Back in 2018 we spent October half term in Italy staying in a mountain villa high above the Amalfi Coast, with stunning views of the Bay of Naples, Mount Vesuvius and the island of Capri. At the time the kids were 11, 8 and 3 year old twins.
This was our first non-package holiday as a family of six where we hadn’t stayed in an all inclusive resort or driven to Europe. We flew with Ryanair and hired a seven-seater car from the airport.
Read on for a review of our family trip which turned out to be more of an adventurous stay than we had planned.
- Why Campania, Italy?
- Pompeii, Sorrento and The Amalfi Coast
- Staying on a mountain
- Pompeii & Mount Vesuvius
- Positano
- Castellammare di Stabia
- Sorrento
- Villaggio Monte Faito
- Overall opinion
- Holiday Run
Why Campania, Italy?
The one main reason for choosing this area was a chance spot of flights from East Midlands (our local airport) to Naples for only £16 each. Upon researching the area, discovering of the availability of AirBnB properties, and realising that there would be warm October weather and the chance to visit Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast, our minds were made up. We also all enjoy Italian food and drink, especially the three P’s – Pasta, Pizza and Prosecco …as well as Italian ice cream, coffee and Limoncello!
We searched for an Airbnb apartment within reach of Sorrento, Positano and Pompeii and eventually booked a villa in a small village in the Lattari Mountains which looked amazing from the photos and description. The architecturally designed property had been in the same family since it was built and the size and features were beautiful. The location on the map also suggested that this was central to the main tourist attractions that we were planning to visit.
Pompeii, Sorrento and The Amalfi Coast
- A stretch of rugged coastline overlooking the Tyrrehenian Sea and the Gulf of Solerno.
- Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.
- Mediterranean climate with warm summers and mild winters.
- Average 3 hour flight time to Naples from Birmingham and East Midlands airports.
- Situated within the Campania Region south of Naples, the regional capital.
- Sorrento is known for ceramics, lacework and limoncello lemon liquor.
- Pompeii was an ancient Roman city which was buried in 4-6m of volcanic ash during an eruption of the nearby Mount Vesuvius in 79AD.
- Pompeii is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and attracts around 2.5 million visitors a year. The excavated streets and buildings provide a unique snapshot of Roman life frozen in time almost 2,000 years ago.
Staying on a mountain
Landing in Naples late in the evening with car seats in hand (we always bring our own as free check-in luggage), it was around midnight by the time we had collected the hire car and set off for the villa. Having driven to Lake Garda in Italy in 2016 (from Leicester) I wasn’t too worried about driving abroad. Being late at night gave us the benefits of the roads being very quiet and we were lulled into a false sense of security before turning off the main road towards the village of Monte Faito.
Call us naïve but we hadn’t quite appreciated the reality of driving to a mountain village in the middle of the night, in a people carrier, on the other side of the road, and not knowing exactly where we were going. When the gradient of the road began to get quite steep with sharp hairpin bends every few hundred metres, we began to realise that it was going to be a challenging drive. Keep calm we thought, the kids are in the back, better not panic.
The directions we had were quite vague – or difficult to follow in the pitch black. We kept driving higher and higher until we reached a cable car station very near the top of the mountain, then went a little bit further up a single lane unmade track before we started to think that we might have missed the villa. We gingerly turned round and made our way back towards the cable car and to some houses that we had passed a few minutes before.
Eventually we made it to the villa in one piece. The next morning we could not believe how high up the mountain were. After a little explore we realised that it was the upper cable car station close to the top of the 1,110m high mountain that was near us, and the track that we had continued to drive up did not look any safer in daylight. We’d accidentally driven up very close to the summit!
We also realised that it been a bit of a blessing making the first trip to the villa during the night – so that we could not see, and weren’t aware of, the sheer drops of hundreds of metres at the sides of the winding roads up to the village.
Having to drive up and down the mountain everyday to visit tourist attractions, and the local shops, was quite a challenge. However, the benefit of staying at the top of the mountain was that within a short walk of the villa were the most spectacular views of the Bay of Naples and Mount Vesuvius in one direction and the Amalfi Coast and the isle of Capri in the other.
