Can I leave the airport on a layover in Sorrento?

The Curreri coach departs from outside Arrivals at Capodichino and runs to a stop near Sorrento's Circumvesuviana station on Corso Italia, a journey of 75 to 90 minutes depending on traffic along the coast road past Castellammare di Stabia. A ticket costs about €10, roughly $11.20 at 0.8909 EUR to the dollar, and during the day coaches run every 60 to 90 minutes. The last return from Sorrento leaves in the early evening in October, so check the Curreri timetable before you leave the terminal. For a solo traveller, we think the coach is the safest choice: your bag goes in the hold and every passenger gets a seat. The Circumvesuviana train from Napoli Garibaldi costs under €5 and takes 65 to 70 minutes, but that's after you've already crossed Naples to reach it, and its packed carriages are where pickpockets work the region hardest.

Three hours on the ground covers Sorrento's small core on foot. Corso Italia takes you from the station to Piazza Tasso in 5 minutes, and from the railing on Viale Enrico Caruso you look straight down into the Vallone dei Mulini, a cool, damp gorge with an abandoned flour mill choked in ferns. Via San Cesareo leaves the piazza as a narrow, shaded lane about 400 metres long, smelling of lemon peel and fried sfogliatelle, with shopkeepers pressing thimbles of limoncello on you as you pass. The Villa Comunale terrace looks across the Bay of Naples to Vesuvius, and a lift there, about €1, drops you to Marina Piccola if you want salt air on your face. Marina Grande, the old fishing harbour, is 15 minutes downhill, and the climb back is the steepest of the day. Capri and Positano are out of reach on a layover: the ferry or bus to either takes up the time you have.

Work backwards from your departure. Be on a coach leaving Sorrento at least four hours before an international flight, so that a slow afternoon on the coast road still gets you to Capodichino with two hours to spare. If the last coach has gone, a taxi back to the airport costs a fixed fare of well over €100, so agree the price before you get in.