Hiking the Amalfi Coast
July 23-26, 2022
TLDR tips and tricks at the bottom of this page
Constant views of cute towns and hillside vinyards
Imagine stepping outside...
... shouldering your backpack, taking one step and suddenly, you're dripping with sweat, nothing is dry. You reach for your bottle, and somehow it is already empty, did you drink it all already?! You must have gone at least 3 miles already, what does the watch say? Only 0.5 miles?! How! This was what it was like, hiking Amalfi each day during a heat wave.
Don't get me wrong, it was GORGEOUS and stunning, and the trails were so charming. But Dan and I hide from the sun even in Seattle, and this Italian heat was a wild thing for us to experience while we tried to walk from one town to the other. We ended up making it 4 days, and we've saved up some tips and tricks for next time. Now you get to read about our lessons so that you don't have to learn the hard way!
With the Mettetranian alywas there, the views were always gold
The "trails" were often little sidewalks that were cut into the hillside, snaking between houses. So unique!
When we were flying into Italy, we had initially been wanting to just hike the coast and walk around to find a place to stay, but after being in Tuscany for a couple of days with my family, we found that it was quite busy, and we decided to pre-book B&B's for our 4 day hike.
We started out of Maiori since my parents were driving there anyway, and we could get a free drop-off. Once we arrived, we grabbed a $6 pizza and hiked off to our first spot. The hike from Maiori to Amalfi was, asides from the heat, a magical experience. A chunk of the hike was along a trail called "Sentiero dei Limoni " and along it was, you guessed it, miles and miles of lemon groves. We ended the day hiking just past Amalafi to get to our B&B at Matteo's House . Here, we enjoyed some AC and ate a lovely dinner on the edge of a cliff at GAS bar.
Day two we took off from Amalfi, and made our way down to Priaiano, hiking between little buildings and cliffsides, we found a cute little swimming hole called Fuore cove. We found it, along with hundreds of other tourists, but it was a cool thing to experience! We walked down, and swam in the Tyrrhenian a bit. The beach itself had little washed up pieces of tile, which was adorable!
The little trail going under the lemon and grape groves
The view from Matteo's House
A little friend along the trail
These precarious towns have stood the test of time, and are quite charming
In Praiano, we stayed in a little place called B&B Tenuta la Picola which was adorably beautiful. It was nestled in the hills, quiet, and the view from ouside of our room was stunning. Better yet was where we ate dinner. We went to a little restauraunt called Bianca Zita. It is a tasting menu only, but let me tell you, you want every bit of flavor that the chef prepares for you. It was easily the best meal I've ever had! The wine parings as well are fantastic, but watch out for the drive home, as you get four big glasses of wine with the parings. When we asked where the wine came from, the waiter laughed, and said "two kilometers that way!" And pointed up the hill. Fantastic.
Day three, we finally broke down and caught a bus in to Positano. The heat was proving too much, and we wanted to swim! We swam around and caught the bus up to our place in Coli San Pietro. This place was also very cute, and was called B&B L'angolo di Campagna. Again, just a walk from our B&B was another extremely beautiful dinner place called Ristorante Pizzaria Calise. Here, they served extremely delicious, hyper local foods from San Pietro, and Dan and I were smitten.
The next day we walked down into Sorrento to take the train into Napoli where we stayed before our flight. All in all a magical experience! Below are the tips that we have taken to heart for Italian travel, and I figured I'd share with you too.
Fuore cove was STUNNING! And full of people...
Our little trail
Down we go to Praiano!
Looking out to sea from Furore cove. Does it get more magical than this?!
TIPS AND TRICKS:
Download the train app - Italy has a nifty app that you can use to book trains, pull up reservations, and all in all save time stressing in a train station. Get the Trenitalia app!
Go to Info Centers - Trying to figure out the bus schedule?! Go to an info center, no matter how touristy it makes you feel. You are a tourist. They are helpful. Busses are confusing.
Driving on Amalfi - We did not drive, and we were very happy to have the no-stress that walking gives. These towns have tiny streets, little parking, and often the B&B's don't have any parking for you. Amalfi also has a restriction on certain days based off of the license plate of your car that you are driving. Not to say it is impossible to have a good time with a car, but we were happy to use the public transportation.
B&B's have a special tax - and often times they need it in cash, and won't give back change. Have cash on you! We learned this the hard way when we needed cash and only thanks to a nice bartender did we not have to run (literally) miles down the hill to the nearest ATM.
If you're hiking, use a mapping app - we like to use Caltopo, and on this app, there is an option to use the TF Outdoors layer. This layer had all of the little streets and trails that we needed to navigate the tight cities. Even when we thought we were at a dead-end, we found sneaky passages with this map!
No need for water filters - there are water spiggots every half mile or so as you are hiking! A pretty amazing feature of this hike.
Get your hill legs going - all of the trails are pretty steep, and lots of times it is simply stairs that you're going up and down!