Just back from our first trip to the Amalfi coast – just me and hubby and a week of great weather. Here is the report:

Just as a general impression, the Amalfi coast is certainly as beautiful as everyone says it is, but it really bothered me that the only voices I heard were British, with some American mixed in. I speak little or no Italian, but this is the only area of Italy where I never even bothered to carry my phrasebook. And if anyone ever asks you about the water and the swimming there, it really has nothing on the Caribbean – clear, but definitely colder (yes, I know that late June isn’t quite “season” yet, but still… the water was not quite as cold as the US mid-Atlantic coast in June, but there was still some shivering going on). I’m glad we went, but our next trip to Italy will likely be back to Tuscany.

Anyway…

Day 1 – arrive in Naples by air. We had arranged for a car transfer to Sorrento, which I was really grateful for seeing the chaos that surrounds the Naples airport. A quick hour later we are walking into our hotel in Sorrento. We splurged a little and booked the Excelsior Vittoria – the grand dame hotel right on the square that backs onto the cliffs above the ferry marina. The hotel is gorgeous, but after a week my general impression is that the services are really geared to the 60-something British visitors that appear to comprise most of their clientele, not exactly our normal style. Still, the location is phenomenal and the gardens and the pool are absolutely amazing, and you have to love the elevator to the beach level.

Late lunch at a little pizza place on the square (Aurora Pizzeria - we split a bottle of wine, caprese salad and proscuitto pizza - €30), then went back to the hotel and unpacked. Spent the evening wandering around and exploring old Sorrento (reminded us a lot of Old Nice), and found a great little dinner place that we returned to frequently during the week – Il Pozzo -- a little place in the old quarter with great food and really reasonable prices and a nice mix of tourists and locals. If we don’t have a recommendation and are just wandering around looking for a dinner spot, our requirements are cool-looking atmosphere, cool menu and absolutely no hawkers. This place fits the bill, even though all of the restaurants around it are hawker places. Antipasti, wine and a couple of pastas (including my favorite – spaghetti alla vongole), and we are out for about €60. Even though most trips to Italy we easily slip into the habit of a pasta and a main course each for dinner, it is just too warm to do that here, and we notice that almost everyone around us is doing exactly the same thing as we are with just an antipasti and a pasta, even at dinner. The pasta is fabulous, and the plates are huge, and we are stuffed. Wandering back to the room we stop off at a little open air pub where everyone is watching the USA – Italy soccer match. US puts up a pretty good fight, but Italy wins and so everyone is happy. Back to the room for bed.

Day 2 – The only thing we have “planned” all week is to do the Amalfi coast today. And even though DH is raised in New York and has driven successfully all over Italy and France, he has agreed to my only request this trip – that he NOT drive the Amalfi coast. So we hired a guy for the day. We set out at 9 am, and were in Positano before 10, even with a couple of “oh look how pretty” stops along the way. Explored Positano for a while (shopped our way all the way down to the beach and back up to the parking garage, where we met back up with the driver), then on down the road. It was a really hot day so we stopped at the Emerald Grotto – ridiculously cheesy, but if you are driving (and so don’t have to take a ferry there from one of the coast towns) at least it is cool for a few minutes and doesn’t take up a lot of time. Certainly would not do it again, but it was amusing in a tourist trap kinda way.

Next stop, Ravello. Explored the town and had a fabulous lunch (in all my trips to Italy I have never before had roasted pickled pumpkin, and it was terrific!), before heading down to Amalfi itself. The church there is really lovely. A couple more little “oh look how pretty” stops on the way back, and we are back in Sorrento by 5 pm. For dinner, we wandered down to the Marina Grande and had an incredible dinner at Zintonio Mare – nice long dinner on the water – antipasti, pasta and fish courses, wine, lemoncello, etc, and we were still out for about €100. They run their own shuttle up to the top of the hill, so after that it is just a nice walk home through the old quarter to the hotel.

