Amalfi in August

August 2017 

To finish off the summer, we spent our August bank holiday weekend on the Amalfi Coast in Italy.

We landed in Napoli late on the Friday night, only with time to get to our hotel and off to sleep. The next morning we took a busy little train to Sorrento, then a busy bus that wound along the tiny, windy roads to Amalfi, then a final bus up the hill to our accommodation.

The coast is dramatic, with steep hills and cliffs running down to the glittering Mediterranean. Given we spent time the previous August in Cinque Terre (further north in Italy) we couldn't help but make comparisons between the two. Cinque Terre felt much more small, with the towns all more accessible by foot or by train - but also more cramped. At times on Amalfi we were stuck on the side of the road waiting for a bus to come along. 

But I am quibbling here. Amalfi was a pretty damn impressive place, and we had an amazing time there. 

Our accommodation was great, a little B&B called Punta Civita run by the friendly Roberto and his wife. We were given the most luxurious room, which opened out to a patio that looked over the sea from a couple of hundred metres above. We spent several late evenings on the patio with a bottle of wine.

The view from Punta Civita

We travelled between several towns over several days. First Amalfi itself. Amalfi is (unsurprisingly) the centre of the Amalfi Coast, and was our main transport hub given it was a 15 minute walk away. The town has a long history, and was a powerful, wealthy city-state a thousand years ago, at a time when the rest of Italy was still very quiet. The town now is bustling, full of cafes, restaurants and shops. There's also the impressive Amalfi Cathedral, built in the  1200s in a Norman style. We had a nice couple of beers in the square below, admirinig the church above, on evening. We also had a delicious lemon pasta in the Taverna degli Apostoli one night, somehow managing to slip in and get a final, unreserved table before everyone after us was turned away. 

Taverna degli Apostoli

Amalfi

Lemons are a big thing on the Amalfi Coast - our accommodation was nestled among lemon trees, limoncello was available everywhere, and we even had pizza in a restaurant while sitting under lemon trees growing above us on the trellis. 

Atrani is a smaller town, about 800m around the coast from Amalfi and directly below our BnB.  It was a 15 minute walk straight down the hill to Atrani, with impressive views of the coast the whole way down.

Great views on the walk down to Atrani

The town is small, with a big beachfront full of a swathe of sun loungers and blue and white umbrellas for hire, as usual for the Italian coast. Atrani was also home to Le Arcate, a restaurant we went to twice, where we particularly enjoyed the pizzas.

Le Arcate

Praiano is about a half hour bus ride away to the east of Amalfi. We didn't see a huge amount of the town itself, but did spend time at the Marina di Praiano, a tiny little cove with restaurants and a small rocky beach. One of our best meals (on a holiday of great meals) was at Trattoria Da Armandino. A highlight for Rach was peaches in white wine, but the meal itself was tasty, particularly the aubergine lasagna style dish.

Praiano

Lounging on the beach at Praiano

Positano is the big ticket and most famous view on the Amalfi Coast, a stunning shot of colourful houses spilling down the steep hillsides towards the sea. Unfortunately, there's not much else to report from Positano, as it was very busy, touristy and really didn't really have much else going for it. We took the opportunity to have a beer at one of the beachfront bars, but when the waiters took far too long to take our order, then didn't bring out the next drink and food, then didn't come to us when we gave up hope and signalled for the bill, we high-tailed it out of there. Free drinks! (one each.) We wandered along the waterfront and also had lemon sorbets inside frozen lemons, a tasty if slightly touristy snack.

Positano

Ravello was up the hill from us, with dramatic views out over most of the Amalfi Coast both east and west. We ate at Cumpa Cosimo, a busy and apparently locally famous restaurant one night, having a delicious meal of sausage with cheese, and canneloni. We also managed to do some shopping there, picking up some colourful pottery - an olive oil bottle and a large fruit bowl.



Back down on the coast, the final two towns were Minori (the smaller) and Maiori (the larger of the two), just a couple of hundred metres from each other. After a few days we realised the "trick" of using the more punctual and reliable ferries rather than buses and took a ferry over from Amalfi. We met up with our friends Carl, his girlfriend Jess and her sister Kelsi, from New Zealand but travelling around Europe for a few months in their van. We spent the day with them on the Maiori beach. We also had lunch at the best pizzeria on the Amalfi Coast, Ristorante Pinotea 1903, where we had the tastiest pizza with the lemon garden above our heads. We decided to go back the next day (just Rach and I) as the pizza was that good.

Maiori

Maiori

On my birthday, we hired a small boat for the afternoon and drifted along the coast, having snacks and drinks, swimming and sleeping. From the sea you also get some amazing views of the villages, particularly Amalfi and Atrani.

Looking towards Atrani

Amalfi to the left of me, Atrani to the right

Our final day on holiday was largely spent travelling back, via several hours in Napoli. It is a strange city - we noticed on the Saturday beforehand that it seemed extremely run down in places, a chaotic and dilapidated city. Today, walking around it seemed less run down but still quite lively.

As pizza fans, we'd long wished to try authoentic Neapolitan pizza, and it was pretty damn amazing. We first tried Da Michele, THE pizzeria in Naples. Rach nipped in for a quick five euro takeaway Margherita pizza, and we managed to avoid the lengthy wait to dine in - there was a crowd of about 50 people outside, holding their ticket and waiting for their number to be called. We picked up a couple of bottles of Italian beer and ate our pizza in a nearby small park. The dough was soft and chewy, and the topping of tomato and doppio mozzarella (double mozzarella) flavoursome but not overwhelming. and at the time I thought it was good but not spectacular. But almost immediately afterwards I began to consider it more, and realised that it was now the gold standard of pizza.

From Da Michele

Naples

Next stop was Gino Sorbilo, where we again opted to a Margherita - sitcking to the classics to better judge the quality. While good, it could not in the slightest stan up to Da Michele's offering.

From Gino Sorbilo

From there, we took the train to the airport and back to London.

Grazie, Italia!