Rome to Positano
 

My husband and I arrive in Rome at 7pm on Saturday October 1. We are traveling to Positano that evening and will arrange a private car transfer to pick us up at the Naples train station.

Can someone give me feedback on our travel plans:

Take leonardo express train from airport to termini train station and get on train for Naples at 8:25 pm.

Will this give us enough time or do we need to take a later train? The next departure is 8:53 pm.

On our return trip back to Rome from Positano we are planning to take a bus to Naples to save money and then take a train to the termini train station. How long should we allow to get from Positano to naples?

Thanks everyone for your help!

Also, if anyone has recommendations for what to do in Positano the first week of October we would love them! We are in our late 20s and love to be active, enjoy great food and drinks and explore.

Are you going through passport control in Rome?

Are you carrying on all of your luggage?

The first connection you mention would mean boarding the train at FCO at 7:38p. No one can say for certain that you'd be able to catch that train, and my guess is that you couldn't. A flight that touches down at 7:00p may not reach the gate for deplaning for many minutes.

Even the second connection you mention assumes that everything goes smoothly and you can board the train at FCO at 7:53p. No delays for any reason.

Trying to imagine what train we can plan to be on after a flight is always tricky. So the usual wisdom, if you want to save money and book your train ticket in advance, is to leave plenty of time, knowing you may not need it. In this case there's the added complication of meeting your car. I tend to err on the side of caution and my solution would be to overnight not far from Rome Termini Station and safely book an advance ticket from there in the morning, as early as you're willing to start.

Practically speaking you'll have no time in Positano the night of arrival and what you lose there in the morning you'll gain in peace of mind. You'll know you'll make your train to Naples and your car will be waiting. You could even save additionally by taking the bus you mention both ways.

Take a boat to Capri. See Giordano de Augustus. We walked all over and got to see some beautiful views.

Go see the town of Amalfi and Ravello. There are two beautiful homes that you can tour in Ravello. We spent more time in Ravello than Amalfi. We took the boat there and the bus back to Positano.

Go on a boat tour of the Amalfi coast. Blue Star boats has a nice one and they stop for lunch at La Terreza.

There is a good book for walks by Julian Tippett.

Have a great time.

To get back to Rome, you can take the ferry to Salerno and then the train from Salerno to Rome.

A very good app is Amalfi Coast Travel Essentials to help with logistics and things to do.

In my experience getting your luggage in Rome can be very time consuming - a couple of times we have waited an hour or more (after we went through Immigration) for any luggage from our flight to appear. To be safe I would think you need a train leaving Rome well after 9 pm - which means not getting to your hotel until close to midnight.

I honestly think this is too late to try to get to Positano that night - I would stay at a hotel right near the train station and head out first thing in the am when you have had a chance to recover from the flight.

Not sure where you are flying from - since that is very late for a flight from the US to get into Rome. If coming from elsewhere do you have the option of flying into Naples instead and making the trip much shorter.