From Rome to Sorrento by Train

Booking your train tickets

We use Trainline for all of our train ticket bookings, both home and abroad. That way I get an email with PDF which can be printed (old-school style) and I can also store them in my Apple Wallet for easy offline retrieval. Tickets can easily be scanned at the barriers and by the conductor.

The cheapest tickets are available three months before your journey, book early enough and you can even get first class tickets but little more than a standard second-class. We booked standard return tickets, which cost £35 per person.

Make sure you check your departure and arrival stations carefully. It was only as I went to book that I realised our tickets were actually terminating at Napoli Afragola. 18km north of Napoli Centrale.

From Rome Termini to Napoli Centrale

There are various routes from Roma Termini to Napoli Centrale, the duration anywhere between 70 minutes and 4 hours. The fastest routes are the direct, high-speed Frecciarossa or Italo trains (we booked the Frecciarossa). The Intercity and Regionale trains are cheapest, but take longer and include many stops.

We arrived in plenty of time for our 11:35 train. The departures board is easy to navigate, although there were two trains bound for Napoli Centrale at the same time. Make sure you check your tickets for the correct train number. Our train for Naples departed from platform 11, as did the preceding one. Don’t rely on Trainline for platform information, their estimated platform was incorrect. Luckily we gambled on platform 11, and were proved correct.

Naples is the final stop on this train which departed from Venice, and this train was direct between Rome and Naples. Mr Fletche and I were seated opposite each other in table seats 17D and 18D. There are USB charge points available at all table seats – handy for a bit of blogging on the go. The doors marked Entrance and Exit are clearly suggestions rather than rules.

As of September 2022, face masks are still mandatory on Trenitalia trains, with FFP2 mask’s preferred. We obtained a pack of 10 from Amazon before we left the UK. This was the only time during our trip that face masks were mandated.

Can I drink alcohol on board?

I googled this, clutching a can of Peroni. It’s Italy. You can drink alcohol everywhere.

Joking aside, there are no public alcohol consumption laws in Italy, and this applies to trains too. As always, drink responsibly – staff reserve the right to eject you at the next available station if you’re drunk and disorderly.

From Napoli Centrale to Sorrento

The second leg of the journey is the connecting train from Naples to Sorrento. If you want to use the toilets at Napoli Centrale, it’s €1 for the pleasure so make sure you have a coin handy. Or go on the Rome to Naples train.

The station for the Circumvesuviana train to Sorrento – Piazza Garibaldi Station – is directly below Napoli Centrale. Trains depart every half an hour and a one-way ticket costs €4,60pp. The platforms and ticket office are at the end of the concourse, with the ticket office on the right and platform entrances opposite. Our 13:09 train departed from Platform 3. I used the Sorrento Insider website to check train times.

There are no high-speed trains on this route; this is a local train and is also the train used to reach Pompeii and Herculaneum, so expect additional passengers at these popular tourist sites. It’s definitely not as comfy as the first leg, it’s hot and noisy and more than a little rickety. But it’s cheap. If you’re lucky – as we were – you can grab one of the seats near the door which has luggage space beside it. If you can, sit on the right hand side for the best sea views on the journey.

Arriving in Sorrento

Sorrento train station is located just off the main road (SS145) which runs through the town. It’s just a five minute walk from Sorrento’s heart, the Piazza Tasso. Buses and taxis are available from the station to your final destination. For us, it was a short 10 minute walk to our hotel on Via Parsano.

The Return Leg: Sorrento to Roma via Naples

It’s as simple as doing the above in reverse. Give yourself plenty of time as you will need to purchase your Circumvesuviana tickets from the station at Sorrento. The staff are brusque, but are quite used to dealing with tourists. Which probably explains why they are so brusque. The trains to Naples are frequent but very busy. We arrived on the platform just as the train before was leaving, so we got first pick of the seats on the next train. They seem to alternate between departing platforms, there are only two platforms so you can’t really go wrong. The gap between Mr Fletche and I, seated on opposite sides of the train, soon filled with people. It empties a little after Pompeii and Herculanuem, but not as much – most of the passengers seem to be taking the same journey as us.

Once at Napoli Garibaldi, we head up the escalators to Centrale for our final leg of the journey, returning to Rome. There’s plenty of shopping, eating and dining at Napoli Centrale. There’s also a left luggage centre, so if you did want to spend a little time exploring Naples itself then your luggage can be stored safely and securely.

And so we return to Rome. Train cans in hand.