speaker-0 (00:00)
The Amalfi Coast is one of those destinations that almost doesn't need an introduction anymore. It's everywhere. It's on Instagram, TikTok, cruise itineraries, everybody's bucket list. And if you start researching the Amalfi Coast online, you'll quickly see the same places repeated over and over again. Positano, Amalfi, Sorrento, maybe even Capri. But after spending several days there, we realize something pretty quickly.
The Amalfi coast became significantly more enjoyable the moment we stepped just outside of the places that everyone else was rushing toward. Instead of staying in Positano or Sorrento, we based ourselves in the small town of Atrani, just around the bend from Amalfi, and honestly, it completely changed the experience that we had.
Today we're talking about what the Amalfi Coast is actually like beyond the polished Instagram version that you see. The reality of all the stairs, the ferry system, the beaches, the crowds, what we loved, what we would absolutely do again, and the smaller towns that may actually make for a better overall experience than the famous names that everyone already knows about.
Speaker 2 (01:17)
We're Scott and Melissa, The Sunshine Travelers.
Speaker 1 (01:20)
We're all about exploring the world and sharing the journey with you. Whether you're a seasoned traveler, dreaming of your next adventure, or just here for the stories.
Speaker 2 (01:27)
No matter where you are on your travel journey, we've got first-hand experiences, tips, and plenty of inspiration from some of the most amazing places on Earth.
Speaker 1 (01:36)
So buckle up and get ready to travel with us.
speaker-0 (01:44)
Melissa, we're sitting here today recording this from Samburu in Kenya. We're sitting right now on the front porch of our tent. And I just want to take an opportunity to invite people to come and join us in June of 2027 on a private safari. We just absolutely love Kenya. We love
the parks, the reserves, even just this morning, sitting by the river and having our breakfast and watching elephants and monkeys playing all around us, eating, going down in the water, splashing around. Like this is such an amazing place. And we just want to invite you to come and join along.
speaker-1 (02:29)
Yes, so the trip dates are June nineteenth through twenty sixth. and you can go to sunshinetravelers.com and on the homepage there is a place where it says to learn more about all the details. So dates and exactly what we'll be doing, the cost and all that. And then of course if you have any questions, you can reach out to us at Scott at sunshine travelers.com.
And we are happy to answer those and we'd love to have you come along. So I wanted to echo what Scott said. It's going to be a very small group. the game drives will be private and it will be no more than 10 people to keep it private and small and intimate.
speaker-0 (03:08)
Yeah. So go out, get signed up. You may be asking yourself, well that's a year from now. Unfortunately that's how African safaris work. You do need to book them ahead of time, especially if you're taking a group. So go out there now, get registered and we hope to have you come and join us.
I think the first thing that people need to understand about them off e coast is that it is very different from what many Americans picture.
when they think about a coastal vacation. This isn't a destination that is built around these long sandy beaches.
The Amalfi Coast is vertical. So when you look at it, it starts at sea level and builds up into the mountains. The towns are stacked into cliffs, roads cling to the sides of the mountains, buildings layer on top of each other, and almost everything involves stairs, ferries, steep walkways, or winding roads. And once you understand that geography, a lot of what we're going to talk about for Amalfi Coast.
Will make a lot of sense to you. We're going to talk about the transportation, the luggage situation, the beaches, and even why the views are so dramatic.
speaker-1 (04:22)
Scott, I think that's why staying in Atrani worked so well for us. You were the one who did a lot of research and made that decision. A lot of people might be saying, I've never even heard of Atrani. So we're gonna tell you about that. Yeah. And it's kind of like what we did with like the Greek islands, picking places that, are almost hidden gems, I would say. So most people immediately look at places like
speaker-0 (04:36)
And I hadn't heard of Vatrani before.
speaker-1 (04:48)
Positano, Amalfi Sorrento, when they start planning the trip, because that's what they have heard of. You see those places online. But Atrani honestly felt like stepping literally outside that chaos, not even sacrificing access to anything that we needed. It's right around the bend, literally the bend in the mountain from Amalfi. And you can walk in between them in about 15 minutes.
And they have even made it even more convenient. It used to be steep stairs up, steep stairs down, and now you take a few stairs, but they've even have a pedestrian tunnel. They have parking deck, I guess it would be, like even inside the cave in the mountain. so you don't have to walk along the busy coastal road, which we saw some people doing, and you don't, like I said, have to walk up and down.
And then once you get into Atrani, it really does feel like a small neighborhood.
