring in help, a cook, maid, housekeeper etcetera if you pay some money to a local agency that specialises in supplying domestic staff. Of course you'd only do this if no maid is provided.

Ira's long list of places to visit seems outrageous to me when you only have a week, and a long journey each end. We stayed in Positano for a week last year and didn't bother going any further than a beach a short boat ride away ! Just relax and smell the roses. If you really are likely to get bored with Positano in a week, I'd advise just going on nice gentle day trips by boat/hydrofoil (from the jetty right in Positano) to the other Amalfi Coast towns (Amalfi itself, and Sorrento if you must - I think it's pretty naff) and Capri. None of the other places mentioned are straightforward to get to by public transport, and I agree that driving is inadvisable.

You may be able to find specific info on the villa where you are staying on www.slowtrav.com

Maid service every other day? I have never had any kind of service, as you would find in a hotel, in three different villas where I have stayed in Italy. In France, yes, but that was a very different kind of place (11 bedrooms; we were a group of 16, and paid over $8000 for the week).

Best wishes,

Rex

Thanks to everyone with their tips.
I sure feel like a country yokel.
I suppose as long as I get from the airport in Naples to Positano I've succeeded. Doing a lot of homework and this site is so wonderful for travel tips. Thanks again!

Hi zee,

There is bus service from Naples airport to Sorrento.

http://www.curreriviaggi.it/


>Ira's long list of places to visit seems outrageous to me when you only have a week, .....None of the other places mentioned are straightforward to get to by public transport....<

Actually, there are only 6 and I didn't mean that one had to visit all of them.

There are ferry and hydrofoil service from Positano to Naples; bus and ferry service from Positano to Sorrento, Amalfi and Salerno; bus service from Amalfi to Ravello; trains from Salerno to Paestum; and ferries from Positano to Capri.

This is the one! Thanks! It sure has a wealth of info!