Costiera Amalfitana · Campania
Amalfi Coast
The most dramatic coastline in Europe. There is really nothing else to say.
Costiera Amalfitana · Campania
The most dramatic coastline in Europe. There is really nothing else to say.
The Amalfi Coast is not about one place. It is about the drive, the light on the water, the sequence of towns pinned to cliffs above a blue so deep it barely seems real. Each town has its own character: Positano for glamour, Ravello for music and quiet, Amalfi itself for history, Praiano for the people who have worked out that Positano has become extremely expensive and slightly exhausting.
When to go
May to early June. September to October.
The shoulder seasons are when the Amalfi Coast is actually enjoyable rather than simply spectacular. In May and September, the temperature is right, the light is extraordinary, and the coast road is navigable. In the height of summer, the road becomes a car park, the villages fill completely, and the experience narrows.
October on the Amalfi Coast is one of the better-kept secrets in Italian travel: warm enough to swim, quiet enough to walk, and with a softer, more golden quality to the light that the summer cannot quite achieve.
The Towns
Positano is beautiful and expensive and worth at least one night. The town is essentially vertical: stairs everywhere, no flat ground, views from every window. The ceramics are good. The lemons, from which the local limoncello is made, are extraordinary. Eat dinner somewhere high up and watch the lights come on across the bay.
Ravello sits above the coast, cool and quiet, looking out over the sea. The gardens of Villa Rufolo are among the most beautiful in Italy. The Ravello Festival runs through the summer, with classical concerts on a terrace that appears to hang over the water. Wagner composed part of Parsifal here. You can see why.
The One the Locals Recommend
Praiano sits between Positano and Amalfi: smaller than either, without the famous name, and consequently much more pleasant in the summer months. Almost no coach parties. Good fish, good wine, the same cliffs and the same blue water. Nesse knows Praiano well and recommends it with confidence.
Capri
Capri sits in the Bay of Naples, forty minutes by hydrofoil from the mainland, and it is one of those places that continues to surprise even when you have seen the photographs. The rock formations, the gardens, the particular blue of the Faraglioni sea stacks in afternoon light: these things are real, and more vivid than any image. The Blue Grotto, the famous sea cave that fills with an unearthly reflected light at low tide, is worth the effort to reach despite every logistical complication.
The two towns — Capri and Anacapri — have entirely different characters. Capri town, with its famous piazzetta, is glamorous and expensive and aware of itself. Anacapri, higher up the mountain, is quieter, cooler, and more genuinely Neapolitan. Nesse recommends at least one night on the island, time enough to find it after the day visitors have taken the last boat back.
Food & Drink
Stop in Naples on the way if you possibly can. Sfogliatella, the shell-shaped pastry filled with ricotta and candied citrus, from a proper Neapolitan pasticceria, is one of the great breakfasts of Italy. Then drive the coast and eat grilled swordfish overlooking the sea.
The Amalfi lemon, larger and sweeter than anything sold in a supermarket, appears in everything: limoncello, pastries, salad dressings, fish marinades. The proximity of Naples means the pasta here is exceptional. The seafood, obviously, is not optional.
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