There's a small piazza, even. it's called Piazza Umberto One, a handful of restaurants right around it, and you just don't get like the massive day trip crowds pouring through. You do have people who maybe get off the ferry in Amalfi
and and do a walk. and so you definitely see people so they get people coming in. But they also have a small beach area when it is beach season where they obviously put out umbrellas and a few places along the water as well.
So we rented an apartment. and that was really neat because it did belong to a local person. She met us, and so I really like that. But we had breakfast included each morning, but it was served down at the piazza at a place called Il Berecto.
So she had left us these little coupons and when she met us to show us the apartment, she said, you'll go down to the restaurant to have your breakfast. And but there was a few, I mean, maybe what, three or four little places. And so she was four. And so we had to the first morning we had to kind go around. and but we we found the place. Funny enough, we had actually eaten lunch there the day before. And so what was really cool, I think this Scott is probably one of my will be one of my most fond memories of Atranny.
Is that the staff started recognizing us and saying ciao to us, even if we were just like leaving to go or coming coming back from places, not you know, right around mealtimes or around breakfast whenever we walked through. we definitely ended up beating there more than once. we did carry out pizza one night, we got some dessert from them. Their food really, really was that good. And so, and it was funny because the last day
w the one of the girls that had waited on us the whole time, she said, I'm gonna miss you guys which I mean it that was just really cool. Like a lot of times you just don't even get that in the place that you live. So that was very special to us.
speaker-0 (07:27)
Yeah, I think that was really one of our favorite parts of staying in Atrani. You're there long enough that the people start to recognize you as we walk by. They would throw up their hand and, you know, yell chow or they would ask us like what are we gonna do the rest of the day or what did we do during the day. So I think that was really a neat part of staying there in Atrani because it's just that small.
when you're there in the mornings, you see the same people over and over again. they're walking the same streets, they're shopping at all the little stores, they're having their coffee before they head out to work that day. And you know, we saw people who were like in the remodeling business and they were down there a lot in the mornings. But it starts to feel like you're
temporarily living there rather than just kind of rushing through. And you know, on this trip we did we did our fair share of rushing through things. And we've said we don't want to do that anymore. kind of drawing the line in the sand saying this is the last time we're gonna rush through stuff. But we really enjoyed just being locals for a little bit.
speaker-1 (08:32)
You know what's funny is sometimes when you visit a place you're like, I wanna eat like at all the different places I can eat at to try the different ones. but like I mentioned, like breakfast was included, so it you know, it put us there every morning. But honestly, the croissants that I mean, we we saw the lady who was making desserts and I'm sure she made the pastries and everything, is probably the best ones we've had on this trip. Certainly the best ones in Italy, if not also in France, funny enough.
And so I would say also just to to echo what Scott said is that you probably want to give yourself at least a week for the Amalfi coast.
speaker-0 (09:10)
gonna be tired. Yeah. And I think you know, we're gonna talk about that in just a minute is all the stairs that are involved.
speaker-1 (09:17)
we're gonna talk about transportation, but just the expense of getting there and then, carrying your bags up the stairs, you're just gonna want time and you're obviously gonna want time to explore. So, like I mentioned before, we rented an apartment. it was perfect for us because after staying in Florence, where we didn't have a kitchen, it was nice to have a kitchen again, and we also had a washer.
And like most places there wasn't a dryer, but we could wash clothes and hang them out. that was really cool too because they had the lawn outside. so you really did kind of feel like a temporary local. You would hang your clothes onto the line we'd walk to Amalfi to a little bit larger grocery store. I mean it was tiny by any means, what it had two aisles and a upstairs for cleaning products, but for some of the things, but then we would supplement that. They had a little market and Atrani when we could.
So a few nights we actually decided just to cook dinner at the apartment instead of eating out every single meal and we typically have lunches out.
speaker-0 (10:08)
So let's talk about those stairs. I don't think social media prepares people for all the stairs that are on the Amalfi coast. our apartment sat at the top and there's about eighty stairs winding up on the side of the mountain.
