At the end of our time in Rome we have decided to rent a car and drive to our villa we have rented on the Amalfi Coast. Should we rent the car from an in town location like the train station or from the airport? We return it a week later and will be staying that night in Rome.I had thought the train station was a good idea because it is not far from where we are starting until I read the horrors of driving in Rome! Isn't the airport pretty far outside town?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kim,

Don't pickup at the airport because it is a long taxi ride there ($50), you pay a surcharge to pickup at an airport, and it can be a zoo.

Find a good intown location. People have picked up at the train station and driven out of town. Or try the one near the Borghese Gardens. We are going to try this one this year. Or pick a location close to the freeway that goes around Rome. The AutoEurope page now shows you pickup places and their locations.

Or take the train to Salerno and pickup your car there.

Pauline from Slow Travelers

if you pick up in Salerno, you miss the rare pleasures of driving the A2/A3. Two lanes with people driving at 200KpH or more (especially thos of us in Audi's) mixed in with truck traffic at 100KpH. What a way to start a week!

Actually the drive is easy and lets you avoid the connection issues at both ends. But it is a FAST drive.

If life is an opera by Puccini... I want to be Calaf!

I don't think it's really a problem driving OUT of Rome -- it's driving IN when you don't know where you're going that's much more of a problem. The pickup location near the train station would be good for driving south.

Thanks Pauline I will look and see if I can find one that would be close to get to. I had wanted to take the train to Salerno and get the car there but my husband nixed it because he didn't want to pay the almost $100.00 a person round trip train ticket on top of the car rental. We have two young adult children we would be paying for too.

200kph! Yikes..I am afraid my husband is going to love this! I better make sure I have a nice strong one before we leave!

I would just say that I didn't particularly enjoy the drive from Rome to Positano. I am sure a train would be infinitely more relaxing...I guess if you really want to explore the area down there you might like to have a car to get to the off the beaten track places, but if you are just going to Pompeii and Herculaneum, Paestum, and Positano, Capri, you sure don't need a car. It's a pain to park in Positano(some hotels do have parking of course), and some of those other small towns...the car is just in the way.
Janice

Getting out of Rome was an exciting experience for us. We hired at the train station and the car was delivered by a lift in the parking station so that we loaded up and drove out onto a busy street with no practice. (We drive on the left in Australia and had to get used to the left hand drive). The map we were provided with was not very detailed and I was glad we had already purchased a more detailed one.
In future I would prefer to collect a car where navigating out of Rome was not such a challenge.

The actual driving we liked, but you have to drive like an Italian to enjoy it.

The train fare from Rome to Salerno shouldn't cost that much. Taking Intercity trains, it's 20 euros each way. (The direct bus service to the Amalfi Coast is even cheaper). But since there are several of you it may well be more straightforward to drive.

A SURVIVAL TIP....
I have zero sense of direction. My husband says that you can point me toward the sun at 4PM and I can't tell you what direction it is.
Now I personally think this is a great gift, because it insures that I get lost on the white roads of Umbria at least once or twice on every trip.
Anyway, In October I was trying to drive into Florence at 9:00PM to get to our hotel which overlooked the Mercato Nuovo. It was a very dark night and all of us had middle aged eyes. We were having difficulty reading our map as well as the street signs.
We got hopelessly lost in the eastern Filarocca area.(Don't even ask!) One of the women with me was starting to panic which made me more and more nervous. SO, in frustration, I pulled over at a taxi stand and hired a driver to LEAD us to our hotel. He took one of the four of us 'hostage' in the taxi to make sure he got paid. I did a fantastic job of sticking like glue to his bumper the entire trip. After we got to the hotel, he waited while we dropped off two of us with the luggage. Then he lead the other two of us to the rental car drop off and brought us back to the hotel.
I must say, that was absolutely the best $20 I've ever spent in all my trips to Italy!

Deborah Horn

In a previous life I was an Umbrian sunflower farmer. I'd like to do a past life regression and stay there.
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I agree with Ciaojanice - I didn't care that much for the drive from Rome down to Naples. If I had to do it over again, I would have taken the train to Naples, then on to Sorrento and picked up our car there. Then return the car and take the train back to Rome. I do think, though, that having a car while there does have advantages. The local buses are good for hopping to Positano, Amalfi etc., but the car would be handy for the sights further out.

Where is your rental on the Amalfi Coast? If it is in Amalfi or east of Amalfi, Salerno would be a good pickup spot. If it is in or near Positano or west of Positano, Sorrento would be the better pick up spot. If you are somehwere in the middle, its 6 of one, half dozen of the other - you will have to drive that coastline either way. It's not an awful drive, but it can get hairy. We did it and survived, but I wouldn't call it relaxing, and the thought of doing it at night ......

Regardless, you will have a great trip!

Mrs. P

I wouldn't want to change trains in Naples with a group and luggage. You have to go to a different part of the station and that little train from Naples to Sorrento is more like a commuter train - not set up for holding luggage.

We did this drive in fall 2001 and it didn't seem that bad. It is autostrada from Rome to just south of Naples. That is easy driving. The nightmare part is from the Autostrada to Sorrento. Very busy roads, lots of cars, thick traffic, not fun. But if you are going over to Positano, you turn off before it gets the busiest.

Pauline from Slow Travelers

Yeah, I tend to think in only terms of my own travel style(1 bag, no kids) and I missed l&w's post about avoiding the added cost of train travel for the group. Pauline is more on track.

Mrs. P

I've traveled directly from Rome to Naples only once and did that by train. I agree with everyone else, the drive would have been uninspiring. EXCEPT, for the freedom to make a few side trips. Notably, Montecassino and Caserta.
When we travel to Sorrento it is usually from central Umbria and by car. BUT once there, we just park the car and use the Circumvesuviana to travel between Sorrento and Naples.
We have never traveled further down the coast than Sorrento, but since Sorrento is the end of the line for the Circumvesuviana, we would probably choose to do that by car rather than bus.

Deborah Horn

In a previous life I was an Umbrian sunflower farmer. I'd like to do a past life regression and stay there.
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Deborah,

I always love that story!

Unless I am confused (which is very likely!) I didn't think we needed to go through Naples to go from Rome to Salerno.(by car or train) We thought that route would be quicker because we are staying in between Amalfi and Maiori.We are tryin to decide if we want more than one rental car for the 8-10 of us. I had planned on using the car for the older adults and letting the young adults(22-27yr.olds) take buses to get around.I am a little worried about the possibility of limited bus schedules in late April.

You drive around Naples on the Autostrada - so you don't have to drive in Naples. And going to Salerno, then into the Amalfi coast will be the best route.

Some people tell me that renting two cars is better than a large van because it lets people split off into two groups and you can get carsick in the back of the van. I don't know about bus schedules in that area in April. Here are some web sites you might look at:

www.vesuviana.it: Train and bus schedules between Sorrento and Naples.

www.campaniatrasporti.it: Transportation information for the Campania region. In Italian.

Pauline from Slow Travelers

Deborah--in addition to Montecassino and Caserta there are several other worthwhile side-trip on the way to Naples from Rome (not counting those on the coastal route). These would include Tivoli, Palestrina, Anagni, Fiuggi and Alatri. These towns do not have the attractiveness of many in Umbria or Tuscany but still are worthy of a visit. A favorite restaurant (Le Colline Ciociare) is in Acuto, which is just outside of Fiuggi. Travel planners on this board often ask about places that are "off the beaten path". These towns would answer that question quite well.

Peter