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Amalfi Coast/Capri driving tips

Probably the best part of our two-week vacation in Italy was our 5 days on the Sorrentine peninsula, and it was made better by some adventure trips. Driving there is a challenge, but can be exhilarating too. I wouldn't want a car in either place, but consider alternative transportation which is easy to find:

1) Having a scooter in Capri was fantastic. The mountain road to Amalfi is a little scary to contemplate, but the guardrail is high enough you won't fly over it to oblivion if you hit a pebble or pothole. First time up is a little scary but manageable. Don't make it the first time you ride a scooter. Our city has shared Scoobi scooters you can take out with a phone app for a couple hours, so I did that on roads I'm comfortable with here in the USA before the trip. A scooter lets you explore the distant parts of Capri and get out of traffic, which isn't that bad anyway since it's only locals, taxis, the occasional bus, and more scooters. My wife rode easily on the back even though it was her first time.

2) I wouldn't scooter on the Positano-Amalfi road. Too many buses, and the low wall feels like you could easily go over it if you lost control. Vertigo terror. But our hotel also had an electric Renault Twizy 2-seater, basically an enclosed 4-wheel scooter, which felt much safer than the scooter. It made it easily up to Ravello for dinner from our hotel near Positano, could run at 50 kph on straights which is plenty fast enough, and was also great for a beach day exploring the uncrowded coastal spots. It's so small that it fits in scooter/motorcycle parking spots -- instead of 30 Euros to park a car, it was 4 in Ravello.

3) Riding in the public bus, as Rick recommends, is also amazingly scenic. I don't know how buses have side-view mirrors there, or how they pass each other going in opposite directions but they somehow manage. That said, buses are always crowded, which can spoil the experience somewhat.

Posted by
3299 posts

Great information. On Capri you meant Anacapri, not Amalfi?? Scooters have their place and the Amalfi coast road is not one of them. Interesting about the Twizy.

Posted by
31 posts

Yes, whoops, I meant the ride up to Anacapri. We rented a scooter from Oasi Motors for I think 70E for 24 hours and dropped it off overnight.

I was a little afraid about the scooter ride the night before. But on YouTube naturally I found a GoPro helmet cam video of the entire ride and could see for myself it would be relatively safe. I found after 15 minutes on the scooter I felt much more confident driving. It's easy to slow down and move right to let the locals pass, and they don't drive like maniacs there as they do some other places.

Also in Rome we used Bird scooters to zip around for longer distances and save our energy. It was my wife's first time trying them, we're in our early 50s, but she had no problems and actually loved it and wanted to do it again. A fast way to get to the train station with our rollerbags on the scooter in front and backpacks on, rather than lugging them over the cobblestones and getting tired and sweaty before our journey north to Milan and Lake Como.

Posted by
7987 posts

It's not 100% clear whether all paragraphs in the OP are about stand-up, one-person scooters, plus the 4 wheeler with seats. Is that a 25MPH gas golf cart? The US has a minimum speed standard to go on a public auto road with a golf cart.

In San Diego I found that rental scooters like Bird were improperly used on sidewalks all the time, and left blocking the paths by riders checking out of their rental. Bad press for Silicon Valley. That's privatizing the profits and socializing the costs, otherwise known as Corporate Welfare.

Since Capri is largely pedestrianized, I am glad we've had our two days on the island before scooters invaded it. "Share the Road" means slow down to a crawl every time you pass a pedestrian, on a 1.5 meter wide pedestrian path. How many of the scooters did you see doing that?

Posted by
31 posts

Pardon the confusion. On Capri we rented a Vespa-style scooter, like a small motorcycle with your feet in front. (The mixup may have come when I suggested practicing with the Scoobi app, which uses Vespa-style scooters but is limited to Pittsburgh where I live, and also Austin.)

The Renault Twizy we used for a day on the coast is widely sold in Europe. It gets some funny or admiring looks for sure. The speed is fine: 50 kph is a little over 30 mph. There aren't too many places you would want to go even that fast on the steep, narrow, winding roads between Positano and Amalfi. It is perfectly suited for that region, and unlike a Vespa scooter requires no balancing. I wholeheartedly recommend one over a car if you are single or a couple.

Bird standup scooters make you photograph how and where you parked, and presumably will block you from use if you break the rules. They were all over Rome and they ride on the streets, not the sidewalks. I'd avoid the main traffic arteries but they're great for the many smaller side streets.

Posted by
31 posts

And I don't recall seeing any standup scooters like Bird on Capri. The only scooters for rent there that I saw were the Vespa-style traditional Italian sitdown ones.