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Day One

Depending on what time you arrive you may wish to explore the town of Formia immediately so as to familiarize yourself with the area and make the most of every minute of your holiday in Italy. Or you can just stay in the local area, unpack, get to know the flat and then go for a nice meal in one of the local restaurants.
  • Departure for Italy: Arrive at designated airport and collect luggage.
     
  • Once you have collected all your luggage, proceed into the arrivals lounge and either go to your car hire desk for car collection or find the queue for the bus transfer to the main railway station for train travel to Formia. Roma Termini is where you will need to go for Rome.
     
  • By car you should arrive in Formia approximately two hours later and by train the journey to Formia from Roma Termini should take one or two hours depending on which train you take.
     
  • If travelling by train we advise you to take a Taxi to the apartment from Formia station for this first journey with luggage. It should not cost more than 10 euro.
     
  • At the apartment you will meet myself or the contact person. We will give you a set of keys and show you where everything is and how it works.
     
  • If you have time, go to the local supermarket to buy what you need for the next few days, if you will be arriving late we advise you to bring essentials like milk, bread etc (you can stop at any motorway service station in Italy to buy these).
     
  • On our first evening we tend to go out for a meal either at Il Risorgimento – 10 minutes walk from the flat - (overlooking the Bay of Gaeta) or at Il Tartufo, just around the corner. If you feel up to it you could drive into Formia town centre and enjoy the ‘passeggiata’ time; strolling up and down the main street (the Via Vitruvio) and just take in the Italian holiday atmosphere and / or have an ice-cream at Lavezzi’s or an amazing strawberry and cream granita at Bar Tirreno.
Day Two

(if you need to hire a car in the Formia area you may wish to switch days two and three around as the car hire offices are all in the town of Gaeta.)
  • Have breakfast at the local bar or at home. The closest bar to the flat is Bar Appia: Turn right onto the Appia from Via Don Luigi Sturzo, walk about 100 yards and the bar is on the right. After breakfast buy your drinks and picnic lunch from Sidis, your local supermarket.
     
  • Trip to the Reggia di Caserta – This is a good first excursion as you do not have to leave at the crack of dawn. Caserta is the beautiful palace of the former Kings of Naples, built to rival the Palace of Versailles in Paris. You should tour the palace before lunch then have a picnic lunch in the grounds, after lunch you could explore the extensive gardens and walk or take a horse and carriage to the waterfall.
Day Three
  • Have breakfast at home or in the bar. Sort out a picnic lunch or at least plenty of water.
     
  • You may wish to go for a walk around the ‘Centro Storico’ of Formia followed by a trip to the Roman town of Gaeta. If you wish to hire a car for a few days you will need to go to Gaeta to do this. You could have lunch at ‘Zi Anna’ at the port in Formia town centre if you want to treat yourself to some local seafood delights.
     
  • In the afternoon you could go to the beach at Serapo, which is the beach attached to Gaeta or you may wish to go to Vindicio between Formia and Gaeta for windsurfing. Follow the road signs to locate them. If you prefer to go to a local beach within walking distance to the flat, we advise you to go to the beach at the Fagiano Hotel. Turn left out of Don Luigi Sturzo, turn left on the Appia and walk about 200 yards; the Fagiano is across the road on your right. Ask for ‘Servizio Spiaggia’ and you will be given a parasol on their private beach with sunbeds or deck chairs and use of their hot and cold showers. A drinks service is provided throughout the day and lunch in their beautiful terrace restaurant can be purchased by day guests. The view of the Bay of Gaeta from this restaurant is fantastic. The cost will be €15 - €20 per day but it is worth it.
Day Four
  • This may be a good day to visit Pompeii and Naples or one or the other. Picnic lunches may be eaten at Pompeii but there is also a reasonably priced cafeteria among the ruins. If you are going to Naples on a separate day, you may wish to combine the Pompeii trip with a trip to the Vesuvius. You can actually go down into the crater.
     
  • If you have a car you could drive to Pompeii quite easily as it is only about an hour away. It is accessible by train but you will need to allow time to change trains in Naples.
     