And I think that that's just normal for the Amalfi coast.
speaker-1 (10:27)
And I think there are places, and I think we'll mention some you know, other tips of things to look for. There are places where maybe you could be driven to like the entrance to a hotel. it but sometimes like you could see on the side of the cliffs like the hotel, but like if you wanted to maybe go to the pool or go down to the ocean, you would have a lot of stair. So we will make some recommendations about at least what we've seen w could possibly have hotels that you don't have to do that. Well, funny enough
before we arrived, the host had contacted Scott to say, Hey, do you need porter service? And I think you were like, I mean this was just something we hadn't thought about.
speaker-0 (11:01)
Yeah, we definitely hadn't thought about it and at first we were like, nah, I don't think that I don't think that we do. And then we loaded up our luggage that morning and I rethought that quickly.
speaker-1 (11:12)
Yeah, I think you said, okay, how many steps is it? And you know, what is the possibility or you know, what does that look like? And so we did have decide to have our two biggest bags carried up, which was super helpful. So in Atrani, they have an Atrani porters. If you're staying in Amalfi they have Amalfi Porters. So these guys really have a very smart business idea.
speaker-0 (11:31)
Yeah, and just to prepare you, I think it is about twenty euros per bag to have them carry your bags up for you. Yeah. going up, i it was definitely well worth it. I would not have wanted to carry those I mean, even these guys who do this regularly, they had to stop and catch their breath.
speaker-1 (11:48)
And they were huffing and puffing when we got to the top. So that was funny. She also made the comment. she was because like I mentioned, she walked up there with us, she was like, Well, you don't have to go to the gem here. This is our gem. but yes, it it ended up being worth every single euro. And so that's just kind of like what I mentioned is like make it well worth your time to make sure that you stay long enough
speaker-0 (12:09)
Yeah, it's definitely worth it. but you know, stairs are just part of their daily life and over the period of time that we're staying there, we kind of got used to them. Mm-hmm. I won't say that you ever get to the point where you don't get tired going up the stairs, but you do get used to and if mobility's an issue for you, like Melissa said, look for some of those hotels and apartments that have
No stairs or fewer stairs. Ravello was a place that came to mind. it's expensive, but you could be driven up to Ravello. You could take the bus out of Amalfi town up to Ravello. and then once you got up there it was relatively flat on top of the mountain. maybe that's one option.
there was a hotel, if you're looking at Amalfi it was up on the left hand side of the mountain about halfway and we did see that there was a driveway that went up there. Melissa looked the name of it up and put it into the show notes. so I think that's an option. But you need to ask ahead of time because you might get to the hotel. You might not have any stairs to climb to get to the hotel, but then your room would be up on the
higher floor and you would have to take stairs there. And then the other thing that I think I would say is when you're going to the Amalfi Coast, you absolutely have to pack light. And this is this is no joke, right? Because you have those big bags and you've got to go up eighty s 80 stairs, you're not going to be able to do it.
speaker-1 (13:19)
Yeah, I'd a hundred percent confirm everything.
And I would say two, and I know we're gonna get to the ferries in a minute, but lots of people take baggage on the ferries 'cause you can sail from multiple places. And if you're gonna take baggage on the ferry, you're not gonna wanna have huge heavy bags or lots of them because you're gonna have to put on the ferry. You're gonna have to walk.
from the ferry to to town. And there was one time when we got off the ferry and that the waves were really walking on a small gang plank. So just being aware of that the one thing I would mention because you mentioned Ravello is that Ravello is not right on the water though and it's actually pretty far from the water.
speaker-0 (14:11)
It's up on the top of the mountain. So do know that. But you do get a good nice view from up above. So let's talk a little bit about getting to Amalfi Coast because I think that was more complicated.
speaker-1 (14:17)
yeah, amazing view.
speaker-0 (14:23)
than we had really anticipated. Our initial plan was that we were gonna take the train from Florence to Naples and then in Naples we would get on another train going to Salerno. And so Salerno, if you're thinking about going down the coast, it's it's down below Amalfi and Atrani
And then what what we would thought we would do is get on a ferry in Salerno, take it to Amalfi, and then taxi to Atrani. I mean, just me describing that out loud right now is like, what the heck were we thinking? And so thankfully that a better solution came around.
speaker-1 (15:01)
So I ended up finding a transfer company called AmalfiCo Cheaufer Service. and the best way to reach them is via their WhatsApp. and then I also will share their Instagram. but any of our clients that we send to the Amalfi Coast, we will definitely be using them because it was fantastic.
So they had actually reached out to me and I started chatting with them and telling them, okay, we're gonna be there and this is our plan. And they suggested something way easier. So they told me this was the price to pick us up from the train station in Naples and take us directly to Atrani. Well, we had already bought that portion of the train ticket from Naples to Salerno.
