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› AUGUST 2014
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O) season on Italy’s Amalfi Coast
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44 BEATING THE CROWDS IN ITALYDuring the tourist season, 4.55 million people
visit the Amalfi Coast. From October to March,
however, it is quiet, cozy and quaint.
BY ANNIE SHUSTRIN
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Visiting Italy’s sun-soaked Amalfi Coast has long
been a travel dream of mine. I want to dip my toes in
the Tyrrhenian Sea, an arm of the Mediterranean o8
the southwest coast of Italy, and sip cappuccino at a café
overlooking the vineyards of Ravello. I want to immerse myself in
the Italian language and feel the pleasant idleness of Italian culture.
Basically, I want to have the quintessential Amalfi Coast getaway:
sunshine, pasta and the breezy Mediterranean lifestyle.
Unfortunately, I am not the only one with the idea. This stretch of
coastline south of Naples from Sorrento to Salerno has been a popu-
lar summertime destination for American travelers since the 1960s.
Positano, Amalfi ’s poster child, had its moment in the Hollywood
spotlight in the movie adaptation of Frances Mayes’ Under the Tuscan
Sun. The town of Ravello was once a favorite of Jacqueline Kennedy
Onassis and writer Gore Vidal, and more recently for celebrities like
Susan Sarandon and Bruce Springsteen. And not far o, the coast is
the famous island of Capri, which has attracted jet-setting stars like
Elizabeth Taylor and Mariah Carey. Each summer season, millions
of tourists visit the Amalfi Coast, and the sheer volume changes the
atmosphere of each town.
I decided that to have a genuine Italian experience, I’d need to
trade in my summer sandals for a cozy wool sweater and go in the
o, season. Between October and March, tourism numbers plummet,
as do hotel prices and tra- c. And although rain and cold weather are
a possibility, travelers are paid o, handsomely in one-on-one time
with Italy. In pursuit of my travel dream, I headed out on a December
road trip with husband in tow.
Getting around is easy by bus or ferry, but part of the Amalfi
experience is driving the treacherous narrow roads yourself — a
considerably easier task in low season. We rented a pocket-size Fiat
to take us from Naples to the tip of Sorrento and along the dizzying
zigzag road to reach three popular towns: Positano, Amalfi and
Ravello. But before we hit the coast, we stopped at one of Italy’s
ancient landmarks: Pompeii.
There are many ruins from the Roman Empire, but Pompeii is one
of the most interesting because it is so well preserved. The blanket
TRAVEL
By ANNIE SHUSTRIN
Beating the Crowds In ItalyDuring the tourist season, 4.55 million people visit the AMALFI COAST.
From October to March, however, it is quiet, cozy and quaint.
AMERICAN offers year-round direct flights from Miami (MIA) and New York (JFK) to Milan (MXP) and seasonal service from Chicago (ORD) and JFK to Rome (FCO). Flights operated by US Airways offer year-round service from Philadelphia (PHL) to Rome and seasonal service from Charlotte (CLT) to Rome and from Philadelphia to Venice (VCE).
MAJESTIC VIEWS: Villa Rufolo in Ravello overlooking the Gulf of Salerno (clockwise from top left); Mamma Agata’s meatballs; Pompeii with Mount Vesuvius in the background
44 AUGUST 2014 AA.COM/AMERICANWAY
of burning ash that Mount Vesuvius poured
on top of the city in A.D. 79 protected it from
destruction or weathering. In fact, it wasn’t
even discovered below the soil for nearly
1,700 years. Now you can wander the city
sidewalks, go inside its homes and businesses
and see plaster casts of Pompeii’s citizens
while staring at the somber silhouette of the
volcano that destroyed them.
Visiting Mount Vesuvius is as worthwhile
as visiting Pompeii. The volcano has rich soil
that brings us the Amalfi Coast’s signature
lemons (and its lemon-infused spirit Limon-
cello), as well as Italy’s world-famous San
Marzano tomatoes. We meet with Roberto,
a tour guide with Walks of Italy, who is an
expert on the volcano and the eruption. We
are going to climb to the top of the volcano’s
cone, but the trip can be done only with a
guide. On this early December morning, the
three of us are the only ones on the trail and
the panoramic view of the Bay of Naples from
the top is worth the e,ort.
