The best day trips from Amalfi are the ones you can begin without a plan and without a car, because the town hands you two departure points and asks nothing else of you. There is the harbour, where the ferries…
Supporting Guide
The Beaches of Amalfi
The beaches of Amalfi are not the reason most people fall in love with the town, and I think it is only fair to say so at the start. The town beach is functional, a working strip of sand between…
How to Get to Amalfi
Everyone who asks me how to get to Amalfi is quietly hoping the answer is simple, and it is, once you accept the first truth of this coast: Amalfi has no airport and no railway station. You cannot land here…
Where to Stay in Amalfi
The question of where to stay in Amalfi is really a question about how you want to spend your days, and my answer, after many returns, is that Amalfi is the most rational base on this coast. It sits in…
Where to Eat in Amalfi
The question of where to eat in Amalfi has a short answer and a long one, and the short answer is that you should walk away from the cathedral before you sit down anywhere. The town is small, folded into…
The Duomo di Amalfi: Visiting the Cathedral of Sant’Andrea
There is a moment, when you first look up at the Duomo di Amalfi from the piazza below, when the town seems to hold its breath. The Cathedral of Sant’Andrea rises above the square on its long flight of steps,…
The Best Things to Do in Amalfi
The best things to do in Amalfi are not the things the ferries deposit you in front of. Most visitors arrive at the harbour, walk the length of the main street, buy a limoncello they will never open, and leave…
Victoria’s Guide to Varenna, Lake Como
If Bellagio is the town everyone photographs, Varenna is the one I keep returning to. It sits on the eastern shore, a small and tranquil fishing village of ochre and faded red houses that seem to have been painted straight…
Victoria’s Guide to Bellagio, Lake Como
Bellagio is the town on the postcards, the so-called pearl of the lake. It sits right on the point where the three branches meet, all cobbled stepped lanes, silk boutiques and lake views in three directions, and it is both…
The Best Towns on Lake Como
Part of the pleasure of Lake Como is that no two towns feel alike, and where you choose to spend your days is really a question of temperament rather than a matter of finding the single best address. The lake…
The Best Time to Visit Lake Como
Timing matters more on Como than on many Italian lakes, and I say that having watched the place change character from one month to the next. So much of what you come here for, the villas and their gardens, keeps…
Where to Eat on Lake Como
I have eaten badly on Lake Como only when I have ordered the wrong things, and by wrong I mean the food that belongs to some other coast. The temptation is real. You arrive from a summer that has taught…
