Italy
Amalfi Coast
Hairpin roads carved into sea cliffs where lemon groves tumble toward turquoise water.
The road clings to the cliff face, hairpin after hairpin, and every bend reveals another village spilling toward water so blue it seems lit from beneath. Lemon trees drip over stone walls, their scent riding the salt air. Below, a fishing boat crosses the cove trailing a wake that catches the sun.
The Amalfi Coast runs along the south face of the Sorrentine Peninsula, its cliffs falling hundreds of metres into the Tyrrhenian. Amalfi itself was one of Italy's four maritime republics, its medieval naval code once governing Mediterranean trade, and its compass-rose pride survives on the town's flag. High above, Ravello stages concerts in the gardens of Villa Rufolo, where Wagner found his magic garden for Parsifal, while the terraces in between grow the sfusato amalfitano, the oversized lemon behind the coast's limoncello. Ferries, mule paths and the ridge-running Path of the Gods stitch the villages together better than the traffic-bound road ever manages.
Couple
A table cantilevered over the water at Atrani, a boat to a cove reached only from the sea, limoncello at Ravello as the sun drops: this coast was built for two.
Friends
Charter a boat from Amalfi, idle beneath Furore's high bridge, argue over dinner in Positano and close with sfogliatelle; the coast rewards a group that travels by water.
- The Path of the Gods ridge trail walks high above the villages with the sea on both sides.
- Amalfi ran a medieval maritime republic whose naval code once governed Mediterranean trade.
- Ravello's Villa Rufolo gardens, Wagner's model for Parsifal's magic garden, still stage concerts over the sea.
- Ferries link the coast towns by water, which beats the queueing corniche in summer.
Delizia al limone, a domed sponge filled and iced with lemon cream, is the coast's dessert of record.
Limoncello pressed from sfusato lemons the size of fists arrives ice-cold after dinner.
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