If you’re coming from IG or FB, you already know I’m out in Europe pulling culturally-sensitive touristy shenanigans on the Gram

I had the extreme fortune of touring Amalfi Coast, a strip of mountain-embedded cities in Southern Italy with Greek, Byzantine and Moorish influence. I booked a tour within  traveletc’s Sea & Land experiences via GetYourGuide, which I would highly recommend downloading for planning + purchasing excursions in Italy! If you’re considering the gorgeous Amalfi Coast, here’s some info on each of the popular cities I visited:

All Coast

• Do a guided tour in a small bus (~20 people) or hire a private driver, if you have the means. This is not a place to drive
• If you fear heights or being adjacent to large bodies of water high up & on roads, this is not the site for you
  • If boats and low-ground are more your thing, consider venturing by cruise 🙂
• If you’re like me & get motion-sick easily, take Dramamine before going
• Fannypack-it or pocket it! This is not a place in which you want to carry a giant backpack. The streets are busy and shops with breakables are miniscule

Positano

• The home of the limone! Be sure to try a pure, fresh lemon product ( I recommend gelato limone sin crema)
• Be prepared for stairs. Its few roads are narrow, winding, and typically one-way, creating pedestrian congestion. Watch your pockets.
• The black sand beach is pretty, and pretty rocky. If you’re looking for a beach day, try Amalfi instead!
• Hotels in Positano can cost thousands of euros a night, and the spaces look tiny from the outside! I would recommend staying in Naples & traveling to the Coast with a driver or guide, instead.

Amalfi

• The congestion in the city that gives the coast its name is almost unbearable.If you are claustrophobic, I would not venture beyond the beachfront in the month of May.
• The gelato options on the beachfront cost more than those inside the city, beyond the plaza! Go inside and seek out a gelateria with purple seats!
  • Feel free to ask for samples and multiple flavors in your cup, even the smallest size. This store is kind; not all have this policy.
• Sandals. Choose sandals
• Prepare for photo ops for days! Striped beach linen (obtainable in Amalfi) is so in!

Ravello

• This historic city of music also contains a ceramic factory full of treasures with free shipping back to the US & vineyards
• Read below for why I loved Ravello – perfect escape from other tourists like you
  • At the end of the coast, this city is perhaps the least busy
• Walk through Via Rufolo (no need to pay for museum admission to take it all in, go around the side of the front entrance gate & down the arch-covered stairways)
• As with Positano, prepare for stairs!
• Explore the entire town on foot for views like the one below:

Please don’t leave Southern Italy without spending an hour in each of these beautiful cities on the Coast! There’s arresting beauty and history in the stone, the vineyards, the water and the buildings that reach skyward. Photos barely do it justice.

Take the journey (without the plunge, please)!