Amalfi Coast, worth knowing.

Fun facts about Amalfi Coast

1. 1Amalfi lemon growers are nicknamed the 'flying farmers': they climb wooden pergolas high above steep cliff terraces to tend and pick their lemons.Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN; Appetito Magazine
2. 2The local Sfusato Amalfitano lemon is sweet enough that people on the coast eat it like an apple, raw.Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN; Appetito Magazine
3. 3In 1953 John Steinbeck wrote that 'Positano bites deep. It is a dream place that isn't quite real when you are there and becomes beckoningly real after you have gone.'Source: Newsweek; Dream of Italy
4. 4Furore is nicknamed 'the village that isn't there': no main square, just houses scattered down the cliffs. Every summer, divers leap from up to 28 metres off its bridge into the fjord below.Source: Costiera Amalfitana; L'Italo-Americano
5. 5Legend says the Sirens who tempted Ulysses lived on Li Galli, the little islands off Positano. Ballet star Rudolf Nureyev later bought them and spent his last years there.Source: Italy Magazine; Wikipedia
6. 6Atrani, right next door to Amalfi, covers just 12 hectares, making it the smallest town in southern Italy. It even stars in M.C. Escher's famous Metamorphosis prints.Source: Positano.com; Escher in Het Paleis
7. 7Cetara makes colatura di alici, a cousin of ancient Roman garum: anchovies are salted in little chestnut barrels until an amber sauce slowly drips out. Locals swap it as a Christmas gift.Source: Great Italian Chefs; Wikipedia

Things to do in Amalfi Coast

• ◦In Ravello's Villa Rufolo, Wagner said he had found the enchanted garden for his opera Parsifal. Today summer concerts play on a stage that hangs over the sea.Source: Italia.it; Earth Trekkers
• ◦Villa Cimbrone's Terrace of Infinity in Ravello is a cliff-edge balcony lined with 18th-century marble busts, all gazing out over the sea far below.Source: Earth Trekkers; The Geographical Cure
• ◦A fisherman found the Emerald Grotto near Conca dei Marini in 1932. Sunlight sneaks in through an underwater opening and turns the whole cave glowing green.Source: Italia.it; Positano.com
• ◦In Vietri sul Mare, the Solimene ceramics factory has a wavy facade covered in thousands of ceramic vases. Inside, you can watch artisans hand-paint plates.Source: Travel Amalfi Coast; Ceramic Architectures
• ◦Walk the Path of the Gods: 7.8 km of old mule track from Bomerano to Nocelle, high above the sea with Capri in view. Legend says the Greek gods took it to rescue Ulysses.Source: Positano.com; Campania.info
• ◦At Amalfi's Paper Museum, inside an old mill still turned by the stream, you can make your own sheet of paper by hand from cotton rags, the way Amalfi has for centuries.Source: Costiera Amalfitana; Italy Magazine

Questions to bring to Amalfi Coast

From Sojourn's journeys. Ask one over a long dinner or on a slow walk, and let the place do some of the work.

Going together

• When do you feel most like yourself?
• What does rest actually look like for you?
• What is one thing you wish we did more of?

Going solo

• What is the first thing this place is showing you that you didn't expect?
• What does this version of you know that the home version tends to forget?

More destinations

Algarve · Aruba · Azores · Barcelona · Basel · Budapest · Cinque Terre · Copenhagen · Curaçao · Dolomites · Évora · Florence · Hiroshima · Hokkaido · Kanazawa · Kobe · Kyoto · Lake Como · Lisbon · London · Madeira · Mount Fuji · Nara · Nassau · New York · Okinawa · Osaka · Paris · Porto · Prague · Punta Cana · Rome · San Juan · Santorini · Sicily · Sintra · Strasbourg · Tokyo · Tromsø · Tuscany · Umbria · Venice · Vienna