euro cruiser

The current schedule for the local bus between Positano and Praiano is here: (13) Facebook Alicost used to offer some ferry service from Praiano but it hasn't come back since Covid, so the local bus back and forth to Positano is probaby your best bet. The SITA bus will almost always arrive full, in either direction, so that's not an option from Praiano.

Here's one, just as an example, in Minori. It's just 50 meters/160 feet from the ferry dock, which means you can get around the coast easily. I'm seeing prices for next summer in the 200 euro per night range. Amalfi Coast Hotel | Hotel near Amalfi | Hotel Santa Lucia - Your hotel on the Amalfi Coast

Please read the thread I linked to about Positano, there are some real plusses and minuses as it has become so over-touristed. There are many other beautiful spots along the Amalfi coast.

Naples is great if you're looking for a city stay, but from everything you've said that's not what you want. Sorrento is lovely and many people return again and again, to me it's too British. If the Amalfi Coast is your dream, focus on that. There are accommodations in every price range but they get snapped up fast, so book a year in advance to have the best choices.

You don't need to print tickets, the conductor will scan the code.

It might be useful to read this recent Trip Advisor thread on Positano. It gives you both positive and negative reactions but overall I think it's an accurate reflection of the love/hate relationship people have with the place. Positano is soooooooooo overrated - Positano Forum - Tripadvisor

It's only about ten miles between Positano and Amalfi but in the summer it can take an hour or more to travel that distance on the road (one lane in each direction, winding, loaded with tour buses, etc.). You can see the time and price to travel from town to town in the link I provided for the ferry. For example, it takes 25 minutes by ferry between Positano and Amalfi and it costs 10 euro.

As getting around during the season is miserable, at best, on the roads, I would limit my search to the towns that have ferry service (Amalfi, Positano, Vietri sul Mare, Cetara, Maiori, Minori). Orari traghetti Travelmar - Traghetti veloci in Costiera Amalfitana

Yes, there if a left luggage service at Marco Polo: Left Luggage Service Venice Airport - Porter Service Venice Airport (veneziaairport.it) There is also left luggage at Piazzale Roma, next to the garage where the major car rental agencies have their Venice city offices.

Ferry is really the only way to get around on the Amalfi coast anymore, the intense overcrowding has made land travel nearly impossible. Buses are wildly oversubscribed and often can't pick people up at intermediate stops. There are hotels at various price ranges on the Amalfi Coast, especially if you book well in advance (as in, the year before). Or if you choose a town like Vietri sul Mare, which is lovely but doesn't have the "buzz" of Positano or Amalfi. Vietri has the advantage of the only train station along the Amalfi Coast, so if you stayed there going to Pompei as a day trip would be much easier than from any other location along the coast.

If your focus is Naples, Pompei and the Amalfi Coast, a car would be a liability rather than an asset. The two most convenient locations would be Naples and Sorrento, once on the Amalfi Coast it's difficult to travel anywhere. You could see Pompei on your way to the coast, if that's your only interest off the coast, then spend the rest of the time there. Also, are you flying home from Naples, or going elsewhere in Italy after this stay?

The Civitavecchia Express train only has second class. And #5851 is the Civitavecchia Express. Whatever the issue is, you can buy them for the upcoming week but not after that.

Also, now that I think about it, the starting times on the Cotral site could be off by a few minutes, because these buses start at the Braccianese bus depot and stop at the Porto stop on the other side of the road before making a u-turn in town and stopping again at the Porto stop heading toward Tarquinia.

I just tried and got the same message. There's no reason I know of why you shouldn't be able to purchase through the website, maybe try again tomorrow during working hours in Italy.

