Amalfi Coast

The Amalfi Coast makes an immediate and somewhat overwhelming impression. The road hugs vertical cliffs above an almost implausibly blue sea, passing through villages that appear to have been stacked rather than built — terraced gardens, lemon groves, and whitewashed houses clinging to rock faces that drop straight to the water. It's a landscape that rewards slow movement and punishes any expectation of convenience.

Positano is the most photographed and most visited, with its cascade of pastel buildings and pebble beach. Ravello sits higher up, above the tourist tide, and offers a different kind of quiet: formal gardens, a cathedral with 12th-century bronze doors, and views that stretch the full length of the coast. Amalfi town itself, where the historic Republic of Amalfi once rivalled Venice in maritime power, retains an elegant square and an Arab-Norman cathedral worth the climb.

Transport requires patience here. The coast road is narrow enough that buses and lorries negotiate passing points with practiced choreography. Ferries between the towns are often faster and always more pleasant. Come in May or early October if you can — the crowds of high summer make the coast's pleasures harder to access, and the light in the shoulder months has a quality that photographers chase across Italy without always finding.