Drive The Amalfi Coast

Everyone had warned us against driving the famous Amalfi Coast.  "It's dangerous" we were told.  "It's congested" we were warned.  Yet, we got up this morning and Luke suggested: "let's rent a car and drive to Amalfi"; so we did. We went to up to Corso Italia in Sorrento to where the public lemon grove garden is.  There are several car rental companies there, and their prices are comparable.  We went to EuropeCar and rented a little Fiat 500c (the C is for a convertible) for the day. TIP#1: RENTING CARS FROM HOME OVER THE INTERNET IS CHEAPER.  We usually book our rental cars through a website to get the best price-this was a complete impulse rent. 

Road Side Fruit Stand

If it we were in Sorrento in the summer months, this last minute car rental would not be possible due to unavailability. This is the beauty of off-season travel though, you can rent cars easily at the last second, find parking spots AND drive the Amalfi Coast without stopping every few minutes for traffic jams.  I actually adore Fiat 500's and would love to have one at home, but perhaps not the most practical vehicle when you live on a farm.




We used our Maps.Me app on our phone to guide us to the Amalfi Coast road. It was not very difficult, the signage is pretty good and we remembered the road from our public bus trip earlier in the week.   TIP #2: IF YOU GET MOTION SICKNESS TAKE YOUR PILLS BEFORE YOU GO AND PULL OVER TO STOP AT THE REST AREAS TO GIVE YOURSELF A BREAK.  Can't stress this one enough; the Amalfi Coast is constantly twisting and turning.  The rest areas often have little stands that sell fresh fruit and vegetables for not much more than you would pay in town.  We bought some strawberries and had a break to take some spectacular photos between Positano and Amalfi.

Amalfi Perched On The Cliffs

We finally arrived in Amalfi and found the parking scene quite chaotic.  There was a big public parking lot on the ocean side of the highway but it seemed to be full.  TIP #3:  LOOK FOR LOCALS CARRYING GROCERY BAGS RETURNING TO THEIR CARS AND FOLLOW THEM.  Yes, become that creepy parking stalker.  We do this often, and sometimes people will even tell us to follow them to their car.  There is more private parking along the waterfront businesses, just follow Via Lungomare to the end.

Along Via Lungomare

Amalfi Or Maltese Cross?

To be honest, many people gave me the advice to skip Amalfi.  It's boring, not many tourist attractions or shopping etc.  Maybe that's why I loved it.  I loved Amalfi way more than Positano because it felt like a real working town, that has a grand and mysterious past.  For instance; did you know that Amalfi was a republic back in the 900's?  Oh ya, it was a huge power up there with Venice, Pisa and Genoa.  Amalfi was right into the crusades and founded a hospital in Jerusalem AND they founded the Knights of Malta order.  The famous Maltese cross is actually an Amalfi Cross. In those days, if you wanted power you had to be on the pilgrim map.  In order to do this, you need bones of Saints; just like Venice got the bones of Saint Mark, Amalfi snatched Saint Andrew's bones.

To get to the bustling town of Amalfi you must enter the ancient gates of Porta della Marina.  Amalfi was built on two sides of a ravine with the Amalfi river running through it.  There are many buildings with arches overhead that lend to its medieval feel.  In fact, you can also see the Byzantine influence in the architecture of the buildings and Duomo of Amalfi.
The river was paved over and became the narrow main street of Amalfi called Via Lorenzo D'Amalfi.  If you follow this street all the way to the top of town you come to an old paper mill that made the famous paper of Amalfi until 1969 when it was turned into a museum. The famous paper called "bambagina" has been produced in Amalfi since medieval times and is still produced there today but in a modern factory.  Many shops sell the beautiful paper of Amalfi.  Other great finds in Amalfi are linen clothing, majolica tiles and porcelain.  TIP #4: SHOPPING IN AMALFI IS CHEAPER THAN POSITANO, CAPRI OR SORRENTO.