Thankfully it was refundable. but already that was gonna be like half the price. And then we were gonna have to ferry. The ferries aren't cheap. And as we learned, the ferries, it's not like you're gonna leave on a ferry every ten minutes. So then how would that timing work out? And then getting another taxi, it would have ended up costing us way more. And so he just told me, he said, okay, it's this price. and
it ended up being cheaper and if you had more people than if you were splitting it amongst people, then it's it's a hundred percent the best option. And then he's there waiting at the train in Naples and and you're done. I mean, I agree with Scott, like we would have been beside ourselves to try to do all that process.
Just to mention too, there are buses that run. There's buses that run from Naples, there's buses that run from like you could take the train down to Sorrento but you're gonna be in the same situation. You're gonna have to wait for the bus and you're gonna have to put your luggage. Every bus that we saw was packed out. And so you literally would be standing with your luggage on the buses as well.
speaker-0 (16:43)
For about an hour and a half from Naples.
speaker-1 (16:45)
Yeah. So like I mentioned, he picked us directly up from Naples. He was there, had a sign with our name on it, drove us straight to Atrani. I guess we should back up just a little bit. So we had been to the Amalfi Coast for before, just one day day trip from Naples. So we kinda knew the situation about what the roads were like. We had already said, like, I don't think we'd ever
really wanna drive on them because then you not only have to like drive on them and worry about their like the traffic and the mopeds, but then also just like where are you gonna park? And you probably just wanna park it and like leave your car, which is gonna be a huge expense.
speaker-0 (17:18)
roads are incredibly narrow along the coast. A lot of times you would have to pull over and let the other car pass, especially if you were in a turn and the buses couldn't make those turns. So you'd have to back up, let the the bus make the turn and get up. And so I would agree. I think driving on the Amalfi coast, just go ahead and rule that out. It's
It's gonna ruin your vacation.
speaker-1 (17:45)
And it was also really great because it's almost like we had like a mini tour guide. Like he stopped, when we kind of got close and he was like, let you know if you want to take a picture. He told us about some events that were going to be happening in the town of Pompeii with the Pope, and and told us where some of the towns were as we got close to the Amalfi coast. So it was just, it was fa fantastic. But after we got there, the ferry system was our favorite way to get around. So I will say, since we only did that day trip.
And we didn't use the ferry, we actually hired a car the time before. We had said our major goal for this time was to see the Almafi coast from the water, because that is where, especially like Positano that's really the only way. I think there's one other overlook on the road where you can see it is to see it from the water. so ferries are probably the easiest and cheapest way to get between towns.
Maybe except for the bus, but definitely, cheaper than hiring a taxi or having a car every single time. you avoid the traffic, you do get the incredible views I mentioned, and then you can easily move between Amalfi, Positono, Minori, Majori, you can go over to Capri, it'll take you over to Sorrento, you can take the ferry to Naples, you can take the ferry to Salerno as well. And so then of course some of our best pictures from
The trip came from these ferry rides.
So we hadn't really planned ahead for the fairies because we we kind of knew roughly what we wanted to do, but because the almafi coast is not really a place, I would say, where okay, we had to like pre-buy all these tickets and things like that, we didn't really plan day day by day. Here's an itinerary. we did know that we wanted to go to Capri one day and then maybe decide some other towns to explore.
You can go to the kiosk at the ferry, wherever you're taking the ferry and just buy the ticket. I went ahead to kind of get an idea about what times we need to leave. there's several websites that are like Ferry Hopper and different ones that are just ferry. And I and honestly, those come up when you start looking, if you want to put ferry for the Amoffi coast, those are gonna come up to to look at the ferry options. And then you could either book there.
and they charge you a little fee for using their service. or you could then go and and put them directly, buy them directly from each ferry service, which funny enough, it's there are several that run depending on kind of what direction you're going and then how big they are and different things like that. I won't say it's like a super super cheap way though. I think to go round trip for us, round trip for
from a mafi to capri was about fifty dollars a person. I think we did one way to minori one day and I think it was like ten dollars a person. So just be aware that it's not gonna be like two dollars to ride the ferry and you are gonna need to look at those ferry times. Be there in plenty of time, especially in a mafi because the lines kind of do get long. So
speaker-0 (20:31)
bit confusing too because they're along the dock and
Like nobody's there to tell you stand over here and wait and then get on this ferry. You you have to listen out. maybe ask someone like where am I supposed to be for this particular ferry? Because we saw one that looked almost like it should be our ferry, and the guy was like, No, this one's not yours. You need to go stand in this line over here. So don't be afraid to ask somebody that works there and they'll help you. Also, if you're
taking luggage, just know that you're gonna have to take the luggage down steps.
