Ira:
need simple hotel one night - or on the other hand how much hassle to get from sorrento to pastum. Plan is to spend 1/2 day or so then hop on train to apt in Rome. Thanks up front

Why Salerno rather than Paestum itself where I believe there are many hotels, and the town is on the main railway line.

I am curious to find a way from Sorrento to Salerno that doesn't entail a 2-3 hour drive. I have only ever do it by the "scenic route", and wonder if there is a better way.

I know the Circumvesuviana stops near Nocera, and there is a mainline railway station of the same name. I am curious if they are the same, or if not, within walking distance of each other. If so, this would make Sorrento to Salerno relatively straightforward.

Thanks for the idea dumb not to think of it. I have been wondering the same thing
but can't seem to find any info on it.
I have been Sorrento - Alf. but no futher.

I just put Nocera into www.trenitalia.com, and got a choice of not less than five places called Nocera; three seem to be in the same town: Nocera Inferiore, Nocera Inferiore Mercato and Nocera Superiore.

Why not do something simple like take the Circumvesuviana back to Naples and an Interregionale (about 1.5 hours) to Paestum? I agree that that will still be about 3.5 to 3 hours, but it might be easier than trying to figure out the three Trenitalia Nocera stations and the Circumvesuviana Nocera station...

That should of course be "2.5 to 3 hours."

I've been to Salerno a couple times. Salerno is on the main train line. We've stayed at the Hotel Plaza (2*), across the way from the train station. It was a nice hotel with a small restaurant in-house for breakfast and decent sized, comfortable rooms. It was very convenient. From there, we walked down about 4 blocks towards the water to catch a bus to Paestum. Paestum is out of the way and not much to the town. The bus stop is near a local cafe/gelatteria place and you just walk across to the ruins. It is entirely feasible to do this in 1/2 to 3/4 of a day, then catch an early evening train back up to Roma's Termini station.

Hi J,

You can get from Sorrento to Paestum by taking the Circumvesuviana to Naples and the regular train to Paestum.

You can also take the ferry to Salerno (docks about 3 blks SE of the train station) and the train to Paestum.

Return via train to Salerno and train to Rome.

Paestum does have more than several hotels, but we did not stay at any.

There's not much point in going via Naples (- it adds 1 hour+ to the journey).
You can change train at Pompei instead ...

- Catch the Circumvesuviana from Sorrento to Pompei Scavi (30 mins).
- From there get a taxi to Pompei FS, and
- catch the train from Pompei FS to Paestum (57 mins).

Trenitalia shows deps from Pompei FS at:

07.17
08.19
09.19
11.19

For Circumvesuviana timetables see:

http://www.massalubrense.it/circum.htm

Hope this helps ...

Steve