Amalfi Amore

July 1, 2014

It's summertime and the living is easy along the Amalfi Coast, stretching south from Naples along the Sorrentine  Peninsula to Salerno. The area is a legendary leisure spot,  the home of limoncello, Sofia Loren, and a legendary place  to lounge away August, neck deep in Italian tourists and Chinese tour buses jammed along one winding two lane road, Strada Statale 163.

It's just a short hop from most European capitals to Naples, the main gateway of the Salerno region. Renting a car at Naples airport is a major pain in the kazoo, as Italians seem to have never heard of auto insurance and make you pay large upfront deposits when securing your tiny Fiat for an exorbitant price. Unless you plan on driving the winding roads in a Porsche at 2mph, you'll do just fine with a taxi straight to the good stuff, spending not a moment more in Naples than absolutely necessary.

For about €120 your air-conditioned late model Mercedes with hairy driver will whisk you from the airport steps across numerous potholes and trash heaps to the motorway, where you whiz past Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii along the bay to the steep cliffs ahead. Pop through the mountain tunnel, and Paradise awaits. Later, your hotel or villa will arrange the occasional taxi, and the rest of your stay will be dominated by the Amalfi Workout: core, abs and glutes burn like fire climbing up and down 19,000 stone steps.

(Please see our "Also See" section to the right for the full PDF of this article.)