We made the most of our base in Campania and managed to pack loads in to the week. The places that we most enjoyed visiting included Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius; the beaches in the beautiful towns of Positano and Sorrento; a cable car ride down to the local town of Castellammare di Stabia and a hike in the mountains from the villa.
Pompeii & Mount Vesuvius
The active volcano of Mount Vesuvius looms over the Bay of Naples at 1281m in height. The famous eruption which destroyed Pompeii happed in 79AD but the most recent eruption was in 1944. The mountain dominates the area being visible from miles around. Although our villa was approximately 21 miles away it was in view most of the time and was pretty awe-inspiring thinking of the history of the area and the fact that it is expected to erupt again in the future.
The archaeological site of Pompeii was a 50 minute drive from our villa and we pre-booked tickets for the six of us. On the way I made everyone listen to Pompeii by Bastille and this album (Bad Blood, 2013) became the soundtrack of the holiday.
We were able to park close to the entrance in the main car park and didn’t have to queue too long to get in with our pre-booked tickets.
Although it was very busy in the main reception and entrance to the site, once through the gates the site is so large that we had a lot of room to explore by ourselves. The excavated ruins are amazingly well preserved and there is so much to see. Unlike a more formal museum it was good being outside with the kids able to run around and explore at their own pace, playing hide and seek in ancient Roman buildings.
We spent around 4 hours at Pompeii and walked about 4 miles in total. While we saw a lot, there were still a lot of buildings and artefacts that we didn’t manage to get round to.
It was really atmospheric amongst the well preserved Roman streets and buildings, with Mount Versuvius looming in the near distance. Thinking about what happened there almost 2000 years ago and what it would have felt like for the Pompeii residents at the time was quite moving.
After Pompeii, we decided to drive closer to Vesuvius and take a walk up to the top. Unfortunately this was quite late in the day so we decided not to take the bus to the very top and we also knew that the tour at the top to the rim of the volcano was temporarily closed due to a recent landslide. We did park about two thirds of the way up the mountain though and walked a bit further up, enjoying the views of Naples and collecting a few small volcanic rocks.
Positano
We took a drive to the picturesque seaside town of Positano. We decided not to drive straight back down the mountain and take the coastal road as there was a shorter route through the mountains which looked more direct. This was a BIG mistake. As the crow flies the distance wasn’t that far but travelling up and down steep mountain slopes through many treacherous hairpins on single track roads was quite nerve-wracking, especially as we were worried about scratching the hire car as we squeezed past oncoming cars, buses and mopeds.
The beautiful scenery of the town when we arrived made the difficult drive feel worth the effort. We parked in the public car park above the town and walked down the steep pedestrian roads and steps to the beach where we enjoyed a lovely meal at a pizzeria before spending some time playing on the beach which had fine, black, volcanic sand.
We took the longer coastal road back to our own mountain retreat which was only marginally less terrifying – beautiful views but a winding road high up above the sea built into cliffs and with coaches, buses and local Italian drivers of cars and mopeds taking no prisoners whether coming towards you or overtaking if you’re driving at a safe speed.
The sunset from the mountain road close to our villa, however, was spectacular and we stopped in a small refuge area to take some snaps.
Castellammare di Stabia
After the white-knuckle car journeys to and from Positano, we decided to leave the car at home and take the cable car down to the nearest town of Castellammare di Stabia.
This was a much more relaxing mode of transport and we enjoyed a walk along the sea front and an ice cream before heading back up the mountain.
Castellammare di Stabia is on the southern coast of the Bay of Naples and has fantastic views across the Bay to Naples and Mount Vesuvius. It is famous for being the place where Roman author and military commander Pliny the Elder was killed by a plume of toxic gas while helping to evacuate people by sea from Pompeii at the time of the eruption. His nephew, Pliny the Younger, later provided an account of his uncle’s death for Emporer Tacitus which provides an historical record of the events of 79AD.
Sorrento
We took the train to the beautiful coastal town of Sorrento to avoid driving too far along the coastal highway. There was a train station in the small town at the bottom of our mountain road where we could park and buy tickets for the short rail trip along the coast.