speaker-1 (21:07)
There is a charge for luggage. I think you can bring one like a handbag or a carry-on type bag or a backpack, you can bring one per person that's included in your fare. But luggage itself, I think it was like four Euros per bag. And I'm sure it's because of the weight and then it and it's like a fuel surcharge as well. So it's not just free either to take the luggage. So Scott, let's talk a little bit about what to do or what we did, I guess. There's lots of things to do or
You could just chill, but let's talk about a few of the things that we enjoyed.
speaker-0 (21:36)
Yeah, one of the mornings we were sitting at breakfast at Il Birecto and we started talking to this other American couple that was sitting nearby and they told us this incredible story about how they had purchased a sailboat in Turkey and were just slowly sailing it back to the United States. And when I say slowly I mean very slowly. I think they were about a year and a half into the journey and they had gotten from Turkey to
the Amalfi Coast. So long journey there. And we started talking about different things and we talked about how crowded Amalfi town is. Like I mean literally shoulder to shoulder people and lots of tourist shops and tourist cafes that line that street there in Amalfi town.
But they asked us, had we been to the Amalfi Cathedral yet. And we had seen it. It's right as you walk into Amalfi town on the right. And it's got these steps that lead up to it. But we just didn't think much about a cathedral there in Amalfi.
speaker-1 (22:41)
So we actually went, that was we were talking to them to the day where we just really had nothing planned and we were just gonna kinda, hang out and just explore close by. And so we walked over there and I think it was like four Euros per person to get in. we were like blown away.
speaker-0 (22:58)
Yeah, it was definitely stunning. and then underneath the cathedral they had this incredible crypt that contained the relics believed to belong to Saint Andrew, which was Jesus' first disciple. And if if you're like us, you don't know what a relic is, usually it's like part of their body or a cloth or a piece of wood.
that belonged to someone. So in this case, I think for Saint Andrew they had part of his skull and I don't know, maybe one of his fingers or something like that. but anyhow, that was there in the crypt. And I've gotta say is whether you're religious or not, this was one of the most unexpectedly impressive things that we saw on the Amalfi coast. And I think four Euros
was fine. Like this is definitely worth the four Euros to go and see.
speaker-1 (23:48)
It was funny because she mentioned they do have a smaller cathedral in Atrani at the top of the hill, which this the inside of it was absolutely stunning. We w also walked in it, we were absolutely shocked. You could give an offering, they didn't have a mandatory
admission fee and so we're like, yeah, maybe. And she was like, No, like this is one that you're gonna want to pay to go in. So we were super glad for that tip. Honestly, once we did once we went in and they also had like the chapel. So I thought the chapel was gonna be the church. And then you go in the crypt and then you come back up to the main part and you're like, how is this right here?
Because all you see are those steps and this facade and you're just like, wait a minute, like where d where is this even coming from? I it was don't miss that. I know a lot of people go to a mafi for the beach and the views and the lemon gelato or lemon sorbet and the lemon and those types of things, but the cathedral is like so unexpected.
speaker-0 (24:45)
We definitely tried one of those lemon sorbet things while we were there. They have these giant lemons. I mean, these things are like, I don't know, eight inches tall or something like that. And what they do is they cut them in half, they juice them, and then they put the lemon sorbet down into the skin, I guess, of the of the lemon and serve it to you that way. they take a lemon
leaves like a branch out of the tree and just stick it right in there so you got like this branch hitting you in the face while you're trying to eat it. But a hundred percent touristy, however, just do it.
speaker-1 (25:21)
had like a little one the last time we were there. We had stopped and gone to a beach and eaten lunch and I had like just a regular lemon size with that in it and they had frozen it. So now like Scott said it's everywhere. But it's a it is a lot it's a lot of fun. And it's beautiful pictures.
speaker-0 (25:34)
guarantee you they had no less than ten different shops selling them between Amalfi and if you went around on around to either Atrani or Pozzetano, there was
speaker-1 (25:45)
Well, surprisingly, there was no gelato ice cream or anything in a trani. I was like, that would be my business for here because you have them everywhere and there's not one. Second thing I wanted to say was lemon sorbet, like on a hot day, is just like my favorite kind of like if you go to a gelato shop. So so on my list for this trip was I had told Scott, let's plan this, let's have a day to go to Capri.
speaker-0 (26:09)
Yeah.
speaker-1 (26:10)
So last time when we stayed in Naples, we did spend an afternoon in Pompeii. and so that is definitely another thing that you want to do when you're in this area. We didn't do it this time because we had already done that. And then we had another day and we like I mentioned, we did a day trip on the Amalfi coast just by car. And but our our choices that time would have been to take the ferry over to Capri and spend the day or to do that. So this time I said I really wanted to do Capri for the day.
