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If you’re dreaming of vacationing in Italy but don’t have an entire month to see it all, you first must prioritize which area to experience! We chose the Campania region in southern Italy - Sorrento, the Amalfi Coast, and the isle of Capri - and paired it with Rome. It was the perfect 9-day Italy itinerary.
Italy is so easy to love - rolling hills and verdant valleys; history, art, and architecture; jagged cliffs rising above the turquoise sea; perfect pasta dripping with fresh olive oil followed by creamy gelato bursting with flavor; and feeling like you’re part of a warm family at every stop in your journey. I spent a month backpacking Italy after grad school in 1997 and despite multiple marriage proposals (Italians love blondes!), I didn’t stay. But I loved it all and knew I’d be back again and again.
Scenes from Italy's Campania region!
For my kids’ Fall Break in 2024, I wanted to share my love of Italy with them. We chose the south to ensure warmer weather and to experience the Amalfi Coast, which I missed my first time. This area is home to Mt. Vesuvius, a still active volcano responsible for Campania’s spectacular coastline and photogenic landscape. Here, you can enjoy three primary travel experiences:
Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast
The isle of Capri
The archaeological sites (Pompeii, Herculaneum, Paestum)
You can easily pair Campania with a few days in Rome if you want to check the Rome box. Book a Multi-City itinerary and fly into Rome (FCO) and out of Naples (NAP).
Sorrento
We based our stay in Sorrento, a beautiful and walkable Belle Epoque resort town perched over the Bay of Naples. With easy access to the Amalfi Coast, Capri, and Pompeii, Sorrento is the perfect hub - it’s walkable and easy to get around, albeit crowded with tourists.
Our duplex Family Suite at Hotel Mediterraneo Sorrento in Sant’Agnello, a charming coastal town just outside Sorrento, was perfect for us. We had 2 bathrooms, a seaview terrace, and we were away from the crowds but could still walk into town or hop a ride in our hotel’s shuttle. At this boutique property overlooking the Mediterranean on one side and private gardens and pool on the other, you're treated like part of the family. Every time we strode into the lobby, we were greeted with a warm "Buongiorno!"
Hotel Mediterraneo Sorrento: aerial view, close-up, the gardens and pool, duplex family suite and our seaview terrace
When you’re not sightseeing, you can relax at the pool or the beach club. We didn’t have time for either, but we enjoyed breakfast with a view every morning, the tasting menu for dinner at Vesuvio, and sunset champagne and apertivo on the Vista Skydeck rooftop, the area's most breathtaking rooftop bar.
Views from Hotel Mediterraneo Sorrento's rooftop!
Our favorite activities in Sorrento - aside from our daytrip to the Amalfi Coast - were kayaking to Roman ruins and a lemon grove farm tour and food experience.
Kayak to Bagni della Regina Giovanna - If kayaking is on the menu, sign me up! My family doesn’t feel the same, but luckily, they were game for a short afternoon tour. We paddled along the stunning coastline to a Roman Villa built between 41-54 AD. This site features a heart-shaped natural pool with emerald green water that can be accessed by kayak through a small opening in the cliff. We “parked” our kayaks in the "pool" and hiked up the hill to the top of the ruins to watch the cliff jumpers and gaze out at the Tyrhennian Sea. I love days like this where we get away from the crowds, get some exercise, and experience the destination from a different vantage point.
Il Turuziello Farm tour: Lemons, olive oil, cheese, and pizza-making - this tour had it all! We started at a lemon grove farm in the hilltop town of Schiazzano with the cutest Italian family. Then we crammed into a tuk tuk for a thrilling ride through narrow, winding streets up to a picturesque spot for sunset. We learned about cheese-making and tasted a tableful of homemade bread, cheeses, and flavored olive oils. Then we flew down the mountain in our tuk tuk to our pizza-making class and yummy dinner.
Our first tuk tuk ride, but not our last. The sunset and pizza were both spectacular!
Amalfi Coast
One of the most gorgeous places on Earth is the corner of the Campania region called the Amalfi Coast, with its multi-colored jewels along the water: Positano, Amalfi, and Ravello. Here, sunbaked fishing villages rise above cliffs hollowed out with grottoes and emerald-green lagoons. The coastal road winds around jaw-dropping views like the wisteria vines on terraced villas.
For our day exploring the coast, we hired a private driver so we could relax and enjoy the breathtaking vistas and not worry about parking, which is almost non-existent. We focused our time in Ravello and Positano, the two most beautiful towns.
Ravello
Closer to the sky than the sea, Ravello is a refined mountaintop village perched high above the blue Bay of Salerno. Famous for the elegant gardens of Villa Rufolo and for Caruso, A Belmond Hotel - we set out to visit both. While we only had a few hours here, I’d recommend at least a day in this beautiful town!
Juxtaposed against the sea, the sky, umbrella pines, and the Church of the Annunziata below, Villa Rufolo’s gardens have a magical quality with their profusion of flowers. Ravello has become known as “la città della musica" and for the past several decades, has been the center of an annual summer concert series that features grand orchestras on a stage built jutting out over the rugged Amalfi Coast below.
