The Picture-Perfect Amalfi Coast

MAY 2026

After Naples and Pompeii it was time to tackle the Amalfi Coast, and yet another Circumvesuviana train.

On all rail journeys to date I had just tapped in and out paying no attention to the price. On this occasion, you needed a good old-fashioned ticket. It came as something of a pleasant surprise then to discover that the half-hour journey from Pompeii to Sorrento cost a mere €2,60. Public transport is viewed as an essential public service in Italy rather than a profit-generating business. It is therefore cheap and easily accessible. For the people.

Private transport on the other hand…bejeesus. Whenever I needed a taxi or water taxi, it must have cost fifteen times as much.

The first stop was Sorrento. Arriving at lunchtime, it took around an hour to scope out the lay of the land, before deciding that an afternoon by the hotel pool was preferable. It’s the final day of the Premier League season so, holiday or not, I had to watch it. Sadly, the bar I chose was full of Sunderland fans. (And they won their match to secure a place in Europe and a considerably more successful season than Newcastle’s.) So my impressions of Sorrento were not great at this stage. That said, a dinner of beef carpaccio and seafood linguine at a randomly selected restaurant provided a superb counterpoint.

And in fairness it didn’t get a lot better. Pots and kettles again, but there were far too many Brits (and football shirts) around. I took a lengthy stroll around town one morning, took a few photos, explored the old town and the Marina Grande, where, in the absence of a beach, people soak up the sun on jetties and breakwaters. But there didn’t seem an awful lot to do other than retire to that hotel pool again. In that respect, Sorrento served me very well – a couple of lovely relaxing days by a hotel pool after walking the length and breadth of Naples, Herculaneum and Pompeii. 

So then it was on to a SITA bus to head over to Praiano. As Sorrento was the starting point of the bus’s journey, it was easy enough to get on. But once the buses roll out of Sorrento, they just get busier and busier and busier. Trying to get on at a later stage with luggage is more or less a non-starter. But if you can get on, they’re cheap, cheery, and the views are gorgeous. A ride on the SITA bus along the coast is an experience in itself. 

The likes of Positano and Amalfi tend to be a bit crowded for my liking. Praiano was described as being less crowded, so it sounded ideal. But upon arrival at Marina di Praia I thought I’d overdone it this time. Nestled at the bottom of a gorge with towering cliffs on three sides, are a cluster of small hotels, and a shingle beach no more than fifty yards wide. And that’s it. But a short walk along the coast path and up the inevitable steps revealed that Praiano doesn’t really have a centre, just a few streets strung along the cliff sides, with a modest number of hotels, shops and local businesses. Thus reassured that I wasn’t missing out on anything, I decided Marina di Praia would suit me just fine.

And the choice of hotel turned out to be a good ‘un as well. At least three generations of the same family run Hotel La Conchiglia. While the ever-helpful Martina seems to be everywhere all at once, Mama is in the kitchen upstairs, and Granny is overseeing the till in the cafe downstairs. When I ate there one evening I was happy to accept whatever Mama recommended and wasn’t disappointed with her home-cooking.

Standing on the roadside above Marina di Praia, the panorama is gorgeous. From the right, there is a mountain towering 600 meters above. Then, on an outcrop part of the way down, sits a seemingly abandoned shepherd’s cottage. There’s then a spectacular drop into the narrow gorge. A beautifully arched road bridge. The small cluster of white hotels and restaurants immediately below. That shingle beach with its towering cliffs to the left. And then the beautiful blue of the Mediterranean Sea stretching out to the horizon. From right to left, mountain to sea, there is a bit of everything.

The next day saw me up reasonably early to get on a SITA bus along to Amalfi – a spectacular journey if ever there was one. And then another SITA bus up to Agerola (or is it Bomerano – I never quite figured out the difference?), in order to tackle Sentiero degli Dei – The Path of the Gods.

