To hire a car or not?
 

I almost done planning 4 weeks in Italy this October (Whew!!) and I am comfortable with plans to use a combination of train (Venice to Lucca) and hired car (Lucca to Volterra to Tuscania) until we leave Tuscania for the hills around Sorrento. We will be staying in a B+B about 5 km from Sorrento center for 6 nights and hope to take a leisurely, unstructured approach to seeing some of the sights including Amalfi Coast, Capri and small hill towns. We are not interested in going to Naples. We will leave Sorrento to go to Zagarolo, 30 minutes outside of Rome.
We are not adverse to driving but do not want to hire a car and then leave it parked, unused!

So here's my question....Does it make sense to drive to Sorrento from Tuscania, keeping the car for a couple of days to see the Amalfi coast, and then depend on public transportation for the remaining days near Sorrento? If we turn in the car, how do we get to Zagarolo for the next leg of our trip? Hire another car and drive? Or is there convenient public transportation from Sorrento to Zagarolo that I am missing? If we drive the car to Zagarolo, where is an easy location to turn it in? I am fairly confident that our hosts in Zagarolo can help us get around in that area so we probably do not need a car while we are there.

Any suggestions will be most welcomed!

To get to Zagarolo from Sorrento you take the Circumvesuviana train about 1 hr., then a high speed train from Naples to Rome about 1.5 hrs. Then change to a regional train for about 30 mins. Very easy

Hi Y,

Is there public transportation from your Sorrento B&B into Sorrento?

If not, you will need your car.

((I))

Thanks travmimi and ira! I guess that settles it. We will drive to Sorrento from Tuscania and keep the car for couple of days to see some of the more remote areas that are not so easy to get to by train/bus. Our B+B has parking, and although it is more convenient to have the car to get to Sorrento, it is not necessary. The last few days in Sorrento we will see Capri and perhaps take a bus along the Amalfi. When we leave Sorrento it sounds like we will be able to take trains to Zagarolo from Rome...does anyone have a convenient web site for schedules in English? I would like to plan and print schedules before we leave...not speaking Italian can be very frustrating in the regional train stations. Can we buy tickets ahead? Is there anything else we need to know about making connections between Circumvesuviana train in Naples to a high speed train from Naples to Rome and then to a regional train? I still have memories from a year or so ago of being in Sieci station trying to figure out the ticket machine, which was only in Italian. (Unfortunately we do not speak Italian) As luck would have it, a lovely young local woman took pity on us and helped to purchase our tickets. We have been rescued several times by kind, warm hearted Italians!

Any additional information or tips from you folks would be much appreciated.

Hi Y,

>does anyone have a convenient web site for schedules in English?

http://www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html

Thanks ira. Just one more question. Is the transfer from Circumvesuviana train to Tranitalia in Naples sort of self explainitory? I mean, will it be easy for us to find our connection or is it like in an airport where we may have to change terminals? As you can see, I have never been to Naples. How far in advance should we make a reservation for the express to Rome from Naples in October? Can we do that once we are in Italy when we have some time?