Sixty kilometres carved between sea and rock, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997. The SS163 Amalfitana runs along sheer cliffs above the Tyrrhenian from Vietri sul Mare to the tip of the peninsula, threading through the villages that invented Italian tourism.
From Sorrento the coast begins on the other side of the mountain: it is the classic excursion for anyone staying here, and it can be done a dozen different ways.
Getting there from the B&B
By car: cross the ridge at Sant'Agata sui Due Golfi and drop down to Positano in about forty minutes, Amalfi in an hour, Ravello in an hour and twenty. The road is magnificent, but it is narrow, full of blind hairpins and coaches that occupy both lanes. In high season the times double and parking is scarce and expensive.
By SITA bus from Sorrento: the same road without the stress of driving it. The option we recommend most often to anyone not in a hurry.
By boat from Marina Piccola, seven minutes' walk from the B&B: a seasonal service, roughly mid-April to mid-October. It is the best way of all — you see the coast from the water, as sailors saw it for centuries, and you skip the traffic entirely.
With a driver, by van or private boat: the no-thought solution if there are four or more of you. We can arrange it — speak to whoever checked you in and we will handle the rest.
The stops, west to east
- Positano, the vertical, most photographed village, forty minutes from Sorrento.
- Praiano, quieter and less crowded, with the small Gavitella beach facing west — one of the few on this coast where you see the sun set over the sea.
- The Fiordo di Furore, the only true fjord inlet in the Mediterranean, with its fishermen's hamlet beneath the road bridge.
- Conca dei Marini and the Emerald Grotto, a karst cavity where the light enters from below the waterline and turns everything green.
- Amalfi, the old maritime republic, with the cathedral of Sant'Andrea and its Arab-Norman Cloister of Paradise. It is the liveliest and best-served town on the coast.
- Atrani, ten minutes' walk from Amalfi: the smallest municipality in Italy, gathered around a little square by the sea, and almost always ignored by the coaches.
- Ravello, high on a rock spur. The "city of music": the gardens of Villa Cimbrone with its Terrace of Infinity, and Villa Rufolo, which gave Wagner the garden of Klingsor in Parsifal.
When to go
April to June and September to October. In July and August the coast road is saturated and every stop becomes a hunt for a parking space.
Ravello hosts a classical music festival in summer, with open-air concerts overlooking the sea: if your dates coincide, it is worth the evening.
Our advice
Do not try to do it all in one day. The temptation is Positano–Amalfi–Ravello in a single run: it is possible, but you spend the day on the road and see very little. Pick two stops, not three.
If you only have one day and want the best return on effort: boat to Amalfi in the morning, bus or taxi up to Ravello in the early afternoon, back in the evening.
And if you are driving: fill up before you leave, fold your mirrors in on the narrow stretches, and do not hurry. On the Amalfitana, lost time is never recovered.
Positano seen from the sea