Travelling through Naples, Sorrento, Pompeii and Rome

Whizzing around Italy in a week can easily be done.

Read on...

Where to visit?

With Italy, choosing to fly into one city and out from another can offer big savings. We flew into Naples and home from Rome.

Our itinerary consisted of:
Day one - Arrive in Naples, spend a few hours here - then head to Sorrento for the night.
Day two - Morning in Sorrento - then head to Pompeii for the night.
Day three - Morning in Pompeii - then head back to Naples, spend some more time here - then head to Rome for the night.
Day four - Another night in Rome.
Day five - Morning in Rome. Home.

How to get from Naples airport to Naples city centre?

There is no train line from Naples airport. So exit the building and look for signs for AliBus. This is a frequent bus service which stops outside the airport and hauls you into the city. They cram as many people as possible onto the bus, so don't expect a seat - or to be vaguely comfortable. The bus will stop at Piazza Garibaldi, at which point you'll be thinking you've arrived in a post-apocalyptic slum. First impressions of Naples aren't great. Nor are second impressions. More on Naples later.

How to get from Naples to Sorrento?

At Naples, grab a ticket for the Circumvesuviana Train (no need to pre-book). This runs from Naples to Sorrento. It stops at quite a lot of stations along the way, including Pompeii, and takes just over an hour. It's quite cramped and well known for pick-pockets, but as long as you keep your eyes open and bags close, you should be fine. We didn't witness any problems.

How to get from Sorrento to Pompeii?

From Sorrento, grab the Circumvesuviana Train (mentioned above) on its return journey (again, no need to pre-book). Be aware that there are two train stations in Pompeii: Pompeii Scavi and Pompeii. The Circumvesuviana only stops at Scavi. However, both are close to the entrance of the Pompeii ruins. You buy your tickets from the little tobacco shop at the station.

How to get from Pompeii to Rome?

You'll need to get yourself back to Naples on the Circumvesuviana. We pre-booked a train from Napoli Centrale to Roma Termini which takes just over an hour and cost €15 per person. This will be a better quality train, unlike all of the local bone-rattlers mentioned above.

Sorrento Port

Eat/drink/sleep in Sorrento?

A good place for a cheap meal, and coincidentally the best pizza I had during our week in Italy, was The Kiosk Bar. It's very basic - plastic tables and chairs, upcoming football fixtures are scrawled onto A4 paper and hung up around the bar area, the staff all appeared to be part of the same family and just mooch around sort of working/chilling out. But the pizza is fantastic! Try the Caprese.


If you're a fan of wine (or, if you're like me and think all wine pretty much tastes the same but will still guzzle it like a dog in the sun) then try Fuoro51. It's a cosy and intimate wine bar with a relaxed feel. The staff were really knowledgeable and offered different samples to get you started. Although, at £14 for two glasses of red, perhaps not the best place to spend a whole evening.


We visited PortaMarina Seafood for our final evening meal in Sorrento. This is a family run seafood joint located right by the waterside. It's pure and basic seafood with quick service. It's a fun walk to find this place, but offers great views.

PortaMarina Seafood can be found down there, somewhere.

We stayed at Casa Lucia which is a small B&B which has around 6 rooms. The rooms are bright, clean and offer decent views. It probably takes around 20 minutes to walk here from the train station (you walk straight down the main strip, then towards the end you dive into the myriad of alleys to find Casa Lucia).

The entrance to Casa Lucia.

Eat/drink/sleep in Pompeii?

We ate and slept in pretty much the same place in Pompeii (our B&B was above a pizzeria!). B&B Eco appears like it was originally a large apartment which had recently been divided up into private rooms and rented out. It was smart, clean and in a good location. The only downside was as this place only caters for a small amount of guests, the reception only opens at request. So upon our arrival, we had to call the hosts (which took a few attempts) and wait about twenty minutes for them to arrive and check us in.

The B&B owners recommended the pizza place directly underneath us called Pizzeria Alleria. The pizzas were nice and good value but I was more impressed by the delicious rice balls and good selection of draught German beers. The outside seating offers a good place to people watch.

Pompeii (the archeological site) tips:

• Wear decent footwear (ideally trainers). You'll be doing a lot of walking across dodgy walkways. Children or coffin-dodgers might struggle with the amount of walking you rack up.
• Aim to get there after the queues have calmed. We got there at 14:30 and it gave us enough time to explore for a few hours whilst not being too cramped. It took us about 15 minutes queuing. 
• There's more than one entrance into the site. We used the East entrance (Piazza Anfiteatro).
• Download an audio guide before you go and take your headphones. We didn't want the formality of a tour guide, so we downloaded the Rick Steve Audio Europe guide, and you can then download whichever particular city/attraction you're visiting and listen at your leisure.
• Take water. It gets hot and I didn't notice any shops inside.

 

What to do in Naples?

Avoid it.

Seriously.

As soon as we got to Naples, this place felt instantly hostile. The surroundings are uninviting and noone seems approachable. You'll notice a huge lack of other tourists too, which is explains a lot.

Forget walking around taking photos, or using your phone for navigation because you'd be attracting unwanted attention.

We were actually nearly robbed on the street, but all our "goodies" were safely stored at the bottom of our backpacks. But unfortunately, the guy who tried to rob us (who was wandering the streets wearing a motorbike helmet, with no motorbike) then found another couple further back down the street from us and managed to get their bags and cause some commotion. A few locals tried to get involved and stop him, but the majority seemed to watch on unnerved, as if it was all too common.

We'd read plenty of visitor guides advising on the hazards which Naples presents, but we assumed that some people were too cautious, and we went anyway to find out for ourselves.

You'll notice that flights here are pretty cheap - there's a reason for this. Fly here by all means, but only use it as a connection point to the other attractions listed elsewhere in this post.

Below are the only two times I was briefly brave enough to get my phone out for photographs.

Ironic... as you're unlikely to spot any love on the streets of Naples

Naples equivalent of a street

We didn't stay here overnight, and instead we decided to head to the train station early to grab our train to Rome.

Eat/drink/sleep in Rome?

Firstly, Rome is boss! For me, it's up there with Paris (except that you can knock out most of the attractions without using public transport, as they're all quite central).

We stayed at Hotel De Monti, which was in the heart of Monti (definitely the cool part of Rome). The staff were some of the greatest I've ever come across when travelling - genuinely good people and very helpful. The only slight drawback was that as we were visiting outside of the peak tourists months, breakfast was being served at their partner hotel (Hotel Grifo) - which was a few minutes walk around the corner.

We ate at La Taverna dei Monti, which was a humble traditional Italian restaurant. Tip - don't wear a white shirt to dinner if your wife is sat opposite you eating spaghetti bolognese. Beer, wine, water, starters, mains and deserts came to €49.

For a quick midday snack/lunch, get yourself to Maccheroni Express! This is a little pasta place where they cook everything fresh, quick, cheap and tailored to your tastes (if you want something a little more spicy/mild, just ask). There are a few seats inside, but we chose to take ours away and ate in front of the Colosseum.

Carbs

Obviously you have to visit the Colosseum...

Colosseum tips:

• As mentioned above, we rarely bother with the tour guides and used the Rick Steve audio guide
• Visit later in the afternoon to beat the queues (although it will still be busy)
• We considered buying the Roma Pass to gain entry into the Colosseum, but as our time in Rome was limited, we wouldn't have been able to squeeze in the other included attractions in order to get our moneys worth. So instead, we got our tickets from Palatine Hill (which is round the corner, with shorter queues but the ticket entry into here works for the Colosseum too).

Enjoy Rome, ciao.