Destination of the week: Amalfi Coast
Occupying the southern side of Sorrento's peninsula, the Costiera Amalfitana lays claim to being Europe's most beautiful stretch of coast, its corniche road winding around the towering cliffs that slip almost sheer into the sea. By car or bus it's an incredible ride (though it can get mighty congested in summer), with some of the most spectacular stretches between Salerno and Amalfi.
If you're staying in Sorrento especially it shouldn't be missed on any account; in any case the towns along here hold the beaches that Sorrento lacks. The coast as a whole has become rather developed, and these days it's in fact one of Italy's ritzier bits of shoreline, villas atop its precarious slopes fetching a bomb in both cash and kudos. While it's home to some of the most aesthetically lovely hotels in Italy, budget travellers should be aware that you certainly pay for what you get.
There's not much to Positano, only a couple of decent beaches and a great many boutiques; the town has long specialized in clothes made from linen, georgette and cotton, as well as handmade shoes and sandals. But its location, heaped up in a pyramid high above the water, has inspired a thousand picture postcards and helped to make it a moneyed resort that runs a close second to Cápri in the celebrity stakes.
Positano is, of course, expensive, although its beaches are nice enough and don't get too crowded – though do watch out for the jellyfish, abundant in these waters. The main beach, the Spiaggia Grande right in front of the village, is reasonable, although you'll be sunbathing among the fishing boats unless you want to pay over the odds for the pleasanter bit on the far left; there's also another, larger stretch of beach, Spiaggia del Fornillo, around the headland to the west, accessible in five minutes by a pretty path that winds around from above the hydrofoil jetty – although its central section is also a pay area.
Set in a wide cleft in the cliffs, Amalfi, a mere 4km or so further east, is the largest town and perhaps the highlight of the coast, and a good place to base yourself. It has been an established seaside resort since Edwardian times, when the British upper classes found the town a pleasant spot to spend their winters, but there is still the odd remnant of Amalfi's past glories from long before that around today, and the town has a crumbly attractiveness to its whitewashed courtyards and alleys that makes it fun to wander through.
The best views of the coast can be had inland, high above Amalfi in Ravello: another renowned spot "closer to the sky than the seashore", wrote André Gide – with some justification. It's not much more than a large village, but its unrivalled location, spread across the top of one of the coast's mountains, 335m up, makes it more than worth the thirty-minute bus ride through the steeply cultivated terraces up from Amalfi.