ITALY Living the high life

LA DOLCE VITA

Living the high life on the Amalfi Coast

TEXT BY ANITA DRAYCOTT

THE CORNICHE OF HAIRPIN turns from Sorrento to Ravello has to be one of the most giddying, toe-clenching drives in the world. A series of vertical cliffs, rising as high as 300 metres, plunge into an impossibly blue Tyrrhenian Sea as the seaside towns cling to the hills among a landscape of terraced olive and lemon groves. Flaunting some of the most spectacular scenery on the planet, the Amalfi Coast attracts swarms of visitors, especially in summer, but the crowds will never spoil it. All of the engineers in Italy couldn’t widen the serpentine road – which, at some switchbacks, requires a three-point turn.

Spaghetti Alle Vongole

IT IS IDYLLIC, WITH TERRACED GARDENS, LEMON GROVES AND THE SEA”

I am convinced that the best way to travel along this coast is via the SITA bus system or ferry. For example, the cost for a bus ticket from Amalfi to Ravello is €1.30; the taxi fare is €50. The bus gets you there just as fast as a car and the drivers are experts armed with very loud horns.

Serenity in Sorrento

Just 39 kilometres from traffic-congested, riotous Naples, sleepy Sorrento is the ideal spot to start soaking up the Amalfi atmosphere. And what better place than on the terrace of Grand Hotel Excelsior Vittoria with a Bellini cocktail where the hazy outline of Mount Vesuvius looms on the horizon.? Five acres of lemon-scented gardens and white-glove service recall the bygone days of the Grand Tour, for which this Grand Dame was built in 1834.

Take a leisurely wander through Sorrento’s medieval heart around Piazza Tasso, then stroll along the seafront promenade at Marina Grande where lots of eateries line the shore. I recommend O’ Puledrone, owned by a family of fishermen, for spaghetti alle vongole “spaghetti with clams”, or whatever the catch of the day.

Posh Positano

Just a few kilometres and countless perilous turns down the road, you’ll reach Italy’s most vertical town, Positano, with its pastel villas spilling from the corniche. I doubt they sell many Stair Masters in horizontally challenged Positano, so best you leave your stilettos in your bag. Wind your way through the maze of boutiques and cafés down to the Santa Maria Assunta church crowned with a green and yellow majolica dome and cupola, then head over to the Spiaggia Grande (main beach) where you’ll find some of the town’s best restaurants. Chez Black is a favourite. Another option is to wave down the boat with the red fish on the mast at the main jetty. It leaves in the mornings for Da Adolfo, a laid-back trattoria a few coves away. Plan to spend an indulgent afternoon enjoying the house specialty, buffalo mozzarella grilled on a lemon leaf, followed by seafood spaghetti. Enjoy a siesta on a shaded beach bed, then sip white wine spiked with peach nectar until sundown.

Perhaps John Steinbeck summed up the experience when he penned. “Positano bites deep. It is a dream place that isn’t quite real when you are there and becomes beckoningly real after you have gone.”

Idyllic Amalfi

Next stop is tiny, exuberant Amalfi, one of Italy’s most powerful trading ports back in the 9th century, which explains the Moorish architecture of the Cathedral of Sant’ Andrea that dominates the main square. Treat yourself to lunch in a lemon