Amalfi Coast Italy

The Amalfi Coast

The path that connects Bomerano to Positano above the cliffs is called the Sentiero degli Dei, the Path of the Gods. The name is not immodest. You walk along a limestone ledge 400 metres above the sea, looking down over terraced lemon groves, past stone watchtowers, with the curve of the coast stretching in both directions. The final descent to Positano involves roughly 1,500 steps. Allow three hours minimum, start early in the morning to avoid the heat, and bring considerably more water than you think you need. The path repays the effort at a ratio that is difficult to communicate until you’ve done it.

The Amalfi Coast runs for about 50 kilometres along the southern edge of the Sorrentine Peninsula in Campania, southwest Italy. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of the most visited stretches of coastline in Europe, and during July and August almost aggressively crowded. The best times to visit are April through early June and September through October: the weather is good, the water swimmable, and the buses don’t drive past your stop because they’re full.

The Towns

Positano is the most photographed: coloured houses stacked vertically down a cliff face to a pebble beach, the church dome of Santa Maria Assunta visible from the water. The town is beautiful and knows it. The prices reflect this. Spiaggia Grande, the main beach, charges for loungers but is the natural gathering point.

Ravello is the one worth making effort for that most people skip. It sits 365 metres above sea level, connected to the coast road by a road that most buses don’t take. Villa Rufolo, the medieval villa whose gardens inspired Wagner to write the Parsifal magic garden scenes, has a terrace looking directly out over the coast. Villa Cimbrone’s Belvedere of Infinity, a balustrade terrace at the cliff edge, gives a view that Greta Garbo called the most beautiful in the world, which may be the best celebrity endorsement in Italian tourism.

Amalfi itself has the Cathedral of Saint Andrew, a Norman-Arab-Byzantine construction with a 13th-century bronze door and a crypt containing relics of the apostle Andrew. The cathedral is significant and overlooked in proportion to how crowded the town square around it gets in season. The Arsenal Museum nearby preserves the remains of the medieval harbour works from when Amalfi was a maritime republic rivalling Venice and Genoa.

Getting Around

The SS163 coast road is one of the most scenic drives in Italy and one of the most nerve-wracking. Forty-eight hairpin curves carved into the cliffs, buses and trucks in both directions, and a width that seems inadequate. This is not a road for anyone who needs wide margins. SITA buses connect all the main towns and are considerably less stressful than driving; they do get crowded in peak season and sometimes don’t stop if they’re full.

The ferry service connecting Positano, Amalfi, Salerno, and Naples operates from May through October and is the most pleasant transport option. Seeing the cliff towns from the water level, looking up, gives a spatial understanding of the coast that driving along it does not.

Food

The Amalfi sfusato lemon, elongated and thin-skinned, holds a Protected Designation of Origin. It grows on the vertiginous terraces above the coast, harvested by hand, and it’s what makes the limoncello here taste different from any version made with lemons grown elsewhere. Buy a small bottle from a producer rather than a tourist shop.

The seafood here is Tyrrhenian: anchovies, sea bream, locally caught tuna, and the grilled squid and octopus that appear on almost every menu. Scialatielli, a short thick pasta shape particular to the coast, is typically served with seafood sauce. In Ravello and the hillside towns away from the tourist-restaurant strip, the quality improves noticeably.

Where to Stay

Staying in Positano or Amalfi during high season requires booking months ahead and accepting premium prices. Minori and Maiori, smaller towns without the same profile, offer considerably more affordable accommodation with easy bus access to the main towns. Ravello’s small hotels offer the best combination of quality and a slight remove from the coastal crowds.