I still had no idea as to how long this walk would actually take. Lonely Planet describe it as a “12km, six-hour walk”, while other sources have it as either 7.5km and 9.8km depending on where you start and end. Either way, it’s a fairly easy hike with stunning views of the mountains, the coastline, the villages and the sea. And it doesn’t take long. Before you know it, you’re in Nocelle, and then it’s downhill to Positano. In truth, I’d hoped for something a little more challenging.

Positano is picture-postcard-perfect. It’s the archetypal Amalfi image of pastel-coloured houses cascading down the mountainside to the turquoise sea. But it is also over-crowded – and this was in May, not the high season of July-August. So after intense negotiation, whereby the lady gave me a price and I accepted, I opted for a water-taxi back to Marina di Praia. I just wanted to get out of over-crowded Positano and back to little Marina di Praia. I couldn’t be arsed running the gauntlet of the SITA bus. And you can’t visit the Amalfi coast and not get on a boat at some stage, so why not now? For €50 I was back home in ten minutes. That then left plenty of time to lay out in the sun on the rocks round the corner of the bay, regularly jumping into the sea to cool off.

Now I couldn’t come to the Amalfi Coast and not hire a scooter could I? People had advised me not to, as the roads can be dangerously chaotic. But it seemed far more sensible than hiring a car. These roads are incredibly tight and prone to fearsome traffic jams. I’m amazed that things don’t grind to a complete halt with two vehicles immovably wedged between a sea-wall and a cliff-face. A scooter seemed like a far more sensible option. 

Italy is still a land of scooters. Nowadays they’re all new Piaggios, Yamahas and Hondas. Even the Vespas are new Primaveras and Sprints. You do see a few Vespa 50 Specials, but nothing else remotely vintage. The one and only Lambretta I found was in the back of a scooter hire shop in Praiano. It clearly had not moved for a long time and was probably destined never to do so again. 

But a Vespa Primavera turned out to be a very reliable and sturdy machine. And with an automatic transmission was a damned sight easier to ride than my own Lambretta, which probably would not have made it up the hills to Ravello. The Vespa even had luxuries such as indicators and mirrors.

I happily scooted up to Amalfi and had a poke around there. The feller managing the parking bays suggested an hour would be more than enough. And he wasn’t wrong. As picturesque as it is, it is also tiny. And horribly overcrowded. So after a walk around the town centre and a look at the cathedral, I was back on the Vespa and off up the road. Through San Cosma. Marmoreta. Minori. Maiori. The latter two looked like lovely places. 

I’d completely missed the turning for Ravello and was halfway to Salerno before I thought I’d better check my bearings. So I turned around and happily scooted back towards Amalfi. Then up into the hills on some spectacularly winding roads to Ravello. After two hours mooching around the very pretty Ravello, including lunch and ice cream, I was back on the road again. I was actually happier just riding than stopping and viewing places and ended up going all the way back to Positano, and then finally back to Praiano to return the scooter after six hours. A great day and a wonderful way to explore the coast.

One more night in lovely Praiano and then the next stop was the small town of Vietri Sul Mare. Getting on a SITA bus at Marina di Praia with luggage just wasn’t going to happen – as I’d witnessed the previous day with a hapless couple left standing at the roadside as the crowded bus roared past. So I took another water taxi to Amalfi, then hopped on an open-topped ferry for the rest of the journey.  

The reason for going to Vietri sul Mare was to get a slow, rural train up to Naples without going into Salerno. So it was a bit of a disappointment to find that the station at Vietri was closed and I’d have to go into Salerno anyway. I spent a lovely afternoon on the black sand beach; and an evening poking around the town, although in truth I wasn’t in the market for the ceramics for which Vietri is famous. It was nice to visit somewhere different but a trip to the Amalfi Coast would not be diminished by missing it out. Sorry, Vietri.

After which the only thing left to do was get a taxi into Salerno and jump on a train for the 40-minute return trip to Naples.

The Amalfi Coast is stunning, no two ways about it. The views from the mountains, the roads and especially from the water are spectacular. The towns are picture-perfect. But it is almost the antithesis of what I enjoyed so much about Naples. It is polished, curated, commercialised. It may prove to be the epitome of the once-in-a-lifetime experience.

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