Trip to Italy in Early August

Just my opinion but that seems like you're missing a lot of stuff along the way early then too much time later... it's allocating roughly 1.5 days total for all of rome including the vatican, which you could easily spend a full day or more seeing just the vatican museums and St Peters.

The Naples stop sounds like you're just gonna be driven around the city in a bus, which has 3 problems:

1) The city is a dump. Literally. There's been an ongoing garbage stike for years and trash is piled up in the streets. It's the new jersey of Italy and hardly scenic.

2) You appear to be skipping the one "sight" actually worth seeing there- the archeology museum, which is probably the single greatest collection of greek and roman artifacts in the country, including most of the good stuff removed from Pompeii.

3) You're then leaving the city and going to have lunch in Pompeii... despite the fact Naples has some of the best pizza in the world and the dish was invented there... so that (Pizza) is the one other thing worth stopping for in Naples and you aren't.


After that you get an afternoon in Pompeii... that's probably ok to see the highlights, though you could easily spend a whole day there if you wished.

From that point they're essentially spending 3 days to get you to/from Amalfi and see it.

Now, Amalfi is very very beautiful. And the drive from Sorrento to Amalfi and back is one of the most spectacular in the world.

But honestly, there's not THAT much actually IN Amalfi.

it's certainly worth the trip, but not 3 days worth.

If I were planning the trip with the same # of days, and required to hit the same # of locations, it'd look like this:


Day 1: Arrive in rome, some free time

Day 2-3: Sights of rome including the colluseum, the forum, a buncha museums, the catacombs, the pantheon, trevi fountain, etc

Day 4: Vatican museums and St Peters, plus Castel St Angelo

Day 5: Hop a very early train to Naples, store luggage at train station for a few hours, take subway to the Archological museum and see it, have Pizza down the street at a place founded in the 1890s with incredibly good pizza. Hop subway back to train station, hop train down to Pompeii for afternoon tour of that, then take 20 min train ride to Sorrento for the night.

Day 6: take the boat over to Capri and spend a few hours there (again there's not THAT much there) then head back when you wish, enjoying the later afternoon evening in Sorrento which is also beautful and has some fantastic places to eat.

Day 7: Take the bus (which runs hourly) up the Amalfi coast. You can stop in a couple little towns on the way if you wish, or just stay on till Amalfi, it's about a 2 hour ride one way from Sorrento to Amalfi. Enjoy lunch in Amalfi, spend the afternoon seeing the city, head back on the bus in the late afternoon/evening and enjoy another night in Sorrento (or, if you wish, just head back to rome late that night by train)

Day 8: If you didn't the night before, hop train back to rome, fly home

Now- in your case since you're not flying home, you can probably grab a train further south from Amalfi or Sorrento to Calabria



You can easily so all this on your own FWIW... We did a similar trip, but about a week longer so that it included Florence and Venice (and personally I found Florence pretty awesome)... did all the booking and planing ourselves and had no trouble.

Check out posts 13 and 14 in this thread for a lot of details and specifics on our Italy trip

http://slickdeals.net/f/3463316-E...Italy-Tour

Wow, thank you so much for all that information. I'll be looking it over, including your link in the next few days.

Do you have any flight suggestions that offer good rates for this time period?

Thanks again.

Quote from VinnyB64 : Wow, thank you so much for all that information. I'll be looking it over, including your link in the next few days. Do you have any flight suggestions that offer good rates for this time period? Thanks again.

You're too far out to consider booking a flight in August. Your best rates will come anywhere from 4 - 6 weeks before your departure date. I know that might make you nervous, but, generally speaking, this is when you'll find your best deals.

The way to get the very best deal on your flight is to be very flexible on your dates and simply go when a deal pops up.

Waiting until September or even October will give you a better chance of getting your best deal on flights.

