Prepared for The Hartley Family
Curated by Alder & Vine Travel
4 travellers, 2 rooms
Private car and driver throughout
Breakfast daily
Euro (EUR)
- Flat shoes for the stairs
- Light layers for boat days
- Modest cover for churches
- Reef-safe sunscreen
Photo: Carminejoy91 / Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)Positano
- Naples Airport
- Positano
Your driver meets you inside the terminal and the coast begins almost immediately. The road narrows past Castellammare, the Bay of Naples opens on the right, and by late afternoon you are on a terrace above Positano with nothing scheduled.
- 2:15 PMArrive Naples CapodichinoPrivate transfer waiting at arrivals
- 4:00 PMCheck inCheck in at Le SirenuseTwo sea-view rooms, third floor
- 8:00 PMDinner on the terraceTable held at La Sponda
- Settle in
- Evening passeggiata down to Spiaggia Grande
- La Sponda · Candlelit, 400 candles lit nightly — worth the fuss
A day with no car. Positano is essentially one very long staircase between the church and the sea, and the only way to understand it is to walk it slowly, stopping wherever the light is good.
- 9:30 AMSanta Maria AssuntaThe majolica dome and the Black Madonna
- 11:00 AMVia Pasitea by footCeramics, linen, sandal-makers
- 1:30 PMLunch at the beach clubReserved loungers at Arienzo
- Bespoke sandals fitted at a workshop on Via Pasitea
- Afternoon swim at Arienzo
- Chez Black · On the beachfront — order the scialatielli ai frutti di mare
Your own gozzo for the day, which means you reach the Faraglioni before the hydrofoils do and can swim in the Green Grotto while it is still empty. Anacapri in the afternoon, once the day-trippers have gone back down.
- 8:30 AMBoard at Positano jettySkipper Nino, full day charter
- 10:00 AMCircumnavigate the islandFaraglioni, Grotta Verde, swim stops
- 1:00 PMLunch ashore at Marina Piccola
- 3:30 PMChairlift to Monte SolaroThe whole bay from 589 m
- Swim at the Faraglioni
- Chairlift to Monte Solaro
- Villa San Michele gardens
- Il Riccio · Michelin-starred, on the cliff at Anacapri
Photo: Miguel Hermoso Cuesta / Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)Ravello
- Positano
- Ravello
The move east along the Statale 163, which is the drive people mean when they talk about this coast. Ravello sits 350 metres above it all, quieter and greener, and the gardens at Villa Cimbrone end in a terrace that simply stops.
- 10:00 AMDepart PositanoLuggage forwarded ahead
- 12:30 PMCheck inCheck in at Palazzo Avino
- 4:00 PMVilla Cimbrone gardensThe Terrace of Infinity, best in late light
- Villa Rufolo
- Villa Cimbrone and the Terrace of Infinity
- Rossellinis · Terrace table, sunset side
Down the valley to Amalfi itself, which was a maritime republic when Venice was still a marsh. The cathedral steps, the cloister, and then the Valle delle Ferriere where the old paper mills are being swallowed back by the woods.
- 9:30 AMDuomo di Sant'AndreaThe Cloister of Paradise
- 11:00 AMMuseo della CartaHand-pressed paper, 13th century mills
- 1:00 PMLunch in the piazza
- Amalfi cathedral and cloister
- Paper museum
- Walk into the Valle delle Ferriere
- Da Gemma · Family-run since 1872, one street back from the cathedral
A private lesson at a family farm above Minori — mozzarella pulled by hand, gnocchi rolled on a wooden board, lemons picked off the terrace behind the house. You eat what you make, at a long table, for most of the afternoon.
- 10:00 AMCollected from the hotel
- 10:45 AMCooking lesson beginsNonna Rosa's kitchen, four courses
- 2:00 PMLunch at the family table
- Hands-on cooking lesson
- Lemon grove walk
- Limoncello tasting
- The farm table · Everything you made, plus things you did not
Photo: Falk2 / Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)Sorrento
- Ravello
- Sorrento
West to Sorrento for a final night, close enough to the airport that tomorrow is easy. The old town after dark is all inlaid wood and lemon everything, and the bath houses below the cliff are open until sunset.
- 11:00 AMDepart Ravello
- 1:00 PMCheck inCheck in, Grand Hotel Excelsior Vittoria
- 5:00 PMSwim from the bagniLift down the cliff from the hotel garden
- Sorrento old town
- Marquetry workshop visit
- Final swim
- Il Buco · In a former monks' wine cellar
- Sorrento
- Naples Airport
A slow morning, then the coast road back north one more time. Your driver builds in an hour of margin, which on this road is not optimism but arithmetic.
- 10:00 AMCheck outLate checkout arranged
- 11:30 AMTransferPrivate transfer to NAP
- 2:40 PMDepart Naples
- Last coffee in Piazza Tasso
Anything at all, ask Alder & Vine Travel.