Detour #225: The highs and lows of road tripping the Amalfi Coast, Italy
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A drive around the amazing Amalfi coast ought to be one of the most romantic road trips in the world, but its popularity can make it a nightmare.
Heading south from Naples on the E45 autostrada at a typically Italian pace it’s hard to believe the three-hour plus journey time predicted by Google maps to cover the next 60 or so miles. And yet, it turns out, that’s optimistic in the extreme.
No sooner have I taken the exit just beyond Pompeii than traffic slows to a crawl, and it remains so all the way to Sorrento on the SS145. The only good news here is that rounding the corner at Castellammare di Stabia I get plenty of time to look out across the bay at the magnificent Mount Vesuvius towering over the city I have left behind.
Photo Fabio Fistarol
The road follows every intricacy of the coastline, so straights are few and far between, leaving no opportunities to overtake dawdling tourist traffic – unless you’re on one of the thousands of scooters that buzz past like swarms of angry hornets.
It’s narrow, too, thanks to having been constructed in the 19th century, long before the fleets of Mercedes Sprinter vans taking hotel guests to their five-star stays were ever imagined. Throw in local buses which operate on the assumption that all other vehicles will bow to their supremacy and it’s hardly a recipe for romance, even if a rapid heart rate and sweaty palms might be similar symptoms.
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Lunch in Sorrento’s harbour provides a brief respite, before heading for the SS163 which takes an even more tortuous route along the south coast of the peninsula toward Positano. It may look postcard-perfect as it clings to the cliffs, but Positano’s streets are incredibly narrow and seriously twisty. Take a deep breath and fold your mirrors in.
Any modern car seems massive here and there’s no way to use 21st century performance, with most of the route to Amalfi restricted to 50 km/h and so bendy that it would be hard to exceed that anyway. A classic Cinquecento would be the ideal choice and there are plenty of them zipping about making Instagram Stories on almost every corner.
Amalfi is mayhem, with just one narrow road in and a crazy roundabout at its centre that somehow manages the traffic flow with the aid of a handful of arm-waving police. Surprisingly you can drive right into the central piazza, but only at certain times of the day can you venture further up the hillside by crawling through pedestrian-packed streets. It’s worth it just for Rocco’s lemon spaghetti at Cantina Miseria E Nobilta.
Photo Nik Berg
While the food has been amazing and the sights spectacular the driving experience has been somewhat stressful until this point. That all changes on the SS366 Via Panoramica which climbs high up the hillside as it works its way north towards Naples through switchback after switchback. It’s wider, faster and less trafficked than any Amalfi road so far. Affording awesome vistas out to the Tyrrhenian Sea, a smooth surface and good sight lines it then passes through thick forest before descending into Franche. After the manic milieu of the rest of the trip these last 15 miles mark the highpoint of the drive, figuratively and literally.
Beautiful though the region is, as a driver I probably won’t be hurrying back.
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