Traveling Around Southern Italy

When you think of the perfect Italian weekend getaway what do you think of? Duh! The Amalfi Coast! Positano, Amalfi and Sorrento are some of the most visited cities in Italy during the warmer months of the year and fortunately for me, I get to live here all semester long! While I have done my fair share of traveling in and out of Italy, I still like to take advantage of the beauty I am living in everyday! Rome, Florence, and Milan all have a special type of beauty on their own, but there’s something about the small coastal feel of Sorrento that makes this feel like home. The locals are friendly, the food is authentic and tourists traps aren’t really a thing here!

I had a friend from the states visiting me during her college spring break this past week, and can I just acknowledge how 1) amazing it is to have friends that are willing to come halfway across the world to come visit you and 2) how exciting it is to show them around the place you get to call home for a bit! I was ecstatic to plan all the fun day trips and activities for us to do. There is so much to do even under an hour of Sorrento. Getting around Southern Italy is something everyone talks about but doesn’t exactly explain how. If you’re studying somewhere else in Italy or even Europe, I would definitely recommend taking a weekend to explore the beauty Southern Italy has to offer.

Starting off… everything begins in Naples! Naples is where both the airport and train station are located and that is where youll find the hub for all transportation to Southern Italy. The easiest ways to get to the Sorrento train station from the airport is the Curreri Viaggi Bus. This 1.5 hr bus ride costs 10 euros and takes you directly to the train station from the Naples Airport. It also goes round trip, so it is good to keep in mind this as an option when going back to the airport to your host country! If you are coming into the train station, the easiest way to get to the Sorrento train station is catching the Circumvesuviana train underground at Napoli Centrale. This train runs every 30 minutes and takes about an hour. Sorrento is the last stop once you get on the Circumvesuviana.

Once you arrive, I highly reccommend taking a few days to enjoy the town of Sorrento before exploring the rest of the coast. The small local feel in Sorrento is special and something I haven’t felt in any other towns along Southern Italy. Plus, the only way to get to Capri, Amalfi, Positano and Ravello are from Sorrento, so you might as well enjoy it for a day or two! Getting to Positano, Amalif and Ravello is super easy from Sorrento. All you have to do is a catch a bus (it costs about 2.40 euro) and it takes you along the entire coast from Sorrento to Ravello! You can find the times that is runs online! Be sure to look carefully at the scheudle beacause it changes throughout the seaons.

Getting to Capri from Sorrento is also super easy! There are ferry docks at the bottom of the large stairs in Sorrento that has ferries that run from Capri, Naples and Sorrento all day long! You can find ferry times on signs around the city or on the ferry website. There are three different brands of ferries that run, so it depends on the day and time you want to where you can find the schedule. Capri is a great day trip from Sorrento and the lats ferry usually leaves around 6:45pm. In Capri, you can rent mopeds, go on a boat tour around the island, visit the gardens, or take a chairlift to the top of the island for amazing views!

Italy is one of the easiest and cheapest countries, in my opinion, to travel easily around. There are so many resources to help you find the best ways to travel all around Italy. I am so lucky to be in such an amazing hub for so many beautiful adventures and to share that with my best friends that come all this way to visit! :)