Arrival

We hit the town of Amalfi as a day trip from Sorrento, taking a SITA bus from the station in Sorrento right into Amalfi. The bus ride took about 1 1/2 hours along a beautiful (but narrow and curvy) road along the Amalfi Coast. The buses are pretty comfortable...if you get a seat; we had to stand on the way home. Considering the primary options are either to ride the SITA bus or rent a car, the bus is perfectly fine. The drive would be beautiful, but let's just say the road isn't exactly driver-friendly.

We went to Amalfi first, then hit Positano on the way back to Sorrento. You could really do it either way, although we were pleased with how it worked out for us. If you want to swim, I'd recommend doing Positano when it's warmest; the beach there seemed a bit nicer than Amalfi's.

Coastal Ride

There aren't a lot of actual attractions in Amalfi - besides the town itself, of course. The town is situated into the side of the hill; the further you go into the town, the more uphill you go. It's a tourist destination - a lot of little touristy shops and restaurants along the single road going through the heart of the town. But nothing, other than the Duomo, really stood out to us.



The big attraction is the Duomo; you'll see it as soon as you take your first steps into town. It's an impressive building, definitely worth seeing if you make the trip into Amalfi. A joint admission ticket gets you into the nearby cloister and museum, and we found it fairly interesting - nothing spectacular, but worth the small fee.


The coolest thing we did, though, was take a walk eastward into the town of Atrani (a solid 30 minute walk, and fairly rigorous at times). We walked along the coast to get there, but then found a route back that took us up along the side of the mountain, passing by numerous apartments and houses. We got some terrific views and it was a neat way to see how the locals live. Plus, Atrani is quite a bit quieter and does have a less-crowded public beach (although we didn't take advantage of it).


I think we left Amalfi around 4:00 and like I said, the bus was packed. I'm sure most people had the same idea we did. We were the final two people on; Heather got to stand next to the driver and Tim got to stand right next to the door. Not a bad view, but it got kind of rough. We were debating on whether or not to get off at Positano , but by that point we were anxious to get off the bus, so we did. And were definitely glad we did.

Positano is a cliff-side town much like Amalfi with the difference being you walk down to get to the town, not up. Like Amalfi, there wasn't really many sights to see here; in fact, besides a church (where a wedding was taking place), we just walked the streets. We got down to the beach and and just relaxed for a while.


Maybe it was the time of day or the fact that it was less crowded, but Positano felt much more intimate than Amalfi. I highly recommend both places, but take in Positano if you can do only one.


We grabbed a bite and then jumped on the bus (after a long wait) back to Sorrento. It was still packed; we had to stand up yet, but at least we weren't right in front. We took one more stroll through Sorrento after getting back there to buy some limoncello, then back to our hotel.

To see all of our Amalfi pictures, go to our Picasa Web Album.
To see all of our Positano pictures, go to our Picasa Web Album.