Amalfi Coast

Lemon terraces, stone stairs, and boats instead of buses.

The road is famous and mostly a trap; the coast is best taken from the water and on foot. So you travel by small boat between Praiano and the coves the day-trippers never reach, and climb the Sentiero degli Dei early, before the stone gives back the previous day's heat. Lunch is on a terrace above the lemon groves, dinner is whatever came in that morning, and six evenings pass with the sea going from turquoise to ink while you fail to leave the table.