Back on the Amalfi Coast: gardens, footpaths and the landscape

There are 465 steps to descend and then climb to find summer once more. The staircase winds its way along the 230-metre-high cliff face. At ‘Ai Due Scugnizzi’ they’re singing as if it were the height of August, just as the tables are laid at the ‘Lido degli Artisti’. Authentic places like this, set against the backdrop of its most secluded beach, can now be experienced on the Amalfi Coast. Just as one can walk along the mule tracks leading from Amalfi to the tiny hamlet of Lone, all the way to the Church of the Nativity of Mary, overlooking a solitary little square teeming with cats. The pleasure of sitting at the tables of the historic Pasticceria Gambardella in Minori to savour its anicini, lemon shortbread and candied citrus peel, before marvelling at the colours of the ceramics in the neighbouring Emporio Stilcasa. And, furthermore, the pleasure of chatting about ‘colatura di alici’ at the Emporio Nettuno in Cetara and setting off in search of spectacular gardens, just as the literate and cultured travellers did in the era of the Grand Tour: staying in legendary hotels, still run by the same family, the guardians of old-world grace and manners. These, together with discovering churches perched like eagles’ nests, as you make your way along paths once shared with mules, are the adventures to be had today.