speaker-0 (26:36)
One recommendation that we had though for Capri is to skip Capri Town initially and then immediately take a boat to tour around the island. We were able to book that as part of our ferry as one of the options is that we could add on the boat tour. And so we did that. and when we got over to Capri, we immediately
moved over and got on our boat and headed out and did the tour by water. So now you're gonna have these gorgeous views around the island. and they're gonna take you by and show you where the blue grotto is, but it's not gonna take you into the blue grotto. If you wanna do that, it's totally separate. Like none of the tours can take you into
the blue grotto, you gotta go line up. There's a little shack on a hill. You line up outside that shack and then they put you in little rowboats and the guides that know how to navigate that entrance into the blue grotto will take you in there.
speaker-1 (27:36)
And maybe if you did a private tour and you were organizing that and you told them specifically, we want to include this in part of our time, that you would stop here and and take us, you can also get to the entrance from that from on land. the guide on our tour boat did tell us that there's two fees for that. Number one fee you'll have to pay for the boat.
to go in it and then number two you'll have to pay there is a separate entrance fee to even have access to that and it's a pretty quick visit. They get people in and out pretty quickly.
speaker-0 (28:05)
And then also on the tour we passed the Ferragione Rock formations. There were some really dramatic cliffs and then houses that had been built on top of those rocks. And like I said, I I think it's just a beautiful way experience capri from the water.
speaker-1 (28:23)
Honestly, if we hadn't have bought it as part of our ferry ticket, like we I still had to go to a window once we got there and exchange my ticket. It was the same price as what I paid, but you could find day trips. I think they leave starting at like 10, 10 30. They most of them are early in the morning, which is why that was a suggestion. But it does give you kind of an overview so you'll know what the whole island is. but we still went to, like Scott mentioned, the rock formations and
think what she called the green grotto. But I mean the water is just absolutely stunning. the only other thing that I was thinking as we were doing it is that even if you do a private tour, it's not like it's gonna be a hundred percent private because there are lot of bigger tour boats going around. And so it wasn't like they got to stay there without the other boats, longer or like we were there with them. I mean, I guess you would have more Tom, but just doing the shared
public tour for twenty five euros a person with
speaker-0 (29:16)
And
almost seemed like they kind of gave way to the larger tour boats too. 'Cause we saw several of those private tours back out, our boat went in, turned around and came out.
speaker-1 (29:29)
So just just keep that in mind as you're researching that.
speaker-0 (29:32)
So after the boat tour, we took a bus up to Anakapri and I wanna talk about those buses because my recommendation after this is that you take one of the little taxis. They have these convertible fiat taxis. Number one, it's a convertible, it's gonna be fun no matter what. And then the second thing was these buses, they pack them. I mean, it's almost like they're pushing people in.
To pack them out and there's maybe five seats on the bus. And so you're having to stand on this bus and it's going around these curvy, windy roads, and there's very little to really hold on to. And so I didn't like the bus. I wouldn't take the bus if I was to go back there again. I would just, bite the bullet, pay for the taxi, and take the taxi up there.
speaker-1 (30:20)
So our main goal for going then we basically took the bus from the port to Anna Capri
And we rode the chairlift to the top of Monte Solaro. So now again, the chairlift has gotten very popular. I mean, it's probably just a popular thing if you know about it, but probably gotten extra popular because of social media. and if you didn't know, it was up there. So there is a line, but it actually moved very fast. You buy your tickets right there. it it moved very, very quickly, even though the line looked long and then I mean it doesn't stop.
speaker-0 (30:52)
Just
because it's a continuous moving chairlift. And it's a single rider, so one person the chair lift keeps going kinda like a ski lift on a mountain. And so it does move very fast.
speaker-1 (30:54)
putting people on
Yeah. the chair it's about fifteen minutes to go up and but the views from up there are incredible, both from the tier lift, but then you get off and you can walk around. I think they had like a gift shop, they had a place where you could eat or get drinks, and then you can walk down a little ways and then you can see what you had seen from the boat trip, which was neat.
three sixty panoramic views. So just absolutely fantastic. You can hike up there. So if you have a lot of time you could hike up or you could hike down. But it would be quite yeah, it would be quite a trip.
