The Amalfi Coast – a vacation for romantics with an adrenaline rush

At the end of the nineteenth century, the Italian poet and writer Renato Fucini wrote that the final judgment for the inhabitants of the Amalfi Coast, who will be accepted into heaven, will be a day like any other day. With this, he best described the beauty of the lush green terraces hanging over the foaming sea, the cultural wealth and architectural heritage of the Siren coast, which occupies the southern part of the Sorrento peninsula. The wild, inviting and romantic Amalfi coast is undoubtedly a part of Italy that we must visit, if possible by car, but not at the height of the summer season, but on warm spring days, when climbing countless steps is not an impossible feat and winding roads don't run into thousands of tourists competing with local Vespa drivers.

Winding, more winding, the Amalfi coast road
When the body and soul require a rest from the Vatican museums, Roman ruins and churches full of works of art by the old masters, it's time to wave it to the Amalfi Coast, where we will gather new strength while sipping limoncello with the famous and beautiful in Positano, admiring the pride of the former Amalfi Republic and indulged in the charms of the intoxicatingly fragrant gardens of Ravello. Pastel-colored fishing villages, clinging to the steeply rising coast and others resting in deep green valleys, line the dramatic cliff coast and are linked by the breathtaking Amalfi Coast Road, which connects the Gulf of Naples with the Gulf of Salerno. The road is a typical example of the Italian triumph of drama over logic - lived the Amalfi road, where the views are incredible and the bends are blind! The road is so narrow that the distance between oncoming vehicles is often measured in traces of paint on the cars we meet along the way.

From Sorrento to Amalfi
Only a short but steep drive separates us from the starting point, the famous and often sung Sorrento, to the pleasant village Sant'Agata sue Due Golfi, which offers an incredible view of the Gulf of Naples and Salerno. However, since the Italians are a nation that is most convinced that love goes through the stomach, and the Amalfi Coast is one of the most beautiful parts of the Mediterranean, we must give pleasure to the other senses in addition to the eyes, for which the greatest experience will be a visit to the restaurant Don Alfonso 1890. Alfonso and Ernesto Iaccarino , father and son, both multi-awarded chefs, are also the proud owners of Michelin stars, and attribute their success mainly to their philosophy, which is based on three principles: Mediterranean character, absolute quality of fresh ingredients and modernity. Not long ago, they also started running cooking courses, and course participants, tired travelers and those who cannot resist their specialties can spend their entire vacation with the Iaccarino family in the luxury Don Alfonso 1890 Relais hotel.

Probably the most famous town on the Amalfi Coast is snobbish Positano. The town expands vertically, pastel buildings, with terraces fighting for the most beautiful view, rise one above the other, narrow streets full of poisonously expensive boutiques, descend between the houses to the coast crowded in summer, but despite the chaos, Positano has a special charm that the American writer John Steinbeck expressed it: ″Positano is a dream town that doesn't seem real when you're in it, but becomes incredibly real when you leave.ʺ The name Positano was also celebrated by other important people, including the painter Irene Kowaliska lived in one of the villas in the 1940s and 1950s, and Positano served as her inspiration for painting on fabric. It was her lively patterns that influenced the development of the fashion style that today is called Positano fashion: light, colorful summer clothes, handmade leather shoes, as well as formal wedding dresses can be found in many boutiques along the Amalfi coast. Two kilometers from Positano is the hotel Il San Pietro di Positano, which is worth a visit due to its beautiful location, even if you cannot afford one of the 41 rooms or 21 apartments, but you can watch one of the most romantic sunsets in the Michelin-starred restaurant. of the west. The hotel is also a popular meeting place for celebrities, and one of them, the American actor with Italian roots, Danny de Vito, is a frequent guest at the Chez Black restaurant, where he first tasted the number one drink of southern Italy, the famous limoncello, and loved it so much that he still produces it today just myself. In Positano, it is also worth getting out of the car for a walk among the olive and lemon groves that stretch along the Sentiero degli Dei path. The fastest way to get to this route is to climb the 1,700 steps that lead from Positano to Nocello, and from there we can continue in different directions, following an extremely steep path we can even climb to the top of Sant'Angelo a Tre Pizzi, the highest part of the Sorrento peninsula. Lovers of the sea will prefer to discover the beauty of the three islets, a few miles from Positano, that make up the Li Galli archipelago, rather than the goat trails. Sirens, so named because it was said to be the home of mythical sirens who deceived sailors with their singing. From Positano, it is only half an hour's drive to Amalfi, once the largest port in southern Italy. Today, Amalfi is a small town, but a magnificent cathedral reigns at the top of a wide staircase, a testament to the former glory of the city, which experienced its golden age between the 10th and 12th centuries, when Amalfi was a powerful maritime republic. For those who still know how to put deep thoughts and beautiful words on paper, the paper mills will present a special challenge, because the paper makers, the oldest in Europe, still continue the tradition of hand-made paper. In the nearby valley of water mills used by papermakers, we can learn more about the ancient technique in Paper Museum. History continues in the village Atrani, which preserves the intimacy of small streets, passages and staircases.

From Ravello to Vietria:
It is one of the pearls of the Amalfi Coast Ravello 350 meters above sea level, where the play of light and magical architecture have inspired artists for centuries. The city's name became immortal in Boccaccio's Decameron, it inspired the composers Richard Wagner and Edvard Grieg, and Leonard Bernstein, Toscanini and Rostropovich gathered new strength in it. Mirò, Eschner and Turner, whose images of the sea are on display in London's Tate gallery, painted yews on canvases, and the beauty of the city was also described by EM Forster, who mentions it in the novel A Room with a View, and DH Lawrence, who is quite Chapters of the novel Lady Chatterley's Lover were written in Ravello. Between March and November in the gardens Villa Rufolo from the 13th century they hold concerts, and in July the Wagner Festival takes place in the city. It was the gardens of Villa Rufolo that were supposed to represent Klingsor's garden in the opera Parsifal to Wagner. Many artists came to Ravello for inspiration, others stayed: Virginia Woolf, Graham Greene, Tennessee Williams and Gore Vidal. Coral lovers will be enchanted in Coral Museum, where corals, cameos and mother-of-pearl jewelry from Roman times to the twentieth century are on display. It is the last town on the famous Amalfi coast Vietri sul Mare, which is famous for its yellow and blue ceramics, the colors of nature and the sea. Small ceramic works of art remind us that the Amalfi coast itself is caught between the cliffs of wild nature and the blue of the sea, which embrace the coast, protect it and show its romantic beauty only to those who dare to drive along its winding paths.

How to get there:
The fifty kilometers of the Amalfi coast are best driven by your own car, but since driving to the south of Italy is tiring, it is also wise to consider flying to Naples and renting a car in Naples or Sorrento. Italian low-cost airlines connecting northern and southern Italy are Air Italy and Meridian. During the summer, a number of private ferry operators ferry visitors from each of the coastal towns to nearby islands, the largest being Metro del Mare.