  • Depending on how long you wish to stay in Pompeii, you may or may not have time to combine it with a trip to Naples. If you leave Pompeii at about 2:00 p.m. and are travelling by car, you will be able to go to Naples by car and see the main sights, do some shopping and check out the world famous view of the Bay of Naples from Posillipo.
     
  • If you are staying longer than one week you may wish to do a separate trip to Naples where you do not take the car but go by train from Formia. Taking a car to Naples is never much fun. This way you can get there early in the morning and visit the world famous Museo Archeologico. It would be well worth it.
Day Five
  • If you do visit Rome it is not worth doing so by car as driving in Rome is impossible.You should take a bus or taxi, or drive to Formia station then travel by train to Rome. Try to catch a train at about 7:00 am so you will arrive by 8:30 am or earlier.
     
  • You should visit St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican first as it gets very crowded. Take a metro train to San Pietro to do this; metro tickets only cost €1 each and you can travel anywhere in Rome with them. If you are keen to see the Sistine Chapel start queueing for it immediately as the queues get longer later in the day. The Vatican and Sistine Chapel visit will take you until lunch time (depending on queues), you will then have time to visit the Spanish Steps, the Forum, Piazza Venezia, the Colosseum, and the Trevi Fountain. Take a metro train to Spagna from the Vatican and you can walk to the other places as they are reasonably close by.
     
  • Your return time to Formia is up to you but we advise you to buy a return ticket and to get yourself a train time table so you are not having to worry about buying tickets and looking for train times when you are tired at the end of a Rome day.
     
  • We advise you to take picnic food and lots of cold water as eating and drinking in Rome is very expensive and probably not good value for money. In August many restaurants, bars and supermarkets are closed as Italians still tend to take much of August off to escape to mountain or sea resorts (like Formia).
Day Six
  • To recover from the Rome day we would advise you to have a relaxing day at the beach.
     
  • If you have a car you could treat yourself to a day at the Aqua Park in Itri; there are three water slides and two swimming areas or you could spend the day at La Playa in Sperlonga where you would have access to their lovely clean beach and a super, luxury sea front swimming pool.
     
  • If you do not have a car you may wish to treat yourselves to a day by the pool or go to Vindicio beach in Formia by bus for the windsurfing.
Any Thursday
  • If you are in Formia on a Thursday and if you like markets, we advise you to adapt your itinerary and include a day out in the beautiful medieval market town of Sessa Aurunca. Sessa is in the Campania region of southern Italy just a 30 minute drive from the flat
     
  • To make this trip worthwhile, you should leave Formia early so you can benefit fully from the market experience. Aim to get to Sessa by 8:30 a.m. if you can so you can have a good couple of hours at the market. The market closes at about 12 noon.
     
  • After Sessa Market we advise you to have lunch in the Trattoria Da Nicola in Sessa. This is excellent local cuisine at a very affordable price. A two or three course home cooked meal will cost approximately €15 per person – including a glass of wine and bottled water.
     
  • After Da Nicola you should have a walk around this fascinating town; the 9th Century Cathedral is unusual as it was built with the stone blocks which formed part of the seats of the Roman Theatre. The Roman Theatre itself is certainly worth a visit as is the Market Square and the Ducal Palace. What is special about Sessa is that it is not at all a tourist centre but a living, working southern Italian town. In fact going to Sessa really is like going back in time. If you are there when we are in Italy we would be happy to meet you for a drink or for lunch at Da Nicola as we stay in Sessa when we are in Italy in the summer.
     
  • After lunch and a walk around town, you could spend a few hours at the local beach. We go to Sinuessa beach when we are in the area.
     
  • A good way to end your day out in the Campania region is to have a meal at Il Gelso. The owner Fernando is a good friend of ours and treats our guests very well, he is particularly good with children; when he is not too busy, he invites children into the kitchen and gets them to make their own pizzas.
Day Seven
  • If this is your last day, we advise you stay by the beach or pool, and have a relaxing day before you leave for the airport. I or my Italian contact will meet you to pick up the keys.
     
  • If you have booked another week, there is plenty more things you can do in the area. Another trip to Rome is a possibility or spend a whole day in Naples
 
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