A slower, quieter itinerary for the Amalfi Coast, built around a good driver, an early morning, and no fixed plans for the afternoon.
There is a particular quality of light along the Amalfi Coast in the early morning, before the day-trippers arrive and the ferries start their crossings, when the water below Positano is still glass and the lemon groves smell sharper than they will by noon. It is worth waking up for.
A week here, done slowly, looks nothing like the postcard version of the coast. It looks like breakfast on a terrace with no set time to be anywhere, a driver who knows which switchback has the best view and doesn’t rush you past it, and a dinner reservation made not because a guidebook said so, but because someone who actually lives there recommended it.
Positano gets the photographs, but Ravello gets the quiet. Set higher into the hills, it trades the coastal bustle for garden terraces and a slower pace, while still putting the whole coastline within an easy half-hour drive. For a week-long stay, we generally recommend splitting time between the two: a few nights low, by the water, and a few nights up, above it.
Skip the crowded viewpoints in favor of a private boat along the coastline at sunset, when the light hits the cliffs directly and the water empties out. A morning walk along the Path of the Gods, started early enough to have it mostly to yourself, remains one of the most rewarding few hours anywhere on the Italian coast.
The rest of the week can be left intentionally open. That, more than any single excursion, tends to be what people remember.