Quote from Knightshade : Just my opinion but that seems like you're missing a lot of stuff along the way early then too much time later... it's allocating roughly 1.5 days total for all of rome including the vatican, which you could easily spend a full day or more seeing just the vatican museums and St Peters. The Naples stop sounds like you're just gonna be driven around the city in a bus, which has 3 problems: 1) The city is a dump. Literally. There's been an ongoing garbage stike for years and trash is piled up in the streets. It's the new jersey of Italy and hardly scenic. 2) You appear to be skipping the one "sight" actually worth seeing there- the archeology museum, which is probably the single greatest collection of greek and roman artifacts in the country, including most of the good stuff removed from Pompeii. 3) You're then leaving the city and going to have lunch in Pompeii... despite the fact Naples has some of the best pizza in the world and the dish was invented there... so that (Pizza) is the one other thing worth stopping for in Naples and you aren't. After that you get an afternoon in Pompeii... that's probably ok to see the highlights, though you could easily spend a whole day there if you wished. From that point they're essentially spending 3 days to get you to/from Amalfi and see it. Now, Amalfi is very very beautiful. And the drive from Sorrento to Amalfi and back is one of the most spectacular in the world. But honestly, there's not THAT much actually IN Amalfi. it's certainly worth the trip, but not 3 days worth. If I were planning the trip with the same # of days, and required to hit the same # of locations, it'd look like this: Day 1: Arrive in rome, some free time Day 2-3: Sights of rome including the colluseum, the forum, a buncha museums, the catacombs, the pantheon, trevi fountain, etc Day 4: Vatican museums and St Peters, plus Castel St Angelo Day 5: Hop a very early train to Naples, store luggage at train station for a few hours, take subway to the Archological museum and see it, have Pizza down the street at a place founded in the 1890s with incredibly good pizza. Hop subway back to train station, hop train down to Pompeii for afternoon tour of that, then take 20 min train ride to Sorrento for the night. Day 6: take the boat over to Capri and spend a few hours there (again there's not THAT much there) then head back when you wish, enjoying the later afternoon evening in Sorrento which is also beautful and has some fantastic places to eat. Day 7: Take the bus (which runs hourly) up the Amalfi coast. You can stop in a couple little towns on the way if you wish, or just stay on till Amalfi, it's about a 2 hour ride one way from Sorrento to Amalfi. Enjoy lunch in Amalfi, spend the afternoon seeing the city, head back on the bus in the late afternoon/evening and enjoy another night in Sorrento (or, if you wish, just head back to rome late that night by train) Day 8: If you didn't the night before, hop train back to rome, fly home Now- in your case since you're not flying home, you can probably grab a train further south from Amalfi or Sorrento to Calabria You can easily so all this on your own FWIW... We did a similar trip, but about a week longer so that it included Florence and Venice (and personally I found Florence pretty awesome)... did all the booking and planing ourselves and had no trouble. Check out posts 13 and 14 in this thread for a lot of details and specifics on our Italy trip http://slickdeals.net/f/3463316-E...Italy-Tour

I could not agree more..with your Naples review on city bus and the best pizza in the world.
Also, OP, if in Pompei then you have to go to Sorrento, one of the prettiest area of the coast. And Florence is a can't miss, of course. But, if you can have time on your own, Monticello is a wonderful town with a visit to the monastery to hear the monks chanting and take a walk along the olive groves. If you did a trip on your own, you can rent a car or go by bus, or the rail system. it is not that hard and people are so helpful. But, if you do a tour, dont sign up for the overpriced excursions and just venture out on your own. Buy a travel book for that region. Just use the tour for transportation and hotel..
We went from Naples to Pisa on the train and rented a car for a few days in each city, so we could go to neighboring towns.Lucca was wonderful.. It might seem scary, but although they are busier, these drivers know how to yield and are not as distracted by cell phones, etc.
Also, you might want to look in to the sites like hospitality.org, even if you decided not to stay a night with a host, they might take you around to the sites and offer more helpful tips. Good luck and have fun!

