The Amalfi Coast is the southern side of the Sorrento Peninsula, about 50 kilometres of cliffs between Positano and Vietri sul Mare, with a string of towns built wherever a valley meets the sea: Positano, Praiano, Amalfi, Atrani, Minori, Maiori, Cetara and Vietri, and Ravello and Scala on the heights above. One narrow road, the Amalfitana, links them, with buses and boats doing most of the work in summer.
Amalfi was the capital of a medieval sea republic, and its cathedral, its paper mills and the ironworks in the valley behind it date from that time. Ravello has the gardens and the views, Positano the beach and the steep lanes, and the smaller towns the lemon terraces. The ferries along the coast and the Sentiero degli Dei walk above Positano are on Italy's list.
Climb to Amalfi Cathedral and its Cloister of Paradise
Duomo di Sant'Andrea, Piazza Duomo, Amalfi
1 hourNo booking needed
Climb sixty-two steep steps to bronze doors cast in Constantinople, then a cloister of interlaced white arches around a garden of palms.
What it is
Sixty-two wide, steep steps lead up from Piazza Duomo to the cathedral of Sant'Andrea, the reminder that Amalfi was once a sea republic trading with Byzantium. Look first at the bronze doors, cast in Constantinople before 1066 and the earliest post-Roman bronze doors made for Italy.
How to do it
The visit, on one ticket, goes through the Cloister of Paradise, built in the 13th century in an Arab-Norman style of interlaced white arches around a garden of palms, then the Diocesan Museum in the 9th-century Basilica of the Crucifix, the first church on the site, and down to the crypt where the relics of Saint Andrew the Apostle lie.
Good to know
Hours change with the season, so check at the cloister entrance. Come early, before the first ferries and coaches fill the square.
Walk the gardens of Villa Rufolo, Wagner's garden of Klingsor
Villa Rufolo, Piazza Duomo, Ravello
1 hourNo booking needed
Terraced gardens high above Amalfi where Richard Wagner saw the magic garden of Klingsor for Parsifal, still the stage for summer concerts.
What it is
Ravello sits high above Amalfi, and Villa Rufolo, on its cathedral square, was laid out in the 13th century by the Rufolo family, merchants one of whom appears in Boccaccio's Decameron. A Scotsman, Francis Neville Reid, restored it in the mid 1800s, and in 1880 Richard Wagner visited and saw in its terraced gardens the magic garden of Klingsor for Parsifal. A Wagner concert is still held there each year, and the Ravello Festival, 4 July to 5 September in 2026, holds concerts in the villa.
How to do it
The villa opens daily 9:00 to 20:00, last entry 19:30. Tickets cost €8, €6 for over 65s and children 5 to 12, and are sold only at the entrance. Free guided tours in Italian and English run on the first Saturday of each month.
Good to know
Hours are shorter on concert days.
Time needed
1 hour
Best time
Morning, or a summer evening for a festival concert
Stand on the Terrace of Infinity at Villa Cimbrone
Villa Cimbrone, Via Santa Chiara, Ravello
1 hourNo booking needed
A balustrade lined with marble busts hanging over the sea, the coast far below, at the end of a cliff-top garden in Ravello.
What it is
In Ravello, Villa Cimbrone goes back to at least the 11th century, but what visitors come for is the work of an Englishman, Ernest Beckett, later Lord Grimthorpe, who bought it in 1904 and remade the villa and its cliff-top gardens. The garden ends at the Terrazza dell'Infinito, the Terrace of Infinity, a balustrade lined with marble busts hanging over the sea, with the coast far below. The Bloomsbury writers Virginia Woolf and E. M. Forster stayed here, and Greta Garbo stayed here with Leopold Stokowski in the late 1930s.
How to do it
The villa is now a hotel, and its gardens are open to day visitors for a ticket, €10 according to recent guides.
Good to know
The terrace is a favourite for marriage proposals and photo shoots, so come early or late.
Time needed
1 hour
Best time
Early morning or late afternoon, when the terrace is quieter
Make a sheet of Amalfi paper at the Museo della Carta
Museo della Carta, Via delle Cartiere 23, Amalfi
45 minutes, 1 and a half hours with the workshopBook ahead
Restored water-powered machinery in an old paper mill up the valley of the mills, and a workshop where you make your own sheet.
What it is
Behind Amalfi's seafront, the town climbs inland into the Valle dei Mulini, the valley of the mills, where the stream once drove the paper mills making carta bambagina, Amalfi's heavy handmade paper. One of them, owned by Nicola Milano of an old papermaking family, became the Museo della Carta in 1969. Its machinery has been restored to working order, and the visit shows how paper was made by hand with water power. The first floor adds a library and prints on the craft.
