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Trip Report: The Amalfi Coast, Sept 2022

Travel Highlights: Sorrento, Amalfi town, Positano, Pompeii/Herculaneum, Capri, Naples, and Rome.

This was the first time my mom, sister and I travelled together! We flew into Naples and made our way down (via harrowing cab ride) to Sorrento. We stayed at Imperial Hotel Tramontano, a truly fantastic location, although the food at the hotel was so-so.

Day 1: We stayed close to the hotel the first night (grouchy), and ate at a little restaurant that had the most amazing Caprese salad.
Day 2: We went down the manned elevator at our hotel and reserved chairs at Leonilli's Beach Club. They hold them all day luckily, because we were off to Amalfi town! The ferry ride was about 2 hours. We had a plan when we arrived: visit the famous church in the piazza and Chiostro, go to the paper museum about 10 min inland, and shop. The church and chiostro didn't take up a lot of time, so we headed to the paper museum. Unfortunately, we got there and it was closed! Don't always trust google! But we found a lovely paper shop where we picked up a few vintage items, and of course Amalfi made paper. Back to Sorrento and onto our lounge chairs, we had a lovely swim in the sea looking up at the ancient cliff. Too beautiful for words.

Day 3: Things go awry... we decide to take the bus to Positano. Do not take the bus if you're afraid of heights. All 3 of us were traumatized after the endless curves of the cliff. We got off at the top and walked the rest of the way down. Which was luckily a highlight! Positano is much like Amalfi. We visited the museum there and had a bad snack at a restaurant on the beachfront.

Generally--we were a bit disappointed with both Amalfi and Positano--there's not much to do, if you like drinking or boating or laying out...then go for it! The views are spectacular, yes. All shopping had to do with the coast's favorite fruit... LEMONS! ENDLESS LEMONS!

Day 4: We boarded the train to Pompeii. We did a tour I got through Get Your Guides. It was a great tour and she took us to less travelled spots. But it was HOT. We knew it would be this way: no shade, no near bathrooms, no drinks or food except outside the site, but it bears repeating! We had the crazy idea of doing Herculaneum as well. Off we went. With less information and no tour set up, we reboarded the train and got off a few stops later. We ended up just following people all the way down the street, about a 12 min walk towards the sea. Herculaneum was gorgeous and even more pristine than Pompeii. Unfortunately at that point my dogs were barking pretty loud. My sister and mom had a great time though. We went back to Sorrento on the most packed train, standing room only! We ate at La Sirenuse and we loved it.
Day 5: Hello Capri! We took the hydrofoil and that was the most sea sick I felt. We stayed at Aquamarine Suites, which was nice but no hotel. The host was nice though. We were directly across a mini market and got our breakfast foods and snacks. He showed us a good company to tour the island by boat. That was fun! But choppy on the back side of the island. We swam in the sea. We didn't see the Blue Grotto.
Day 6: The second day on Capri, it rained a bit which made it even more beautiful. The gardens of Augustus were beautiful. We walked around and shopped. We ate at a restaurant overlooking the island and my sister accidentally ordered something huge. It was hilarious. We had baba.
Day 7: We left Capri and headed to Naples to head to Rome. Not a smart idea to lug luggage around town with no resting stops to go to. But oh well. Naples wasn't as sketchy as people might think...but I do live in Los Angeles so I might be used to that! We toured the Palace and it was beautiful. I wish we could've fit a few days in Naples. Lots of history there.
Day 8 and 9 and 10: Rome! We were there the previous year, but not with my sister. We went back and did some of the same things, the Pantheon, the Steps... Overall a super fun trip!

Posted by
169 posts

Sounds amazing and pretty much an identical itinerary i had with my wife in November

I agree that there isn’t really much in Positano other than shopping and eating. But we did as you said, purchased a couple beach chairs, had a bottle of Prosecco and sandwiches we had made and it was as good as it gets!

Posted by
3811 posts

Thanks for the report. I spent 4 nights on the Amalfi Coast in 2015 as part of a 3-week trip in Italy. I stayed at Nocelle, a village of about 150 people up above Positano. We did a Path of the Gods day, a Pompeii/Vesuvius day, and a Paestum/buffalo mozzarella farm day. Great times! Our only interaction with Positano was to catch the bus down to the town one day, do some brief walking around, and then take a twilight cruise that included dinner at a nearby fishing village and a return to Positano after dark; it was cool to the town/city all lit up at night from the sea.