Places/Italy

Campania

The Amalfi Coast

A cliff of towns above a famous sea. Beautiful, and a poor place to improvise with a car in August.

The coast is not a beach resort with a side of driving. It is a narrow road, a string of towns, and a summer crowd that arrives by coach. Base yourself in one place and let the boat or the bus do the visiting.

Out of season — May, early June, late September — it becomes the landscape people meant. In August it becomes a queue with a view.

See

• The town you sleep in

  Learn its steps and its beach, if it has a real one. Collecting five towns in a day is how the coast becomes a blur of hairpin turns.

• A ferry, not the road

  When the sea is calm, the boat between towns is the civilised version. The road is the backup and the reason drivers look older than they are.

• A path above the town

  The short walks between villages exist and they are steep. Start early. Take water. Do not invent a sunset hike in thin sandals.

• Ravello, if you want quiet gardens

  A bus ride up, a garden, a view that is arranged rather than accidental. Half a day is the right size.