How to do it
A standard ticket is for a self-guided visit; the guided visit with the Handmade Paper Experience adds a workshop where you make your own sheet. It opens daily from 10:00 to 19:00 from 1 March.
Good to know
Buy at the museum shop, or online at least 48 hours ahead.
Hike the Valle delle Ferriere to the ruined ironworks
Valle delle Ferriere, Scala and Amalfi
Half a dayFree
A shaded gorge of rock, moss and running water behind Amalfi, with giant ferns and the ruins of the sea republic's ironworks.
What it is
Inland from Amalfi, the valley behind the town turns into a shaded gorge of rock, moss and running water. The Valle delle Ferriere is a state nature reserve of about 455 hectares, protected since the 1970s, with a permanent stream fed by springs and many specimens of the giant fern Woodwardia radicans, a survivor from a far older, warmer flora. It takes its name from the ironworks of the Amalfi Republic, which made nails for its ships; their ruins stand about halfway along the trail.
How to do it
Walk up from Amalfi past the paper museum and the old mills, or come down from Pontone, a hamlet of Scala, by a path with some steep rock-cut steps.
Good to know
Wear shoes with grip, since the rocks near the water are slippery, and do not leave the marked path.
Time needed
Half a day
Best time
A warm day from spring to autumn, after dry weather
Climb down into the Furore fjord, under the coast road
Fiordo di Furore, SS163 Amalfitana
1 to 2 hoursFree
Climb down about 200 steps from the coast road to a tiny free beach under an arched bridge, deep in a cleft in the cliffs.
What it is
Between Praiano and Amalfi, the coast road crosses a deep, narrow cleft cut into the cliffs by the Schiato stream, on an arched bridge about 30 metres high. The locals call it a fjord, though geologists would say ría. At the bottom is a tiny free beach with fishermen's houses, an old paper mill and its drying loft, and boats pulled up on the stones; Roberto Rossellini and Anna Magnani lived here, and he filmed part of L'amore in the fjord. The bridge is also a stage of the world high-diving championship.
How to do it
A stairway of about 200 steps leads down from the coast road at the bridge. There is nowhere to park along the road, so come on the SITA bus between Amalfi and Sorrento, which stops near the bridge.
Good to know
The gorge loses the sun early in the afternoon, so swim in the morning.
Grotta dello Smeraldo, Via Smeraldo, Conca dei Marini
1 hour from the road, 1 and a half by boat from AmalfiNo booking needed
Row through a sea cave where light from an underwater opening turns the water intense green around columns of limestone.
What it is
A fisherman, Luigi Buonocore, found this sea cave in 1932 at Conca dei Marini, about 4 km from Amalfi. Light enters through an underwater opening and turns the water an intense green, and limestone columns rise out of the water. In 1956 a ceramic nativity scene was placed on the seabed, and it can still be seen through the water.
How to do it
The visit is by rowing boat inside the cave. You can reach it from the coast road by a lift or steps down from the bus stop above, or on the boats that leave from Amalfi's harbour.
Good to know
The official listing gives daily opening from 9:00 to 14:40, but hours vary, and the grotto closes in rough seas, so check on the day.
Time needed
1 hour from the road, 1 and a half by boat from Amalfi
An hour's walk through terraces of lemon trees between Maiori and Minori, the easiest of the coast's old paths.
What it is
East of Amalfi, the Sentiero dei Limoni links Maiori and Minori through the lemon gardens on the hillside, and it is the easiest of the coast's old paths. The lemons are the local sfusato amalfitano, sold as Limone Costa d'Amalfi, a protected name since 2001.
How to do it
It starts in Maiori from the square in front of the collegiate church of Santa Maria a Mare, climbs through terraces of lemon trees, passes the hamlet of Torre, and comes down by stairs to Minori; it is about 3 kilometres and an hour, with more than 400 steps and fountains decorated with local tiles along the way. Walk it from Maiori to Minori, then swim or eat in Minori and take the bus or boat back.
Shop after shop of hand-painted plates, tiles and jugs in a town that has made painted ceramics since at least the 15th century.
What it is
At the eastern end of the coast, just west of Salerno's port, Vietri sul Mare has made painted ceramics since at least the 15th century, and the town shows it, with shop after shop of hand-painted plates, tiles and jugs. Look for the Solimene works, a ceramics factory whose curving façade studded with pottery was designed after the Second World War by the architect Paolo Soleri, and for the Museo Provinciale della Ceramica in the hamlet of Raito, which traces the local styles.
How to do it
Vietri is the first stop on the coast road from Salerno, so it works as a half day on the way in or out, by SITA bus or by car.
Good to know
Ask a shop whether a piece was made and painted on site.
About ten metres under the square above Positano's beach, the frescoed rooms of a Roman seaside villa still keep their deep reds and yellows.
