The only way to do it justice is to take the only coast road, opened in the mid-eighteenth century by the Bourbon King Ferdinand II's carriages. Now, as then, this roadway passes white villages, churches with majolica cupolas, sudden rocky protrusions and terraced groves swollen with lemons. Every curve reveals a fishing cove nestled in the rocks, a quick glimpse of blue or a Bouganvilla-draped villa worthy of Hollywood. La Costiera, immortalized in the gouaches of a thousand painters and the films of several dozen film directors, never fails to provoke strong emotions in habitués as well as those seeing it for the first time.

The Amalfi coastline lies between Positano and the starting point of our journey, Salerno, spread along a gulf busy with passenger and commercial ships. Rent a car or better yet, a motorcycle (it comes in handy on those narrow roads) and head north. How to get to the Amalfi Coast? Coming from the north (Napoli, for example), you'll leave the highway A3 at Vietri. From a southerly direction (Salerno for example), turn off into the state highway in the direction of Vietri.