Our first stop along the official Amalfi
highway is Positano, which is as beautiful as
I had imagined. The colorful buildings cas-
cade from the tops of the cli,s like a water-
fall, all leading down to a black-sand beach
and the Tyrrhenian Sea. During the summer
months, the beach overflows with umbrellas
and bedazzled tourists. In December, how-
ever, we walk on the sand without another
person in sight. We hike through the maze of
near-vertical staircases and bougainvillea-
laced alleyways listening to only the quiet
voices of Positano’s citizens.
Farther down the coast is the port town
of Amalfi, the region’s namesake. Amalfi was
once one of Italy’s most dominant maritime
powers, along with Venice, Genoa and Pisa,
but now it is best known as a vacation spot.
Behind St. Andrew’s Cathedral and the main
square is a web of piazzas and side streets
surrounded by dramatic cliffs — equally
stunning but so di,erent from Positano.
We arrive in town just before golden
hour — that electric time before sunset when
the waning orb illuminates everything in
a golden-bronze glimmer. After a late, lazy
lunch of young clams and perfectly al dente
spaghetti in the sleepy Piazza dei Dogi, we
take in the last gulps of sunset from the edge
of the dock, then get back in our Fiat to find our
final and most anticipated destination: Ravello.
The medieval mountaintop sanctuary of
Ravello is one of the few popular places on
the Amalfi Coast that doesn’t sit right on the
water. But what it lacks in beach umbrellas
it makes up for in UNESCO World Heritage
sites, tiered vineyards and lemon groves.
TRAVEL
MILAN
ROME
AMALFICOAST
IT
A
LY
VENICE
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Piazza Vescovado, the main town square, as
well as the manicured gardens of Villa Rufolo
and Villa Cimbrone, bring tourists to Ravello
in droves. Luckily, we are the only guests
at the two-room, family-run Auditorium
Rooms Bed & Breakfast. Instead of sharing
the property’s view with other tourists, we
share travel stories with the owners, twin
brothers Pasquale and Marco. “Italians don’t
come here in the summer,” says Pasquale.
“They come here for a weekend in the winter.”
Emiliano Amato, the director of Ravello’s
newspaper, Il Vescovado, speaks proudly of
everything there is to see year-round. He
leads us on a walking tour of the town’s most
important landmarks, including several
historic hotels and the city’s cathedral, the
Duomo di Ravello. “It’s very quiet in the o(-
season, but you can still hike the trail to the
town of Minori and visit local wineries,” he
says. Even at night, we feel the community
spirit. A group of friendly local sports fans
invites us to watch a soccer game in the bar
at Hotel Parsifal — an invitation we would
surely miss during a crowded summer.
But it isn’t the hospitality or the medieval
charm of Ravello that makes me fall in love
with the Amalfi Coast. It is the words of a
woman who passionately describes the culi-
nary identity of her home. Chiara Lima, one
of the three master chefs behind Mamma
Agata’s cooking school, charms me with
her smile and her love of the local cuisine
while we chat on our final day on the Amalfi
Coast over a piece of Mamma’s famous lemon
cake. “I want them to feel the real taste of
Italy,” says Chiara about the school’s mis-
sion. Together with her mother, “Mamma,”
and her husband, Gennaro, Chiara teaches
cooking classes at their beautifully reno-
vated Ravello home from March through
December. They also published a cookbook
of the family’s favorite recipes that is sold
only through the school and their website.
Chiara’s cookbook is the only item I bring
home as a token of my trip. It represents
the lesson I learned while visiting a popu-
lar tourist destination at its quietest time
of the year: When a place is as inspiring as
the Amalfi Coast, perfect weather doesn’t
matter as much as the experience. To put
it in Chiara’s words, “When you have good
ingredients, you let them speak.”
TRAVEL
ANNIE SHUSTRIN is a travel writer and a blogger who has written about her neighborhood of Fort Greene, Brooklyn, N.Y., and vacationing in Costa Rica for American Way.
48 AUGUST 2014 AA.COM/AMERICANWAY
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