Amalfi Coast

Editorial

A coastline that lives up to its reputation. Arrive before July.

The Amalfi Coast is one of those places that lives up to its reputation — and that is a harder thing to do than it sounds. The SS163 coastal road, the whitewashed villages above the sea, the smell of lemons and salt and stone: these are real, and they are as good as anyone has ever said.

The challenge is crowds. In July and August, the coast belongs to everyone. The villages are impassable. The hotels are full. The experience is diminished. But arrive in May or September, and the coast returns to something close to what it always was — intimate, dramatic, unhurried.

The best luxury hotels here are not on the road. They are above it, built into cliffs, reached by private lifts, with terraces that look straight out to sea. That elevation — physical and atmospheric — is what separates the great Amalfi stays from the merely comfortable ones.