Amalfi Off The Beaten Path

A drive of pprox. 25 minutes around the spectacular narrow cliff hugging roads of the Amalfi coast will see you reach the hamlet of Positano. A slighly smaller and less busy area than Amalfi, Positano is filled with narrow lanes lined with restaurants and shops that offer magnificent views up and down the coast. The Isle of Capri can also be reached from Positano and the small amount of money that you will save by booking you Capri excursion here will pay for the bus ride to this exquisite hamlet.

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Its about 45 mins by bus into the hills above Amalfi to Agerola which i discovered as it had the cheapest and easiest place to stay at for me. The roads winds and inclines quite steeply but the view back down is pretty - with your own vehicle or just walking down would give you much more opportunity to get some nice pics - its difficult on a public bus full of commuters - and watching you move from side to side on the bus to get your photos from each dramatic twist and turn of the road!

but anyway ... enjoy the views and the tranquility up in the hills

On a tragic day in AD79, Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried the town of Pompeii in 6 metres (20 feet) of pumice and ash. The city, which is still undergoing ectensive excavation, is petrified in time and some buildings still show paintings and art work.

All of this can be discovered by a short 45 minute drive/bus ride from Amalfi to Sorrento and then a 25 minute train ride directly to the front gate of this fascinating city.

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Do keep your eye open for strange bits of masonry (and brick). There were several opulent Roman maritime villas near and in Amalfi, and bits of them were clearly re-used for later building. Which makes perfect sense: why bother spending time and energy creating new stones when there are plenty already lying around?

So look closely at the bell-tower, and at the gate near to the cathedral entrance. You'll see Roman pillars, and Roman bricks........

Continuing up stairs from the Valle dei Mulini we enter the Ferriere Valley with its terracesd lemon groves and gardens and sweeping views up to the the Lattari Mountains. You can continue up to Pontone and Scala - we did this walk in the other direction as we were based in Scala.

Inside the mill was better than the museum - the machinery for the paper making called “ingegni”, where all here and in working order. We saw the paper soaked in the trough and then pressed out. Some of the paper even had real flowers embedded in it. This old paper could be bought here too if you wished to have a momento of old hand made Amalfi paper.

The Vagliendola quarter, with its tower houses is a reallyt quaint area to explore amongst the back streets of Amalfi. The real heart of Amalfi.

Found just behind the harbour area, or the side roads on the left hand side of the Piazza Duomo.

This goes down as one of my all time best travel experiences. i don't know how easy it will be for anyone to do it, but you should try. We were in Amalfi, at the port, and wanted to see the famous Grotto. Rather than take the tourist boat, we found a guy in the harbor (there are lots of them there) who offered to take us to the Grotto alone, for an hour, and let us swim where ever we wanted. It was our own private boat tour. It cost about 30 dollars, and boy was it worth it. i guess the bottom line is that anywhere you go, try to seek out a local fisherman, to take you out on his boat, as oppossed to going with the rest of the tourists.