Google is a good starting point but it's impossible for them to be up to date with every bus, in every city and town across the known world, so I always like to check the provider's website if possible. The provider in this case is Cotral and their website is awful, but I've fought with it enough over the years to have at least a marginal understanding of it. The bus stop called Porto is on Via XVI Settembre, just north of Via Cadorna. Cotral runs about one bus per hour to Tarquinia from this stop. Looking at a weekday morning this week, there are buses at 7:56, 9:21, 10:06, 11:03, 12:06. Travel time is between 24 - 29 minutes, so I'm not sure what google is finding, possibly connections? Cotral. (cotralspa.it)

You can purchase tickets on line ahead of time but there's really no need to, lines are almost never more than 15 minutes long (this is the limit imposed by the service contract). The only official on line purchase site is here: Pompeii - TicketOne

I'm a little old school with the luggage storage, I have not tried any of the firms that pick your things up and transport them to another location, I've only used ones like the one inside Termini station. Here is their website: Large Railway Station Storage Areas - kibag.it

It's not far from the Roma S. Pietro station, about a mile on foot, but it includes a decent size hill (downhill) and crossing some very busy streets, not something I'd want to do with luggage and kids. So, given that you're going to wind up with some kind of secondary transportation after the train anyway, I wouldn't limit myself to only trains that call at S. Pietro. Of course you know your family, I can only relate to my own. When our kids were those ages I tried to only roust them up and out early in the morning if I absolutely had to. Given that you don't have a plane to catch or a tour to meet up with, I would consider letting everyone sleep in as late as the ship will allow, which means getting off around 9 - 9:30 AM, at that point they'll be shoving the stragglers off. Also consider what kind of train experience you want/need. The regionale trains are perfectly fine, basic transportation but there's a good chance you'll need to stand for all or some of the trip, and there is no place to store luggage other than the racks over the seats, so only things you can easily lift over your head. For more room, guaranteed seats, and room for luggage you'd need to choose one of the less frequent and more expensive trains. Once in Rome, even if you can't check into your rooms you will be able to leave your luggage with the hotel, if you're staying in one. If you're in a rental apartment and can't drop off your bags, you might focus on trains that go to Termini, where there is luggage storage and some interesting places to visit near the station.

Another option, not right at Termini but not far (1.9 km/one and a quarter miles) on foot is Piccolo Arancio: Menù Primi e Zuppe | Piccolo Arancio | Piccolo Arancio It's very near the Trevi Fountain, but it's a nice walk from Termini if you walk through Piazza Quirinale and down the stairs from there, rather than on the streets.

Where in Trastevere? It's a pretty big neighborhood.

LOL, it's so rare to hear anyone comment positively about air conditioning in Europe!

If you know that you are on one of the super-sized ships, you can be assured that you will be at #25 because they are too big for the regular terminal area.

I started to say I don't understand this, given that the ship is not going anywhere that night, but then it occurred to me that 11 PM is probably the time they close access to the port, so you couldn't get back on board if you arrive back later than this. It's a little over 1 km/about three-quarters of a mile on foot from the cruise port in Trieste to the train station, so allow at least a half hour to get there, buy tickets, and find your train. There are trains to Venice at 7:07. 7:16, and then not until 8:16. I don't know if you can make the first ones, it depends on how quickly they start letting you off the ship. Because of this, I would not purchase these tickets ahead of time (well, also because only the first one is a seat reserved train, the next two are regionales, so they can't sell out). The train trip takes a little over two hours in each case. The Frecce is no faster than the regionales. The last train you could reasonably take back departs Venice at 19:39 (7:39 PM) and arrives to Trieste at 21:44 (9:44 PM). The next arrivale at Trieste isn't until 22:55, too late for you to get back on time. So you'd have about nine hours in Venice. You'll see what you can see in that time, which won't be a whole lot because of the crushing crowds. I agree with Marazul, don't waste time and energy going back to Trieste that night, only to leave again the next morning. Yes, it's more money (paying for a night at a hotel that you've already paid for on the ship), but on vacation time is at least as precious as money.

We hear this frequently. Knowing what you do now, would you choose to do it again? What would you change about the day? I always feel like the bearer of doom and gloom when posters ask how to cram in Pompei and the Amalfi Coast into one day. I wonder if your day would have been more of what you wanted if you'd taken a ferry from Salerno to Positano, then had the driver pick you up there for the rest of the day. A ferry from Molo Manfredi, adjacent to the cruise port, would have dropped you in Positano at 9:30, giving you two more hours in Positano. Doing it this way would have cost you more, because the car service was going to charge you the same amount for five hours as they did for eight, but in retrospect would you have made that tradeoff?

Yes, Frecce trains are available on the Trenitalia site for late October.