The elegant Villa Rufolo gardens in Ravello
Caruso, one of the finest hotels on the Amalfi Coast, if not all of Italy, is an 11th-century palazzo built at Ravello’s highest point. With the world’s most beautiful infinity pool, sublime Mediterranean gardens, and breathtaking views, it’s no wonder this enclave attracted celebrities like Jackie O and Greta Garbo. We pretended to be refined as we lunched by the pool, but who knows what my kids did after l left for my site tour. The property is stunning and deserving of its accolades.
Views from Caruso are sublime
Positano
Built like a vertical amphitheater, this glamorous cliffside village is set in a panorama of colors: the green of the Monti Lattari mountains; the white, pink, and yellow of the Mediterranean houses; the silvery grey of its pebble beaches; and the blue of the sea. Positano’s only job is to look enchanting, and it does that very well.
During our day on the Amalfi Coast, we enjoyed visiting Positano and its most famous hotel, Le Sirenuse, an 18th-century palazzo converted into a 5-star luxury hotel. My family lounged on the terrace like celebrities while I toured the stunning property. The views are incomparable. In fact, my hubs realized that a jigsaw puzzle he completed during the Covid lockdown was the view we were enjoying from Le Sirenuse's terrace.
Positano's oh-so-beautiful Le Sirenuse
After Le Sirenuse, we walked down to the square and enjoyed a wedding celebration before a sunset stroll along the water and a lovely dinner at a local favorite. While I loved Sorrento, especially given how walkable and peaceful the area was, if I was staying here without my kids, I’d stay in Positano!
Capri
The highlight of our trip to Italy was the isle of Capri, a place I had visited 27 years ago when I backpacked Italy. But this time, we did Capri in style. We stayed at the oh-so-glamorous J.K.Place Capri, which is now in my top 5 favorite hotels of all time. This intimate 5-star boutique hotel perched above Marina Grande is the definition of elegance. From the 360° breathtaking views to the warm welcome like we were part of the family to our luxurious upgrade to the seaview penthouse suites, we were in heaven the entire time. We only had two nights on the island, but I wish we would have planned for three – and stolen a night from Rome. I'm rearranging all my Italy clients so they can stay on Capri!
J.K. Place Capri is in my top 5 favorite hotels of all time.
Our gozzo boat tour of the island was everyone's favorite activity of the trip. Jumping into the emerald green water in the grottoes is something we’ll never forget! The boat lulled Brady to sleep early on in the ride, and he woke up inside one of the grottoes. The look on his face was priceless!
Swimming in water like this is my favorite thing in the world, but it was COLD water in October!
On our one full day on the island, we started with an open-air taxi ride up to Anacapri, where we rode the chairlift to Monte Solero. The island of Capri has 2 towns – Anacapri and Capri – with Anacapri as the more chill, less touristy of the two. We lunched and shopped in Anacapri and then walked the 921 steps of the Scala Fenicia back down to our hotel in Capri. Those steps were chiseled out of the rock face by the Ancient Greeks between the 7th and 6th centuries BC! That's right - BC!
The second half of the day was spent on the other side of the island in Capri, where we pretended we could afford the fashion in the chic shops. Then, we made our way to the Gardens of Augustus and took a sunset walk down the winding Via Krupp to Marina Piccola. We found ourselves stuck with tired feet, whiny kids, growling bellies - and no taxis. Pretending to be hotel guests, we hopped a shuttle for Capri Centrale. The random dinner spot we picked turned out to be one of the best meals of the trip!
We packed a lot in in 2 days on Capri. Wish we had more time!
Pompeii
Just 45 minutes from Sorrento, you can explore Pompeii, the town buried under ash by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, which preserved the city for centuries. The excavation of Pompeii in the mid-18th century marked the beginning of modern archaeology, and the ruins provide a unique window into ancient Roman life.
Ruins in Pompeii
Future Italy itineraries
Northern Italy: Lake Como, Verona, and Venice - Brady's high school graduation trip!
Central Italy: rent a villa in Tuscany and daytrip to Florence and Cinque Terre - would be the perfect extended family trip!
Sardinia and the most beautiful water in the world - empty nester trip!
What’s on your list for Italy? Show Them the World can help you choose the best itinerary to enjoy La Dolce Vita!
Heather Vergara is a former PepsiCo marketing executive who left the corporate world to be a Mom and never found her way back. Instead, she focused on her passion for travel and adventure and created Show Them the World, a travel concierge service for busy families longing to reconnect and see the world together. In four years, she's helped more than 350 families experience Hawaii, Alaska, Costa Rica, France, England, Greece, Italy, Croatia, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, the Caribbean, National Parks, and more to come!
Heather has an MBA in marketing from Indiana University, a Digital Marketing Executive Education certificate from Columbia University, and a BA in Journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She lives with her husband, two kids, and two furry dogs in Zionsville, Indiana.
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