suggested itinerary for italy
 

I have asked advice before but plans have changed for our Italy trip.
I want to know if this is workable or are we making this complicated?

My wife and I are in our early 60s and we are flying into Venice with our daughter (28). This is around 23rd April arriving Venice 9am. Our daughter is with us for the first 9 nights. She would really like to go to AC and Pompeii.

2 nights Venice
fly to Naples then go to Amalfi Coast direct - not too sure how yet?
4 nights include 1 day visit to Pompeii
go to Rome
3 nights Rome
daughter leaves, then we have
1 more night Rome
2 nights Florence
5 nights Tuscany - have rental car
train to Rome
1 night Rome
we now fly home

Your comments would be much appreciated.

One suggestion: take the high-speed train from Venice to Naples. There is a direct connection leaving Venice at 10.25 and arriving at Naples central station 5 hours later. Same travelling time as flying but without all the hassle of getting to and from airports, check-in, security and all the rest.
Tickets for your dates are still available at www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en for EUR 50 or 60 (have Venezia Santa Lucia and Napoli Centrale as your departure and arrival stations).

Agree with tonfromleiden about taking trains. If you moves within a country, trains are better than flights, also Italy has an excellent system of train. Other than that, I find your itinerary great.

>>fly to Naples then go to Amalfi Coast direct - not too sure how yet?<<

Addressing that part: Depending on your budget, you may want to hire a private car service to get you to the AC. If, as advised here, you take the train, a car service will pick you up at the station and take you to your hotel, or whatever accommodation you have. Otherwise, in Naples, you'll have to switch to a local train to Sorrento, and then decide how to get to the AC town you're going to stay in. If using public transportation, you'd have to rely on bus service.

The Trenitalia website works perfectly: payment by credit card and an emailed pdf for printing at home. Never gave me any problem.

Have you bought plane tickets yet (for yourself, not your daughter). If not, it seems like after your daughter leaves it would be more efficient to do:

2 nights Rome
7 nights Florence/Tuscany
Fly out of Florence or Pisa

Then you avoid backtracking and can drop the car off at whatever airport you fly out of.

thanks for all the comments very helpful.
We have to fly out of Rome, tickets purchased.

To be based on the AC so we can visit pompeii (worth it?) and say go to Capri, where would be a good location? Would we split 3 nights somewhere and 1 night Capri at AC?

How much would a car/driver cost from Naples to AC?

Also how do we get back from AC to Rome?

Only you can decide if Pompeii is "worth it," but it's pretty darn amazing!
For visiting Pompeii and Capri, the following places would be convenient: Sorrento (not on the AC but a lot of folks find it similar enough), Vietri Sul Mare (would require a bus to get to a town from which you can ferry to Capri I believe; also note the train from Vietri gets you to a train station that is a bit farther from Pompeii, but this was not a deal breaker for us).

Seems like people usually quote around 100 euros for the private driver, but wait until you decide where you are staying (and how you will arrive--train or flight) to decide. There are some buses from the airport, and I found that a fairly painless way to get there, even after an overnight flight.

Depends on where you stay, but you will ultimately take a train from Naples or Salerno.

Back to Rome you take the train from Napels or Salerno, which of the two is the nearest. You have the choice between the high-speed train and the intercity. Consult the Trenitalia website.

I would definitely consider flying from Venice to Naples, because there is a late afternoon flight with Easy Jet that takes just over one hour, giving you many more hours in Venice -- but it depends on how much money you want to spend (or save).

A "luxury" itinerary would be to take a water taxi from your hotel in Venice to the airport, and then have a taxi take you directly from the Naples airport to the Amalfi coast. But those costs can add up, and you need to consider that any time "saved" can get eaten up by a flight delay. But I still would consider it -- and even if I ultimately decided to take the train, I would definitely go for something other than economy seats on the train. The trains are comfortable in 2d class, but for 5 hours, I would prefer business class.

with 4 nights in AC would I be based in 1 place? or say 3 nights somewhere and 1 night capri?

>>To be based on the AC so we can visit pompeii (worth it?)<<
That's something only you can decide, but I'd say most people think it's worth it. You can hire a licensed guide at the ticket booth. I recommend using a guide, rather than going it alone.

>>and say go to Capri, where would be a good location?<<
There's a ferry from Positano to Capri. If you're in a spending mood, you can hire a small private boat, which may also take you to some of the lesser grottos.

>>Would we split 3 nights somewhere and 1 night Capri at AC?<<
Maybe. I haven't done stayed overnight in Capri, but a lot of people say Capri at night, after the day-trippers have departed, is a nice place.

How much would a car/driver cost from Naples to AC?
As someone else mentioned, about 100 euros.

Also how do we get back from AC to Rome?
There's a direct train from Sorrento to Rome. You obviously would have to get to Sorrento, via bus or taxi.

Is there now a direct train from Sorrento to Rome? You used to have to take the local Circumvsuviana train from Sorrento to Naples, and change trains there for the train to Rome. It was really easy, but not quite direct.

Sass: TY for the correction. There is not a direct train. For some reason my brain was saying "Naples" while my fingers typed "Sorrento." You are of course correct. The direct train is from Naples, which can be reached by train from Sorrento.

If you are going to split up your southern Italy hotel stays and want to see Pompei, I would suggest spending one night at Pompei and then seeing the excanvations in the morning, on your way to someplace else. I would be inclined to leave the Amalfi Coast early one evening, go to Pompei for dinner and sleeping, and then get up the next morning and see the ruins before heading to Rome.

Vincenzo, it has been a few years since I have been there and things do change. It really is so easy, it is just about direct. I wanted to make sure for anyone doing it for the first time.

You should talk about your interests and your daughter's interests in the AC.

Pompeii is great but if you have limited time in the AC, you might prefer just to spend time in the coastal villages. Your daughter may want to hike above the towns.

Pompeii day trip will use up one of your limited days down there so you have to determine what kinds of things you want to see, whether you really like archeology.

There are ferries from Amalfi (which stops in Positano) to Capri. Again what do you want to see there? There are very rigorous hikes or some people just like to lounge by the pool or the beach.

If you do spend a night in Capri, probably best to make it the last night in the region before you head north. That way, you would go from AC to Capri and then take early ferry out of Capri to Naples and then you can go to either the airport or train station there.

Be sure to prebook the ferries the day before.

A few years ago, I booked what was suppose to be a shared transfer from Naples airport to Amalfi. I prepaid like 50-55 Pounds sterling on resorthoppa.com. They gave me the name of a travel company with offices throughout Europe but as far as I could tell, that company only worked with travel agents, not directly with individual tourists.

I was nervous whether this was going to be a legitimate service or if I was going to be stranded and I had to make other arrangements once I arrived in NAP.

But it was no problem, I got into a van and I was the only passenger so it was like a private transfer and he drove me directly to Amalfi, calling the hotel in advance to meet us outside the town (because there is limited traffic allowed into the town).

I gave him a 10 Euro tip and all told, I paid $60-70 total.