Q – We are taking our 16-Year old on a dream trip to Italy this coming spring. Our highlights will be Venice, Rome, and the Amalfi Coast. Our tentative schedule puts us in Rome Easter week flying home after the Holiday. But we don’t know how insane Rome will be that weekend. We had wanted to do Sorrento last but now we’re thinking about doing the trip Venice-Sorrento-Rome to avoid having to commute to Rome from Sorrento on departure day. Are our concerns about Easter week justified and how would you recommend we do the trip?
A – Your concerns about Easter crowds in Rome, tied-up traffic, possible protests, and gridlock stress are all justified. You might consider staying in a hotel away from the center core, perhaps something just across the river in Trastevere like the Dei Mellini. You might want to re-think Sorrento, perhaps using Positano as a base. If your flight home is after 1:00 pm. we would recommend that you end the trip on the Amalfi Coast and use a private driver to go straight to the airport. Driving to far-out Fiumcino Airport during Easter week will inevitably involve heavy traffic and there is some advantage to avoiding the city center on departure day. If you have an earlier departure, it does make sense to end the trip in Rome as you are proposing but not that driving to Naples, catching the train, then getting to your hotel from the central station which toting your luggage is bound to be a bit of a hassle.
