The Amalfi Coast: Positano, Ravello & the Art of Italian Coastal Luxury

The Amalfi Coast — the 50-kilometer stretch of coastal highway between Sorrento and Salerno — is not the most comfortable destination in Italy. The road is narrow, the parking is minimal, the hotels are carved into cliffs accessible only by boat or steep stone steps, and in July and August the summer crowds reach a level that tests everyone's patience. None of this matters in the slightest when you are sitting on a sun-warmed terrace above the Mediterranean with a glass of cold Falanghina, watching the fishing boats cross the bay below.

The Amalfi Coast is one of the most visually spectacular places on earth, and it has been drawing artists, writers, and admirers since the Romans built their summer villas here two thousand years ago. Gore Vidal lived in Ravello. Jacqueline Kennedy honeymooned on the coast. John Steinbeck wrote about Positano with barely concealed love. The glamour is built into the stone.

Where to Stay: Cliff-Hanging Perfection

Le Sirenuse (sirenuse.it) in Positano is the most storied hotel on the Amalfi Coast and one of the most beloved in Italy. The Sersale family has operated it since 1951 from their ancestral 18th-century palazzo, and its 58 rooms and suites — hand-painted majolica tile floors, antique furniture, hand-embroidered linens — are among the most beautiful hotel rooms in Europe. The rooftop bar, with its direct view across the bay to the village's tiered pastel buildings, is the Coast's most magical late-afternoon gathering point. Rooms from $1,100/night. sirenuse.it.

Villa Cimbrone (hotelvillacimbrone.com) in Ravello — perched 350 meters above the sea on a clifftop garden — is the most romantically situated hotel on the entire coast. Its Terrace of Infinity, an 11th-century belvedere lined with marble busts overlooking a 180-degree panorama of the Tyrrhenian Sea, is described by Gore Vidal (who saw it countless times) as the most beautiful view in the world. Rooms from $900/night.

Il San Pietro di Positano (ilsanpietro.it) is built vertically into a cliff face south of Positano — accessible by private funicular — with rooms that face directly out to sea from their private terraces. The hotel's beach club, reached by the funicular, is the most coveted stretch of private beach on the coast. Rooms from $1,200/night.

The Lemon Coast: Amalfi's Defining Flavor

The sfusato amalfitano — the enormous, thick-skinned lemon grown on terraced groves throughout the coast — is the Coast's most distinctive ingredient. Protected by IGP designation, these lemons are sweeter and less acidic than ordinary lemons, and their zest has a perfume that is unlike anything commercially available.

Limoncello made from sfusato lemons bears no resemblance to the commercial product — the family-made version served ice-cold after dinner at every coast restaurant is an essential experience. Marina Grande restaurant in Amalfi town makes its own from estate lemons; Ristorante Donna Rosa in Positano sources from a single lemon grove above the village.

The Boat Day: The Coast's Essential Experience

Renting a private wooden Gozzo boat — the traditional clinker-built fishing vessel of the coast — with a local skipper for a full day's exploration is the single experience that makes the Amalfi Coast incomparable. Departing from Positano's main beach, a full day covers: the Emerald Grotto, the sea caves of Capri, a swimming stop in the Faraglioni rock arches, lunch at a beachside trattoria accessible only by water, and return via the Li Galli islands (once owned by Rudolf Nureyev) at sunset.

Getting There

The nearest airports are Naples (NAP) and Rome (FCO). From Naples, the coast is a 90-minute drive via the Autostrada and the SS163 coastal highway. The hydrofoil from Naples to Positano (45 minutes) is the most glamorous approach in summer.