Day 3 – Lets go to Capri! The ferry to Capri leaves from the dock just below the hotel, so we don’t need much advance time to get there. The concierge tried to talk us into taking the 9:45 ferry because the stores aren’t open before that, but fortunately we ignored him. If you are going over to sail the island or do any hiking, the 8:45 ferry is much better. The jetboat only takes 25 minutes to get to the dock at Capri. We don’t have much of a plan for the day, just general ideas (and we have no desire to do the Blue Grotto). It probably would have been better if we had made more plans in advance, but it all worked out fine. We ended up hiring a little boat to go around the east end of the island and drop us off at the Marina Piccolo, which we’ve been told is a great swimming beach. I can’t tell you how peaceful it was on the boat, slipping into the caves on the east end and then sailing around the point to the beach. We decided to do some swimming, which was great but chillier than I expected (sorry, but I’m used to the bathwater temperatures of the Gulf and the Caribbean), then dried off and made our way up to Capri Town by bus to catch another little bus over to Anacapri. The only thing we wanted to do was to take the chairlift up to the top of the mountain at Anacapri, and that was terrific – 12 minutes of absolute silence with the island stretched out below you. The little snack bar at the top of the mountain is great, particular when you are sitting with a drink under a bit of shade, feeling the breeze, and looking out at all of southern Italy. We had thought about hiking down the mountain, but we were warned that it takes about an hour (and you are blocked from the breeze at least part of the way), it was in the high 80s and sunny, and we decided that taking the lift down sounded a lot better. After getting down the mountain we wandered around Anacapri a little bit, dodging tour groups, and decided to just grab a cab back to the dock and take the 4:20 ferry back to Sorrento. A full day, and we can check Capri off of “the list.” A nice long stroll in Sorrento that evening and our feet make their way back to Il Pozzo for dinner – pasta and fish courses this time, and it is still in the €60 - €70 range. Later in the week we settled into a routine of just splitting a large antipasti and each having a huge plate of seafood or clam pasta, with a nice bottle of wine, and we were averaging about €50 per meal. I almost felt guilty about not ordering more, but I truly couldn’t eat another bite, and most of the others in the restaurant (even the numerous locals that I saw in there each night) were doing the same.

Day 4 – Pompeii. It is the hottest day of the week – 90 degrees and not a cloud in the sky, so we got up early and caught the train to Pompeii in time to get in the gate just after it opened (at least it was fairly cool for the first couple of hours!). DH is an architectural engineer, so this is his day. SIX HOURS LATER, we finally head out the gate to catch the train back to Sorrento. My feet have never felt this tired, but it was terrific. Back to the hotel and the pool has never felt so good! We decided on an early dinner at a little pizza/pasta place, and a early night.

Day 5 – slept late (my feet still haven’t quite recovered), but we decide to go ahead and take the train to Ercolano to visit the ruins at Herculanum. Not as extensive as Pompeii (thank goodness!), and the ruins are much better preserved. It is a really hot day (90 degrees again!), but a great couple of hours exploring. A quick lunch, and then we took the train back to Sorrento and decided to relax the rest of the afternoon in and around the pool. (Advice – never ever get a hotel on the Amalfi coast in summer that does not have a pool).

Day 6 – last day, and no plans. We thought about grabbing a ferry and spending the day in Positano, but I wasn’t feeling too good (the sun was finally catching up with me), so instead we decided to stay closer to home. We grabbed a cab down to a little beach community just outside of town (Marina di Poulo) and had a terrific lunch by the water. Wine, antipasti, pasta & pizza, and the bill was less than €40. It was the only time all week that I didn’t hear another American or a British accent. It was wonderful!

Final notes – my favorite thing about Sorrento is the fact that they close down the main street by 7:30 every evening – nothing but pedestrians until after midnight. It is a beautiful town with gorgeous flowers and sidewalk cafes everywhere. Since it is the end of the Circumvesuviana train line you can get to Naples, Pompeii and Ercolano easily, and since it is the ferry hub you can get to Naples, Capri, Positano and Amalfi by water just as easily. A perfect base if you are doing exploring and want to mix in a little night life.

Nice report on a slower trip to this area. Thanks!

Was the cafeteria at Pompeii open?

The cafeteria in Pompeii is still not open, but the baths (right next door to it!) have recently reopened and they are spectacular.

Thanks for the report

Enjoyed your report.

Loved your pace for the trip.

Sounds like you had a wonderful trip. My wife and I are visiting Sorrento in late July. Would you mind sharing the name of the driver you used for your day trip down the coast? Also, how much did he charge? Thanks.

