FIRST SOLO TRIP - Central and Southern Italy in August 2018

The first consideration is that you have too many destinations for the time you have available. If you are in Italy from 9 to 21 August you have only 12 nights in total in the five destinations you have listed above. Forget the fantasy about Tuscany.

And five destinations is at least one destination too many. Why do you have one night in Naples?

Positano and the Amalfi coast will be absolutely packed, and hot, and expensive. You really do not need to stay in Positano, it is enough to visit it for an hour or two until you get fed up with the crowds. In any case, the best views of it are from a passing ferry.

There is a bus that travels very s-l-o-w-l-y through the dense traffic on the Amalfi Coast road. The beaches are simply tiny coves with pebbles, where you will need to pay to rent a seat or recliner and perhaps pay to access the beach (a lido) as well. There is no bus to carry you down to or up from these lidos, so expect many stairs. And heat.

Air conditioning is rarely found in budget and mid-range accommodation. At best, there may be a fan in the room.

All in all, I suggest you rethink your itinerary and do some proper research into what you will find in each destination on your list, and whether there is anything of interest to you there. At this point, it seems you have simply selected a bunch of names without really knowing why you are visiting them and what you will do once you arrive.

Agree with emmeff above but would add-
1. You could easily spend more time in and around Naples and visit eg. the Archaeological Museum, the historic centre around the duomo and via San Gregorio Armani, and outlying districts such as Pozzuoli and Ercolano
2. Look at the ferry schedules on line from Naples, not just the islands like Ischia and Capri but also the Amalfi coast including Amalfi, Positano, Sorrento
3. I suggest you forget Mt Sibillini area - it is difficult to reach using buses and trains and the area has not recovered fully from a major earthquake in 2016
4. An alternative Tuscan destination might be Lucca. Pienza is quite a small town -Montepulciano is bigger and more interesting, but note the train station is a long long way from the town, and the hourly bus from Montepulciano to Chiusi connects with slow trains on the Florence -Rome line.

Hi Emmeff, thanks so much, lots of useful information there. You seem to know Italy inside out, so please don't mind if I pick yu brain a little, because none of my friends/family have done Italy without an overpriced tour group. Do you think something like this would work out:
- 3 nights in Naples (so I can do day trips to Vesuvis/Capri/Amalfi) - previously i wanted to just spend a night because i would be landing in rome after flying for 14 hours straight, and i didn't think i'd made it very far after that. i don't want to stay in rome first and take the train to catch my flight back from rome on the last day because i think it's too much of a risk. but is it practical to do these day trip based out of naples?
- 3 nights in Florence (so i can make 1 day trip to Tuscany) - i am very skeptical about spending too much time in florence because i heard that because its located in a valley and doesn't get much wind during summers, making it one of the hottest cities in italy. but i do want to see all the museums and galleries and especially the domo and. how practical is it to stay as a small tuscan town near florence (eg. greve in chianti) and travel to florence as and when needed?
- 3 nights in Bormio, Lombardy (to use as a base for Stelvio National Park - )
- 3 nights in Rome

I think you're too concerned with the weather, and not concerned enough with the best use of your time. August is the hottest month of the year. That's the only time you can go to Italy, so either live with it or don't go. :-)

It doesn't matter how many nights you stay in a place; nobody goes somewhere so they can simply stay the night there. Go by how many days of sightseeing/activities you want. This will require time spent doing research, mainly in books, so you know what there is to choose from, then with details confirmed via Internet searches.

You also need to factor in the time it's going to take to get from one place to another, something which I think is missing from your plans at this stage. Checking out, getting to the bus/train station, travelling, getting from the bus/train station and checking in may take up to half a day each time you move one. This is one reason why I too think that you're trying to do too much in eleven sightseeing days.

Smaller town in Tuscany? Maybe consider Pitigliano?
I am done. The end.

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