The trains were quite frequent and on arrival in Sorrento it was a pleasant walk from the station into the town and down to the marina and beach.
The streets in the old town are mostly steep pedestrian roads and alleyways which are very picturesque. We passed plenty of shops selling local produce including Limoncello which Sorrento is famous for.
After a leisurely stroll down to sea level we found a small pizzeria overlooking a harbour where we had fantastic pizzas before spending some more time on the beach.
Villaggio Monte Faito
Staying in Villaggio Monte Faito gave us an opportunity to explore the local countryside. Living in Leicestershire at home where the countryside is relatively flat, staying close to the top of a mountain which is slightly higher than Mount Snowdon was quite an adventure.
The term ‘Villaggio’ is maybe over-exaggerating the size of the settlement which consisted of a handful of houses along the mountain roads, the upper cable car station, a small shop and restaurant by the cable car station, a restaurant and a café all within twenty minutes walk uphill from the villa.
On one of the days we decided to leave the car at home and go for a walk to the top of the mountain. We had to hold on to the twins very tightly as we made our way across some perilous narrow paths along the mountain ridge with steep drops to either side. Eventually we made it to a small chapel built on the top of another mountain peak. After a short rest in the chapel we headed back towards the villa enjoying the panoramic views of the Lattari Mountains, the Bay of Naples and Mount Vesuvius in the distance.
On the walk back we went past a restaurant which appeared closed for the season. Whilst looking for a sign with the opening hours an elderly Italian lady appeared and with no English we thought that she said that she would open the restaurant for us and we left hoping that we had made a booking for later that evening.
Before dinner we went for a walk to a vantage point with views out to the west to watch the sunset. Walking through the forested slopes of the mountain we went past a number of horses that were wandering freely and also quite a few dogs. These didn’t look like strays and we assumed that they were family pets which were allowed to roam the quiet streets.
One of the large dogs decided to follow us for about a mile and didn’t leave when we sat down to enjoy the sunset. He appeared friendly enough and reminded us of our pet dog Robin who we were missing. The dog even made it into some of our family photos.
Watching the incredible sunset from the top of a mountain all together as a family was amazing and one of my favourite memories from the holiday. Hopefully the kids will always cherish this time spent together.
We weren’t confident that the restaurant would be open when we walked back later but, to our surprise, we were welcomed in and had the best meal of the holiday as the only customers. We all tried speaking Italian when ordering from the menu and felt so welcomed by the restaurant owner and family staff – despite the language barrier.
Overall opinion
We absolutely loved our week away in Campania. The weather was fantastic, the local people we found to be friendly and family orientated and the Italian food delicious. Our accommodation was spacious, clean and in a breath-taking location.
It turned out to be a slightly more adventurous holiday than we were expecting with the treacherous roads and mountain walks but that made the holiday even more memorable and we hope that the kids will always remember this trip.
Combining cultural visits to Pompeii with visits to the beach in Positano and Sorrento with lots of outdoor walks in local towns, up a volcano and in the mountains was a good balance of relaxation, activity and site-seeing.
Would we go back? Yes, but we would think twice before booking accommodation at the top of a mountain! (although it was an amazing experience). We would also consider using public transport to get around rather than hiring a car if going on a similar holiday. We have since visited Rome for a week in 2022 without a car and we found the trains and buses to be frequent and reliable.
Holiday Run
When away from home I love to get out and go for a run around the sites or local countryside. I run a lot at home around the same few routes so it is really good to go for a run with more interesting sites to see along the way.
Its quite flat at home in Leicestershire so it was challenging running from the villa up steep roads. However, once at the top of the mountain I did jog, carefully, along the ridge for a while which was flatter in places. As has been mentioned numerous times above, the views were incredible so I was happy to stop and catch my breath and take in the stunning scenery at regular intervals.
You can find details of my runs on Strava on the following link –https://www.strava.com/activities/1914373877
About Us
After the shock of finding out that we were expecting twins in 2015, one of the first things that we realised was that …we’re gonna need a bigger car!
We’re a family of six with two girls and two boys aged 17, 13 and 9 year old twins.
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