May be staying 3 nights in Pompeii & worried that there will be nothing to do/places to eat during our free time. Especially evenings.
Besides visiting the ruins, is there much to see there?

Well ancient Pompeii is about a mile from the modern-day town of Pompeii- so is a normal Italian city.

Why stay in Pompeii - how about Sorrento or Amalfi Coast towns or even Naples.

One of the only bad pizzas I ever had in my life was in the town. I'd stay elsewhere.

unless there's some overwhelming reason to stay in Pompeii, Sorrento or Naples would probably be better choices. Both offer easy access to the excavations at Pompeii, particularly now there is a fast train from Naples to Sorrento and back which just stops at Pompeii Scavi. If you want a more relaxed time go for Sorrento; if you want culture and the chance to go up Vesuvius, stay in Naples. you won't get a bad pazza there.

pizza not pazza.

Exactly what I'm thinking. Someone else is doing the planning.
We've always like Sorrento as a base.

Ditto Yorkshire, lol.

There are actually wonderful pizza places in Pompeii town and nearby, but I guess you need to look at the websites that specialize in it. The pizzeria Caterina is well-known fo its pizza, and it is right in the new town.

The modern town built up next to the ruins has everythign you need, but unless you want to visit the ruins every day for your whole stay (and some people do -- I would!), then it makes sense to stay elsewhere. I would prefer Salerno or Naples to Sorrento, but Naples is a very busy (I think a lot of fun, but it is noisy with lots of cars and hectic). Salerno is much more relaxed, but still a small city. A very intriguing one though, certainly with excellent pizza, and from there it is easy to also visit Paestum, which is spectacular!!!

Sorrento has a very nice setting, but it is touristy to the max.

I think the Campania Express train has gone belly up.

http://ots.eavsrl.it/web/public/ots/...?changeLang=en

There's a very popular (ugly, modern) sanctuary church, the Madonna of Pompei, which gets 4 million visitors a year to its miraculous (ugly) painting of the Madonna of the Rosary.

The city is called Pompei, with one final i, while the archaeological site is Pompeii.

Consider seeing Herculaneum while you are there. There are some more complete buildings and the setting us nice.

Shame about the express train, bvl. I wonder why it disappeared. perhaps the timetable didn't suit people or...who knows.

Maybe it will be revived. The Metro del Mare also failed, and was revived. (I don't know what its present state is.)

All of these transportation companies depend on subsidies, and maybe there wasn't any political will for it.