Knightshade we have to stop meeting like this...lol just noticed our other posts, from your link.

what airport are you flying out of?

Quote from tfm2011 : what airport are you flying out of?

Newark, NJ. I am flexible with going to LaGuardia or JFK if there are deals to be had there.

Are there any specific sites, besides SD of course, that show good deals on flights?

I have been researching and the consensus seems to just use a site such as kayak to look at the best rates. I will hold off buying until June, I think since a lot of people seem to agree that those are when the best deals happen. Sometimes they come the day before but I am not risking that lol.

Thanks for the help. I really appreciate it.

Also, when you do book, keep in mind that August 15th is a big holiday in Italy (Ferragasto). Many of the sights in Rome will not be open on the 15th so make sure to plan your trip around this or you could miss out on an entire day's worth of sightseeing. I am in the midst of planning a trip to Italy (Rome-Florence-Venice) - used miles for flights. We made sure to finish up in Rome and leave for the other cities well before August 15th. Also, all the locals go to the South from mid-August through the end of August for their "summer vacation" so it will likely be VERY crowded. We were planning to do Naples/Amalfi Coast but did not want to go at such a busy time so instead added Venice to the itinerary and dropped Naples/Amalfi Coast. There is always next time!

Regarding guided tours, I've heard that Trafalgar and Gate1 do very good tours. We decided to do everything on our own rather than go through a tour company. We may use Viator.com to book guided tours for certain sights and/or day trips, but I much prefer to plan the logistics of my entire trip myself.

Quote from VinnyB64 : Newark, NJ. I am flexible with going to LaGuardia or JFK if there are deals to be had there. Are there any specific sites, besides SD of course, that show good deals on flights? I have been researching and the consensus seems to just use a site such as kayak to look at the best rates. I will hold off buying until June, I think since a lot of people seem to agree that those are when the best deals happen. Sometimes they come the day before but I am not risking that lol. Thanks for the help. I really appreciate it.

Oh yeah, that's a good point, I think I mentioned it in the other thread- what day stuff is open can be weird there for americans... some places I found a lot of things were closed on Monday for example, while another city stuff seemed closed on Wednesday, etc... so be sure to check on that and plan accordingly... (usually there's SOMETHING open any given day, excluding maybe big national holidays, so if you'll be in a city multiple days you can plan around it, but if you'll only be someplace one day be sure you'll be there a day whatever you are going for is open).

Thanks for all the advice!

I was able to find tickets now through Alitalia for $1200 round trip, non-stop. I know the consensus is to wait until about 2 months before, but I wanted to see if this was good enough to go through with.

Thanks again for all your help.

Quote from VinnyB64 : Thanks for all the advice! I was able to find tickets now through Alitalia for $1200 round trip, non-stop. I know the consensus is to wait until about 2 months before, but I wanted to see if this was good enough to go through with. Thanks again for all your help.

I'd hold out for something between $700 and $900 total cost.

that makes no sense since the price of tickets will rise the closer it gets to his departure.

I just bought tickets to Poland for June and they cost me exactly $1200 round trip as well. Last year my parents were able to get em for 8 or $900.

prices have obviously risen throughout the industry.

Quote from maxpl : that makes no sense since the price of tickets will rise the closer it gets to his departure. I just bought tickets to Poland for June and they cost me exactly $1200 round trip as well. Last year my parents were able to get em for 8 or $900. prices have obviously risen throughout the industry.

Going to the Euros? If so, what games do you have tickets for?

Quote from maxpl : that makes no sense since the price of tickets will rise the closer it gets to his departure. I just bought tickets to Poland for June and they cost me exactly $1200 round trip as well. Last year my parents were able to get em for 8 or $900. prices have obviously risen throughout the industry.

Prices do not consistently rise as the departure date gets closer - they fluctuate. August is too far out to buy tickets for right now.