Adriatic Adventure: The Amalfi Coast

After exploring Pompeii our driver took us through the Amalfi Coast.  Hiring a driver (we used AP Tours) was our biggest splurge on the trip, but in our mind it was totally worth it because we only had one day to see both Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast.  He was very professional, easy to talk to, and had plenty of experience driving on the curvy roads.

We stopped in Positano for about an hour to check out the scene.  My fiance took this beautiful photo of Positano's tiered houses.  It's quite a lot of downhill to get to the beach, which makes for a hike back up.

Positano is great if you're visiting for a beach weekend, but personally I wouldn't stay there for more than a day or two.  While pretty, there didn't seem to be much to do there aside from shopping at one of the many expensive (think $125+ for a casual dress) boutiques in the city.  Granted, we only had an hour to take in as much as we could, so please feel free to share your experiences in Positano!

Once we finished looking around Positano, we drove to Amalfi for lunch.  We wanted to try a wine typical of the area, so our driver recommended Lacryma Christi wine, which is a Neapolitan type of wine produced on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius in Campania, Italy.  Lacryma Christi literally means the "tears of Christ."  Needless to say, it was a wonderful recommendation.  It was exactly what we needed on such a hot day.

I ordered spaghetti alle vongole, or spaghetti with clams, which is a traditional dish for the region.  Oh my, it was one of the best pasta dishes I've ever had.  It had the perfect amount of butter, olive oil, parsley, red pepper flakes, and briny clams on al dente pasta.  Simply divine!  I've yet to recreate it!

And we wouldn't have completed our tour without a limoncello aperitif.  This was my first time trying it and while I'm a big fan of lemons, there's a ton of sugar in it to mask the alcohol.  I don't have the biggest sweet tooth, so I don't see myself drinking this very often, but once in a while it'd be a nice treat!

Unfortunately I don't have a lot of photos from our Amalfi Coast tour because we were on a role, but I found the town of Amalfi to be more interesting than Positano.  The shops, while still quite touristy, had a lot more interesting things to look at.  And it sure was the place to buy limoncello--forget buying it at the duty free store in the airport!  There's also Saint Andrew's Cathedral at the heart of Amalfi, which has a beautiful, wide staircase leading up to its entrance.  If we'd had more time we probably would have gone inside!

Though the Amalfi Coast was beautiful, I'm glad we only took an afternoon to see it.  I might have stayed another day, but if your style of travel is more like mine where you're into seeing as many things as possible (because not many of us have infinite travel days!), then a half day to a day is really all you need to take in the main sights.