Amalfi in the Afternoon.

The Amalfi Coast – you’ve all heard of it, you read about it here, and you’ve included it on your 2-week Italian itinerary. Great! Not sure if you know that it’s also a town. You’re forgiven, it’s not as famous as the large, disco-filled Sorrento, or the film set-ready Positano. It’s just tiny, quaint Amalfi, folded between two craggy promontories like a flower growing out of a crack in a rock.If you have more than, I don’t know, one day on the Amalfi Coast, add Amalfi to your tour. If you have more than a couple of days, spend the night. You can easily arrive by coach bus from Sorrento or Positano, or you can spend a little cash and have your hotel at one of those places order you up a car. Amalfi is also the ideal departure point for your day- or overnight trip to Ravello (also by coach bus or taxi). 

Where’s Liz?

The dude in this picture chose to drink from the other fountain.

Amalfi is all about the views. I stayed with my aunts in the very special Miramalfi Hotel (most of the pictures of the water and coastline in this post were taken from the hotel terraces). Just on the edge of town (you can walk to the main square, or take a 10 euro taxi ride). We didn’t see much point in leaving, since the views were so beautiful we wondered if it was possible to feel a view. Cliffs on the right, town on the left, sapphire blue in front of you. Little white dots that turn out to be sailboats zig-zagging around, and you’re overlooking all of it with a bird’s eye view. Afternoon cocktails, dinners, breakfasts so good we wanted to giggle, all of them consumed in this hotel while absorbing this view and debating whether it was better first thing in the morning, at dusk, or even in the middle of the night.

Breakfast fit for three queens (more like three Knights).

What Liz sees.

Is this the best time of day to enjoy the Amalfi Coast view?

The Amalfi Coast View at Dusk.

Is this the best time of day for an Amalfi Coast View?

The light changes every five minutes.

The last thing I saw from my window at night. Lights like gold dust.

No matter where you’re staying, take a boat ride, or a dip, or both. The Miramalfi had direct water access via stairs down to the pool, and then more stairs down to sea-level lounge chairs, and finally a ladder separating air from salty, sparkling, Mediterranean water. I had some real work to do one day, so as my aunts went off to sightsee I took this computer, on which I am now writing this blog, down to the seafront lounge chairs and felt for a moment like I had figured Life out.

PROOF that I was working here.

Amalfi, the town, has two main things to do: Eat, and see the Duomo.

Eating in Amalfi is a no-brainer. Seafood, more seafood, caprese salads, gelato, limoncello.

A ladies’ lunch at the Hotel Miramalfi.

Food, glorious food. Tomato, bread, mozzarella, olives, tuna, and basil salad.

This is Italian food, too.

Know what you can buy in Amalfi? Limoncello. They are happy to sell it to you.

The Duomo is also a no-brainer. Unlike most cathedrals in Italy, there was a small entrance fee, but the Duomo offers major bang for your buck. It keeps going and going. The long staircase from the square up to the entrance is fun enough, and then the Moorish-looking courtyard surrounded by nooks and crannies adorned with medieval frescos depicting saints, some of them vibrant, others fading fast. Then into an art gallery, then the old part of the cathedral, decorated within an inch of its life with crystal chandeliers, gold leaf, marble columns, and paintings, and then the more modern part of the cathedral, a mere few centuries old, where very randomly a rock band was rehearsing.

Your future knee replacements are worth it!

This is probably the most expensive real estate in the world, attached to the Duomo, but still no dryer (bonus points for hanging the bra out in one of the busiest and photographed public squares in the Mediterranean).

The cortile in the Duomo di Amalfi

Inside the courtyard of the Duomo di Amalfi.

Art in the Duomo di Amalfi.

Inside the Duomo di Amalfi.

A view of Amalfi from the Duomo.

Time is usually of the essence on an Italy trip and there is So. Much. To. See. Well, call the office and tell them you’re prolonging your trip by a few days, and hit up Amalfi (and Ravello, just up the hill). Not just the Coast. The Town.

Getting there:

Ferries and Buses from Positano, Sorrento, Salerno: INFO HERE (ask the hotel at your departure point (Rome, Naples, etc.) for help with this. Don’t try to be a hero if it’s overwhelming. Ask!

Car: Rent your own if you don’t mind white-knuckling it all the way there. Otherwise your hotel can arrange a car and driver from Naples, Positano, Sorrento, or wherever you are staying before you go to Amalfi. The price can be high but if you’re splitting it with several people, it’s not prohibitive. And being able to relax and enjoy the view is priceless. Plus, you get dropped off at your hotel, not a bus station.

Train: There is no train to Amalfi. You can take the train to Naples, Sorrento, or Salerno and then a ferry, bus, or car.

Where to stay: The Miramalfi is the only place I can personally recommend, and I do.

Where to eat: We ate at the hotel every night! It was wonderful. Since I only give personal recommendations on this site I can only recommend this one, but I’m sure you can find superb options using your ten little fingers and the internet.

From Sorrento to Positano to Amalfi

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