Street vibe of Amalfi

Cathedral of Saint Andrew

Picnic Time

One of the main sights of Amalfi is it's Duomo.  The Duomo di Sant Andrea is up high upon a perch overlooking Piazza del Duomo.  The steps leading up to the Duomo is a local hangout for people to sit and relax in the sun for a bit.  We bought some Calzones, Arancini (rice balls with peas and cheese inside) and beer and had a fine picnic on the church steps.  The current Cathedral was built in Amalfi's heyday circa 1,000-1300, but the remains of the older basilica dating to the 800's (housing the museum) were built upon an ancient Greek then Roman temple.  This church was basically built to house the remains of Saint Andrew (the one martyred on an X shaped cross). The remains were brought to Amalfi from Constantinople in1206.  

Campanille

The Duomo is a mix of Moorish, Byzantine and Gothic styles.  The complex consists of the cathedral, the Campanile and the convent of Cappuccini.  It costs €3 to enter the Duomo and tour the museum.  The courtyard inside is a beautiful columned oasis nicknamed the "Cloister of Paradise" is a cemetery for the nobles of Amalfi.  You can get great views of the Campanile or bell tower, with its bright majolica tiles from here.  There are some beautiful marble sarcophagi here to admire and the whole cloister has an Arabic feeling to it.

The best part of this church is the crypt of Saint Andrew.  After exploring the small but very good museum in the former basilica, continue on downstairs through the ornately made wrought iron gates to the resting place of Saint Andrew.

Cloister Of Paradise

Tomb Not A Ballroom

This crypt is like no other I have ever seen.  It is Baroque overload!  The vaulted ceilings were frescoed in the late 1600's with scenes depicting Saint Andrews life and everything in the crypt is gilded and ornate.  With the huge chandeliers hanging in the entryways you would think this a ballroom, not a crypt.  Then you see the big bronze statue of Saint Andrew and his X shaped cross.  This statue from 1606 was a masterpiece of Michelangelo Naccherino, a student of Michelangelo Buonarroti in Florence.  Flanking Saint Andrew are marble statues by Pietro Bernini, father to THE Bernini king of the Baroque era.  In the gold box under the statue sits the remains of the Saint. 

High Altar

Continuing the tour upstairs from the crypt is the Cathedral with its Baroque high altar.  It's almost too much to look at!  Lots of painting and murals depicting the life and miracles of Saint Andrew.  Lots of relics and treasures plundered from Constantinople in 1206.  The crazy thing is that we had this whole place to ourselves practically!  There was only one other family having a private tour of the place and letting their snot nose pre-teen daughter wipe her boogers all over the ancient frescoes in the cloisters  (I think there must be a special place in hell for nose pickers).  
I'm sure the daughter will brag one day:  "I wiped my boogers over every single UNESCO site in Italy"!  Oh, did I forget to mention Amalfi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site?  My Bad.

Exploring The Breakers in Amalfi

We were thoroughly saturated with all this heavy sacred tourism stuff by this point.  We decided to get some fresh air and sunshine and check out Amalfi's beach for another kind of worshipping; the sun!  There is a long breaker that heads out into the water from the parking lot at the highway; it's a great place to look back on Amalfi and take photos.  There is also a large pebble beach here, the Spiaggia Grande where in the summer months you can rent a sun lounger and there are changerooms set up, etc.

The town of Amalfi turned out to be a surprisingly great destination for me.  Amalfi is a real town that depends on tourism, yes; but it is not the resort driven, uber-chic, "look at me in my Prada outfit" kind of place that I find Positano, Capri and to some degree Sorrento to be.


This is what I love about travel; you can read all you want in guidebooks, get all the recommendations from strangers on the internet or even friends and family who have been to the destination.  But until you go visit these sites yourself and experience the energy of the place and distil it through your own unique filters; you can never truly know if it will stir your soul.  And that's the only thing that truly matters.

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