Get as much time in Istanbul as you possibly can!

If you leave the villa early on Thursday, you have time for Pompeii, a quick piece of pizza and a church or museum in the late afternoon in Naples. If the Veiled Christ is your main interest, the Cappella Sansevero is open until 6:00, and you can see it in half an hour or so.

The airport in Naples is easy to get to and easy to navigate, so (I think) you even have time (a couple of hours) for a museum or nice walk on Friday morning.

Where is the villa?

Normally I am not a fan of encouraging people to attempt a day trip to Pompei from the Amalfi coast, but in this case it might be better -- but it all depends on where that villa is located.

If you've got a 7 person van picking you up, you can probably arrange with the same van to take you to Sorrento or Salerno and proceed from there to see Pompei, the Veiled Christ and the museum, in whichever order works best. If there is no easy way back to the villa at the end of the day using trains and buses, arrange for a return pick up at either Salerno or Sorrento. With 7 of you, the price is probably affordable.

That way, you could go to Istanbul on Thursday.

You have from Sunday through Wednesday on the Amalfi coast during a time of year when sunlight is at its longest. Even assuming you are daytripping to Capri, I still think you have time to do everything of interest along the coast and fit in a daytrip to Pompei/Naples.

Spend the additional day in Istanbul! It's one of the most amazing travel destinations. Why not visit Pompeii while you are in amalfi? You can easy do it with the local train from Sorrento.

I had 8 days in the Amalfi/Naples area and on a different trip, 8 days in Istanbul, and I didn't feel I had enough time in EITHER place and you are trying to do both in 8 days. Is that really what you want to do? How long is the flight you found? Did you find a non-stop? Those are both great destinations but it seems like a lot of time/trouble to get all the way from Naples to Istanbul to only have 2 or 3 days there. Is there someplace else you've always wanted to go that might make a better pairing with the AC/Naples, that would either take less effort to get to or be a destination that two days would feel like enough time. However, if you really want to do it then I would try to do Naples/Pompeii as a day trip from the Amalfi Coast villa to get as much time as possible for Istanbul.

thank you all!!!!

@ isabel - i know...i could have done one country in 17 days versus attempting 2. It was sort of the whole group deciding so now im gonna make it work

So..the Villa is Conca dei marini - that was all that was available for 8 of us with a pool...we only have the villa for 5 nights. But I love the suggestion of Istanbul on thursday or friday even!

We arrive at Naples at 9pm from SF and villa picks us up so I"m guessing we won't be at the villa until 11pm that night.

Sunday we're just going to relax in the villa after that horrendous flight...check out the beach at Conca...roam around that village mayyybe in the evening.

Monday: i want to check out positano..some of the beaches around there and spend the entire day there walking around relaxing...
tuesday: capri
wednesday: to ravello by bus, walk down to amalfi relax and return to Conca via boat/bus.
Thursday: we check oout....

So i guess if we skip naples altogether we can see Pompeii from the villa on Thursday by a private car....if villa has an accomodation spend thursday night at the villa.

Friday: leave for Istanbul versus Saturday.? So from villa directly to Naples airport private van.

This skips Naples altogether....what about my naples pizza then?!

OH and Isabel from Istanbul we're going to Ephesus, Pammukale and Cappo and then flying back to SF from Istanbul....

Well that makes more sense. It sounded like you were going all the way to Istanbul for just 2-3 days total. In that case I would skip Naples this trip. Although I will say the best pizza I ever ate was in Naples. But the pizza in the rest of Italy is not too shabby either so you'll get some on the AC.

definitely Istanbul, as long as you can!!
We did a stop in Pompei on the way to the airport with a private guide arranged by the car servi

definitely Istanbul, as long as you can!!
We did a stop in Pompei on the way to the airport with a private guide arranged by the car service. It was short and could have stayed longer but definitely saw the highlights.