So if you walk, our suggestion would be to walk behind the restaurant at the top. There's a even a quieter path. there were some goats up there. you get away from most of the crowds and most of the people trying to take pictures and then you can just like see more of the panoramic view.
speaker-0 (31:50)
Well earlier Melissa was talking about that on the ferries, one of the days we took a ferry over to this little town of Minori. So there's two right beside each other, Minori and Mayori, or Majori, the way that it's spelled. And we went to Minori, which is the smaller one, and this was a little bit like Atrani, but maybe a little bit bigger. There was more restaurants and cafes.
Probably a little more tourists there than Atrani, but still it would be a great place to go and stay, and not the hustle and bustle of Amalfi. and so while we were there, we had lunch and while we were sitting there at lunch we asked our waiter about Ravello. And we talked about earlier that Ravello is up on top of the mountain.
And he said, yes, you should definitely do that. He said, It's a lot of stairs, but you just go out of the town and then follow the signs up to Ravello.
speaker-1 (32:47)
And
And so we're going to talk about our experience with Rivello because it was absolutely highly recommended, regardless of how you decide to get there. I want to say a couple of things about Minori. Minori does have a longer beach promenade. and so again, I mean we took the ferry over there, so there's a ferry port, the longer beach promenade. So there's lots of shops and cafes along the water. That would be a place that I feel like would be quite a bit more accessible.
there was nothing here that maybe except for inside the buildings would have a lot of stairs because it really was in like almost like a valley area until you take the stairs up to Rivello. so it would be a great place to do that. you could easily get to Majori as well. I think they had some larger grocery stores and second thing is if you do want to get kind of off the tourist beaten path, which I mean here it would be great to, maybe pick a spot, you could people watch, you could see the water.
etc. We kind of wound our way up into the town and found a great little hidden gem restaurant, found a little antique shop as well. So that was that was neat. So Scott, let's talk about our trek up to Ravello.
speaker-0 (33:51)
Well I would say we would recommend to people go to that little ceramic and antique shop.
speaker-1 (33:57)
can pin, I should be able to pin like the name of it. What was so cool about it was yes, he had some of the things like you see, like the ceramic numbers, and then the different towns in ceramic. So I guess we should to say every town people have little ceramic, like they all have matching ceramic things with their house numbers on it. Some of them are just really cool because it would be like Atrani
It'll have a picture of Atrani and then they may have their house number or a moffie or capri. and so I asked him, do you have one? We're staying in Atrani. Do you have one for Atrani? It was actually his last one. I also bought some numbers from him. His stuff was like half or less the price than we had seen other places. But then he just had like so many like antique ceramic type, things, not just from the Amalfi Coast, but just like neat, just neat things. and he
gave us a poster and he signed it. and the poster had the picture. He was like, this is the view from my home of looking back toward Atrani and toward the Amalfi Coast, which is really, just really special and neat. So just an experience that you're not going to get in just like all these little shops that are all the same because it definitely wasn't the same as anybody else's. Yep.
speaker-0 (35:06)
So from there we started our climb up to Rivello slowly, very slowly, as a matter of fact. But we took our time, we weren't in any hurry. This is what we were gonna do for the day, and we kind of laughed a little bit about how ridiculous it was that we were climbing up the side of this mountain. I had looked and done some research and
and found that it was somewhere between like twelve and fifteen hundred steps to get up to Ravello from there. And it's like, what are we doing? But then we said to ourselves, kind of, well, this is what we wanted to do. We wanted to be outside. We wanted to exercise. And so we headed up those stairs and we just kinda stopped every once in a while and huffed and puffed and caught our breath and took in the view, took in some great pictures.
And then we laughed at everyone else that was around us, including the locals that were stopping and catching their breath and so we didn't feel so bad then.
speaker-1 (36:04)
What's funny is that 1200, 1500 steps is all relative because sometimes the steps are like really, really steep. It was like, well, they made one step where like a typical whatever we would say needs to be the rise run of a stair, it would be like that would have been two. so there was not necessarily any uniformity to this. My other thought was it's taking us this long or we are climbing this many steps. Like who in the world like to build those?
Like how long it must have taken to build and then who would have thought, let's build these stairs on the side of the mountain? I I told you when we were doing this, this would be a place today where they would just be like, this isn't you can't build here. You you can't build here.
speaker-0 (36:44)
And I think we only crossed over one road. So the people's property that was along the way because
You saw the entrances into the property, so people would have to go up those stairs or come down from from the path if they were if they lived there.
speaker-1 (37:00)
There's also from that vantage point too, there's also these cathedrals like way up on the top of the hill that you can see. And you're just like, how in the world? so by the time we reached Rivello, we stopped in a little place that looked like it had an amazing view. It was actually a hotel, but it had this view. so we stopped to just sit for a little bit and get an Aperol Spritz. There was nobody else there because we weren't really here in the high season.
but it was just absolutely fantastic. I think the most satisfying drinks that we had on the entire trip and just it taking in that water view from the top.
speaker-0 (37:35)
Well we definitely earned them. one of the things, because you talked about the view of the beaches. I do want to talk about the beaches a little bit because if you're going there during the summer, we were there during May, so the beaches there was a few people using but not very many. It was it was warm enough to sit on the beach.