What it is
About ten metres below the square in front of Santa Maria Assunta, the church above Positano's beach, lie the frescoed rooms of a Roman seaside villa, now the MAR, the Museo Archeologico Romano. The painted walls still keep their deep reds and yellows.
How to do it
Visits are guided and short: groups of up to ten people go down for about 30 minutes on a timed ticket booked online on the museum's site. Recent listings give €15 a person. The entrance is at Piazza Flavio Gioia 7, next to the church. Pair it with the beach just below.
Good to know
If you arrive late you lose the visit. Book a few days ahead in summer.
15 minutes Positano to Amalfi; a day to hop the coastBook ahead
Skip the narrow coast road: in the warm months the boats are the better way between the Amalfi Coast towns, with the cliffs alongside.
What it is
The coast road is narrow, parking is scarce and the SITA buses are often packed. Travelmar runs the main line between Salerno, Amalfi and Positano with stops in the smaller towns, and other companies link Amalfi with Positano, Sorrento and Capri; Positano to Amalfi takes about 15 minutes.
How to do it
Buy online or at the ticket office on the pier, which sells until 20 minutes before departure. There is no day pass, and a Salerno to Positano ticket does not let you stop off in Amalfi, so buy each leg separately. One carry-on bag up to 45 x 35 x 20 cm is included.
Good to know
Sailings are cancelled in rough seas, so keep the bus as your backup. Take a seat on deck on the side facing the cliffs.
Time needed
15 minutes Positano to Amalfi; a day to hop the coast
Hike the Path of the Gods from Bomerano down to Nocelle
Agerola to Positano, Amalfi Coast
About 3 hours, plus the descent to PositanoFree
Three hours gently downhill from Bomerano to Nocelle above Positano, with the coast and Capri in front of you.
What it is
The usual route is the low path from Bomerano, a hamlet of Agerola, to Nocelle above Positano: about 7 to 8 kilometres and three hours, walked in that direction so it runs gently downhill with the coast and Capri ahead.
How to do it
Get to Bomerano by SITA bus from Amalfi (ask the driver for the Bomerano stop), or on the shuttle Travelmar runs from Amalfi for ferry passengers. From Nocelle you can take the local bus down to Positano or walk the roughly 1,500 steps, which test tired knees.
Good to know
The path is rated easy but has exposed stretches, so skip it if you suffer from vertigo, and carry water, as there is little shade. Start early: the light is clearer, the heat lower, and spring weekends bring crowds. Check the forecast before you set off.
From Naples, take the Circumvesuviana to Sorrento and the SITA bus over the hills to Positano and Amalfi, or the train to Salerno and a ferry or bus west along the coast. In the warm months, ferries also run from Naples, Sorrento and Capri to Positano and Amalfi. Driving is possible but slow, and parking in the towns is scarce and expensive.
Getting around
The SITA buses run the whole coast road and are cheap but often packed in summer; board at the first stop if you can. The ferries between Salerno, Amalfi and Positano are faster and calmer from spring to autumn. Amalfi is the hub: buses leave from its seafront for Ravello, Positano and Salerno.
Where to base yourself
Amalfi for transport links in every direction. Positano for the beach and the look, at the price of steep stairs and high prices. Ravello for quiet evenings and views, high above the sea. Minori and Maiori, to the east, have the longest beaches and are usually cheaper.
When to go
May, June and September give warm sea and lighter crowds than July and August. Many hotels and restaurants close from November to Easter, and the ferry lines run mainly in the warm months, but winter is quiet and good for walking. The Ravello Festival fills the summer with concerts in the gardens of Villa Rufolo.
Questions travellers ask
Can you visit the Amalfi Coast without a car?
Yes, and in summer it is easier: SITA buses run along the coast road and up to Ravello, and ferries link Salerno, Amalfi and Positano from spring to autumn. Most towns are steep and pedestrian at the centre, so a car mostly adds the cost and trouble of parking.
Is it better to stay in Positano or Amalfi?
Amalfi if you plan day trips, because buses and boats leave from its seafront in every direction. Positano if the beach and the setting matter more, accepting steps everywhere and higher prices. Ravello suits travellers who want quiet evenings.
How many days do you need on the Amalfi Coast?
In must30's view, three or four: one for Amalfi and Ravello, one for Positano and the Sentiero degli Dei, one for the boat and a beach, and one for Furore, the lemon path or Vietri. A day trip from Naples or Sorrento covers only one or two towns.
Can you swim on the Amalfi Coast?
Yes, mostly from pebble beaches: Positano's Spiaggia Grande, Amalfi, Atrani, and the longer beaches of Minori and Maiori, with free sections next to paid lidos. The little beach in the Furore fjord is reached by about 200 steps from the coast road.
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
_02.jpg){kind=link}
