The Amalfi Coast is hard to drive and even harder to park on — a narrow road carved into the rock above the sea, with hairpins that sit jammed for hours in high season, and a parking space that can cost as much as a meal for two. The good news is that you don't need a car. The blue SITA buses and the ferries link every village, and from your window or the deck you get Italy's most beautiful coastline without the worry of the wheel. Here's how to see it at leisure, in five stops.
Choose your base wisely
The first decision is where to sleep, and it matters more than you'd think. Positano is stunning, but the priciest and the most vertical — everything is steps. Amalfi, the village that gave the coast its name, is more central and easier to reach, with buses and ferries in every direction. Maiori and Minori, a little further east, are the kindest on the budget and even have sandy beaches — a rarity on this pebbly coast.
The practical advice: pick one village as your base and make day trips to the rest, rather than hauling your bags around. And the ferry is often faster, cooler and far more pleasant than the bus between the larger villages — from the water you see the coast the way it was meant to be seen, from below looking up.
Positano, at first light
The most photographed village on the coast is a cascade of pastel houses spilling toward a small beach — and it's packed from ten in the morning, when the day trips arrive. The trick is simple: come on the first ferry or stay overnight, climb and descend the stairs between the houses while it's cool and the morning clear, take your shot from the beach before it fills, then move on at midday as the crowds roll in. Even a single early hour gives you a Positano utterly unlike the overcrowded postcards.
An escape to Ischia
If you want a day to breathe away from the bustle of the coast, take the ferry to Ischia — the volcanic island in the Bay of Naples, with thermal springs, botanical gardens and a far more relaxed rhythm than its glamorous neighbour, Capri. The Aragonese Castle, joined to the island by a stone bridge, deserves a whole morning, and the beaches with their geothermally warmed water are a rarity. It's the kind of place where you end up staying an extra night without quite knowing how.
Ravello, up high, where it all goes quiet
At 350 metres above the sea, Ravello is the antidote to the crowds along the coast. You reach it by a local bus from Amalfi, up a short run of hairpins, and all at once the bustle is left below. The gardens of Villa Rufolo and the suspended terrace of Villa Cimbrone, with its balustrade of stone busts above the gulf, offer the view you see in every aerial photograph of the coast. In summer, Ravello hosts a music festival on a stage cantilevered out over the sea — catch a concert at sunset and it's hard to forget.
What to eat along the coast
The cooking here is simple and tied to the sea and to lemons — the giant Amalfi lemons, each the size of a fist, are the stars. Order scialatielli ai frutti di mare, the thick hand-made pasta with seafood; a fresh mozzarella di bufala from Campania; and, for dessert, delizia al limone, a dome of sponge filled with lemon cream. Limoncello, made from the peel of those same lemons, is drunk chilled at the end of the meal and best bought from small producers rather than the souvenir shops.
The Path of the Gods, for active mornings
If you want to see the coast from above, the „Sentiero degli Dei" — the Path of the Gods — links the village of Bomerano to Nocelle, high above Positano, along a trail with one of the most spectacular views in the Mediterranean. It's about three hours of easy-to-moderate walking, best done early in the morning while it's cool, with water and good shoes. At the end you descend toward Positano down a few hundred steps — your knees will know you did it, but the memory is worth it.
On the Amalfi Coast, the best way to travel is the one that lets you gaze out the window without holding the wheel.
Radu Ionescu