There was one or two people who were daring enough to go swimming, but the water was too cold really, to to enjoy the beach that way. But the beaches in Amalfi are very small. And so if you're there thinking you're gonna go for a beach vacation and you're there during the summer, just be aware that
you're gonna be tightly packed in with a lot of people wanting to use those those beaches. And a lot of the beaches are controlled or they're privately owned. And so you have to rent a beach chair and an umbrella to use them.
speaker-1 (38:28)
Yeah, or I guess just lay your stuff on the sand, but they really sometimes you have to walk through restaurants and so they're gonna be like, yeah, to use our little section of the beach. I'm trying to remember
speaker-0 (38:37)
most of the beach. So there's really not a lot of space to lay down your towel there and go out. There there's a few and we did it before I think when we went there, but just know that most of it is beach clubs.
speaker-1 (38:49)
Those beach clubs in a mafi also, I don't think any of them were open yet. even the restaurants. I noticed that the restaurant we ate at last time, it was still closed. I don't think they had any chairs and umbrellas set up in a mafi yet, did they? Or maybe one one little section. One little section. a trani, they did not. I think down toward maybe Majori, they had one little section that they were getting ready to set up. But it was even like Scott mentioned,
Toward the middle of May, it really still wasn't even, you're going there for the beach yet.
speaker-0 (39:16)
And and so if you're going there thinking that it's gonna be a nice sandy beach, you're wrong about that as well. I think down around Majori there was some sandy beaches, but the others were like rocks.
think large river rocks and things like that that you gotta go over to get down into the water. You'll definitely want watershoes, I would think, if you're gonna go to these beaches and get in the water.
speaker-1 (39:41)
And like I mentioned earlier, just know that also the swimming pools could either be like on the roof or if there was a hotel like perched on the side, the swimming pool might be down by the water, but you could see it was lots of stairs in many of them. So again, our tip would just be to see like wherever you're planning on staying, just like be aware of that, what that situation looks like. So the other thing is there are also boats.
everywhere along the coastline during the day in addition to the ferries. You can do day trips, shared day trips, private, you can do sunset cruises. And that is honestly, I mean, the best views of the Amalfi Coast are from the water because you can see those towns, you can pass by the towns. So I highly recommend at least one ferry ride in one direction or the other.
Because you get to go further and they actually go into those ports and then you have a few minutes to, take some pictures and and then head on your way. So for example, when we went from Amalfi to Capri, we stopped in Pazetano.
speaker-0 (40:41)
Yeah, so you're really gonna appreciate the incredible view of the Amalfi Coast and its geography from the water.
Well the Amalfi Coast absolutely lives up to the hype. So we're not saying don't go to the Amalfi Coast. we really enjoyed it. You're probably just gonna wanna
take a look at where you're going and where you're gonna stay. but we realize that the best parts of our trip often happen just outside the places that everyone else is running toward. In the quieter towns like Atrani and Minori over our breakfast conversations in the little small piazza on ferry rides between the villages, when we were climbing the endless stairs up to Ravello
Or just sitting in the apartment cooking dinner after a long day exploring the coastline. And I think that's what we'll remember most about the Amalfi coast from this trip. Not trying to experience it like everybody else online says you should, but finding our own pace within it instead.
Speaker 1 (41:46)
Well that's it for today's episode. Wherever you're listening from, we hope we've added a little spark to your travel dreams today.
Speaker 2 (41:53)
If you've been enjoying the show, a five-star review on your favorite podcast platform goes a long way. It helps new listeners join our Sunshine Travelers family.
Speaker 1 (42:02)
Be sure to follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode.
Speaker 2 (42:06)
and join us on Instagram or Facebook at Sunshine Travelers Podcast. Remember, that's Travelers with one L.
Speaker 1 (42:11)
And if the stories, tips, and adventures we share bring a little sunshine to your week, you can even buy us a cup of coffee now. You'll find the link in the show notes.
Speaker 2 (42:21)
And of course, share this episode with a friend. Adventure is always better together.
