Punta Campanella is the tip of the Sorrento peninsula, the point where the mainland stops and the channel separating it from Capri begins. Since 1997 it has been a Marine Protected Area, one of the most important in the Mediterranean for biodiversity and the quality of its seabed.
There are no roads, bars or beach clubs: you arrive on foot or by boat, and that is precisely the reason to go.
The trail
The classic route starts from the village of Termini, a hamlet of Massa Lubrense, and drops towards the point in about an hour, between dry-stone walls, olive groves, prickly pears and broom. It is waymarked and not technical, but it is a real trail: stony, uneven ground, exposed stretches, and no water anywhere along it.
Remember that you walk down on the way out and up on the way back. The return climb takes longer than the descent and needs to be tackled with enough water — allow two and a half to three hours for the whole round trip with stops.
At the end of the trail stands the Torre di Minerva, built for Robert of Anjou between 1334 and 1335 and rebuilt in 1556 after being destroyed by Turkish raiders. It formed part of the watchtower system that guarded the whole coast. Below it, on the rocks, the remains of Roman structures emerge, and the water is a blue that looks nothing like the sea off a serviced beach.
Getting there from the B&B
Termini is about twenty-five minutes by car from the B&B. Parking in the village is limited and fills up early in summer: arrive in the morning, or expect to leave the car some way off.
There is also a bus connection to Termini via Massa Lubrense: slower, but it removes the parking problem.
The third option is the sea: many boat trips from Marina Piccola run along the point, and that is the way to see the cliff from below, as sailors always saw it.
Diving and snorkelling
For anyone who goes underwater this is one of the finest stretches of the coast: posidonia meadows, submerged caves, walls dropping steeply away. Because it is a protected area, access is regulated by zone and some activities are permitted only through authorised centres. Current rules are on the Marine Protected Area website.
When to go
Spring and autumn. In summer the trail is in full sun for almost its entire length with no shade to shelter in: if you go in July or August, set off at dawn or in the late afternoon.
May and October are the perfect months — Mediterranean scrub in flower, or low warm light, right temperatures, few people.
Our advice
Hiking boots, or at least trainers with a proper tread — not sandals. Water, hat, sunscreen: there is nothing to buy along the way.
If you want to swim at the end, bring rock shoes: you enter the water over rock, there is no sand.
And do not set off with darkness coming. The return is uphill, the path is unlit, and at sunset the light goes quickly behind the mountain.
Punta Campanella coast