We got quotes from at least 7 different drivers/companies for several possible day trips (and transfers) and decided to go with Syrenbus/Syrenlimo. They were definitely the least expensive of all the quotes, and still used local guides and clean, new Mercedes sedans. The airport transfer was 70 euro each way (quotes from other companies ranged up to 120 euro), and the 8-hour trip on on the Amalfi coast was 200, including everything (this in a country where gas is the equivalent of $10/gallon and parking fees in the coast towns are astronomical). They were a little "stuffy" (who can possibly wear a suit and tie in 85 degree weather?), but everything was great. We would use them again.

Thanks Tejana.

Hello, One of the many British voices you hear may be mine; there are lots of americans coming in off the cruise ships. But we have used a Sorrento based firm for Amalfi coast drive http://www.rainbowcarservice.it/ good english; nice people and good choice of restaurant in Ravello. Also if you want an excellent restaurant in Sorrento for a special occassion then look this place up http://www.lanticatrattoria.com/ and I would agree that the Marina Grande is a good place to eat too. Did the blue grotto on Capri and loved it, its much better and more scary than the green one. Lastly if you find yourself in Positano, by bus or car then there is a wonderful lunch spot in the mountains above Positano called Trattoria Santa Croce: in Nocelle. Very little english spoken lots of hand waving and simple great food with magnificent views. It's a short walk from the car park. Have fun we always do.

I agree with markno1 about antica trattoria. We never got to eat there but the menu looked fabulous. There were several weddings in town that week and many of them seemed to be using antica trattoria for their reception or rehearsal dinners.

Thank you for the great report. I really enjoyed it and will be using some of the info you've included. Going to be in Sorrento for only a day unfortunatley so the ferry info was super helpful.

I just spent four days in Sorrento during a two week trip to Italy and did most of the same activities. One difference was that we started our trip with four days in Rome and then took the Eurostar train to Naples. From there we took the circumvesuvious railroad into Sorrento for only 3 or 4 Euros per person. It takes about an hour and it certainly not high end (clientele and trains very much like a New York subway but you can't beat the price and the convenience if you're arriving in the Naples train station. It leaves from the same station, down a fight of steps from the main terminal. We stayed at the Grand Hotel Royal, which is also on the cliff tops overlooking the sea and the marina and thought is was great with very large, updated rooms and a very good breakfast included. There were also a lot of elderly English vistors staying in our hotel. Our favorite restaurant, where we ending up eating every night, was La Lanterneduo.

I found your write-up about the Amalfi Coast and Sorrento very helpful as my husband and I will be traveling there August 10 from Vienna. We have reservations on Sky Europe (made early in May) and they are in bankrupcy protection so we are a little concerned about our flight. We booked because they were the only direct flight from Vienna where we needed to be the preceding week. Very helpful was the car company you recommended. I will try to contact them for transport from the airport, however, we are worried our flight might be cancelled short notice. What do we do about the car reservation? Any help or advice would be appreciated. We would be in Sorrento for 4 nights and would be flying out late on the 5th day to connect with our flight to the US. All the info on restaurants was very helpful. Thanking all in advance.

Crickmd - now that I've got the lay of the land, it wouldn't bother me at all to take the train from Naples to Sorrento if I had taken the train in from Rome - we definitely saw a lot of people doing it. But coming into the airport after a long overseas flight (and a connection in Paris), it was comforting to have a car waiting to get us to our final destination, especially with the craziness around the Naples airport.

Mimsi - I think if you just make sure that they have the flight information they should be aware of any flight delays, but any company will also give you a way to contact them for emergencies or last minute travel changes (usually including the cell phone number for the driver).

Thanks for the detailed description... we are going to Sorrento for 3 nights the first week of August. On the two days, I was thinking one day for Positano and one day for Amalfi/Ravello (since we are taking public transportation). I liked your description of Capri, though, so now I'm considering taking a day instead to do that, and it sounds like a full day.

Wonderful report!

blakejared - Positano was definitely a highlight, and was absolutely my hubby's favorite place (all those beautiful flower-covered canopies covering the steps down to the beach!), but I would have liked a little more time to explore Ravello more, too - it was lovely. Capri is beautiful but really crowded - the best way to appreciate it is to get out of town and out of the marina as quickly as possible. The best part of the day, for me, was hiring the boat and getting the whole Capri experience from the water, sailing around the east end of the island to the beaches on the far side. If we had not done that I probably would have been overwhelmed with the crowds of daytrippers (me included, so I couldn't exactly complain about it).