Originally Posted by JMN57

Driving in Italy is overly criticized as, in many cases, it is both convenient and necessary. That said, Rome and Amalfi are two places that present significant difficulties. OP may have parking available (free? cost?) at both places but realize that the moment you drive somewhere, you are going to have to find parking. If the reason for renting the car is to get from Rome to Amalfi and back (for 4 people) that's fine. But driving around the Amalfi Coast is only half the problem, the other half is where do you put the car when you get to where you are going. Pompeii? Certain tourist sites, OK, there is a parking lot. But elsewhere parking will be hard to find and expensive. If you can, reserve it (for example, there's a great restaurant in Paraggi - near Portofino, but parking in that town is impossible so I always reserve parking before I go).

Relative to paying for parking, download the EasyPark app. It's a lot easier to pay for parking with it and, if you are going to be late getting back to your car you can add time with the app. In some cities, it helps to have their sticker in the window (print out the logo and tape it to the window) as a prompt to the ticket writers to check to see if you've paid (rather than the paper receipt on the dash).