Amalfi Coast
& Bay of Naples

A wooden pier over the sea. The dish Stanley Tucci called life-changing. The reason most people who go once go again.

The De Simone family opened it in 1958 and three generations later they're still serving food grown on their own farm up the hill. The spaghetti alla Nerano was invented in this town and this kitchen makes the version everyone else copies.

Look for the boat with the red fish on the mast. It leaves Positano's main pier hourly between 10 and 1.

Inaccessible by road — you arrive on the family's free shuttle boat from the Spiaggia Grande, eat under a wooden roof on the rocks, swim, eat more, let the afternoon unspool. Mozzarella grilled in lemon leaves is the dish. Beach beds for rent after lunch.

A rooftop terrace covered in lemon trees, halfway up the hill behind Amalfi's Duomo.

Wood-fired pizza, hand-cut gnocchi, a covered pergola of citrus trees, and almost no tourists despite being a six-minute walk from the cathedral. Reserve a few days ahead — there are maybe twelve tables and the regulars know about all of them.

Built into the rock wall that holds Atrani up. The cheapest good seafood on this stretch of coast.

An honest trattoria with a small terrace facing the pebble beach. Family-run, no website worth speaking of, prices that won't shock you. Scialatielli is what to order — the regional pasta, hand-cut, with mussels and clams from the morning's catch.

No menu. A working farm in the hills above Positano. They pick you up in a van.

Family-run, three generations, working from a kitchen garden visible from the dining room. You don't choose; they bring antipasti, primi, a grilled secondo, dessert. Wine flows until someone says stop. The view is straight down to Positano with Capri in the distance.

Photo: Brechenmacher & Baumann · Courtesy of Le Sirenuse

400 candles lit at dusk. Live music drifting through tiled walls. Le Sirenuse's Michelin-starred dining room.

Chef Gennaro Russo cooks Campanian classics without overworking them — lemon risotto, grilled branzino, lobster gnocchi. Cathedral ceilings, hand-painted tiles, every table looking out toward the sea. Smart casual. Book on opening day for July or August dates.

Carved into the cliff a kilometer outside Positano. The most discreet luxury room on the coast.

Il San Pietro is hidden — buried into the rock so you can't see it from town. Zass sits on a terrace mostly invisible from the sea. Chef Alois Vanlangenaeker holds a Michelin star for cooking that draws on the hotel's terraced gardens above.

Courtesy of Caruso, A Belmond Hotel

An infinity pool that ends at a thousand-foot drop. Dinner on the terrace next to it.

Caruso is a Belmond hotel inside an 11th-century palace at the highest point in Ravello. The restaurant sits on the same terrace as the most photographed pool in Italy. Cooler in summer than anywhere on the coast below, and the view at sunset is unbeatable.

The only way non-residents get into Villa TreVille — Zeffirelli's old house, now a four-villa hotel.

Twelve tables, candle-lit, on a terrace looking back at Positano from above. The hotel itself is closed to non-guests by policy; dinner is the workaround. Reserve directly through the hotel three to four weeks ahead. The property has hosted everyone from Maria Callas to Diana Vreeland.

The grandfather of Campanian fine dining. Two Michelin stars, four generations, one farm.

Halfway between Sorrento and Positano sits the most decorated restaurant in southern Italy. Two stars, three generations of the Iaccarino family, vegetables grown on their own farm fifteen minutes away (visit it; they'll arrange a tour). Pair the tasting with the wine flight.

Courtesy of Palazzo Avino

Inside Ravello's pink palazzo. Frescoed dining room, Michelin star, less-touristed than the Caruso.

Chef Giovanni Vanacore runs a kitchen that sources almost everything from a 30-kilometer radius. The dining room is in the original 12th-century palazzo with frescoed ceilings; the terrace, in summer, is one of the more intimate fine-dining moments in the region.

The first Michelin-starred restaurant in southern Italy. Open since 1959, still holding its star.

A frescoed dining room hung with vintage Amalfi ceramics and old-master oil paintings — feels more like dining inside a museum than a restaurant. The tasting menu honors traditional Amalfitana cooking with serious finesse. Formal in the old-school way: jackets recommended, conversation hushed, every course a piece of regional history.

A family-run honeymoon hot spot in the hills above Positano. Jamie Oliver's favorite restaurant in Italy.

An intimate, art-filled, family-run trattoria in Montepertuso, the hill village above Positano. Refined Italian pastas and seafood from a kitchen that's been doing it the same way for three generations. Jamie Oliver became a regular years ago, then opened a London restaurant inspired by it. Feels like a secret dinner party in someone's home — with a very good wine list.

Open since 1870. Two pizzas on the menu. A line out the door at any hour.

The pizzeria from Eat, Pray, Love and 153 years of Neapolitan opinion. Margherita or marinara. €5 a pizza. The dough is wet, the crust is leopard-spotted, the cornicione properly puffed. Take a number outside, wait, eat at a shared table.

The crowd-pleaser. Bigger menu, faster line, equally legitimate pizza.

Third-generation pizzaiolo in the historic center. Sorbillo's grandmother had 21 children, all of whom became pizzaioli — that's the family math. Pizza here is slightly puffier than da Michele's; menu is broader (including the fritta — fried-then-baked). Reservations possible.

Courtesy of Concettina ai Tre Santi

Pizza-as-restaurant. The pizzaiolo grandson took it Michelin-direction.

Ciro Oliva's grandmother opened it in 1951; he turned it into a destination. Wood-fired tasting menus that walk through Naples pizza's history — fritta, classic margherita, contemporary versions topped with smoked provola, anchovies from Cetara, garden tomatoes. The Sanità neighborhood is Naples' most interesting walk.

The dough geek's pizzeria. Long-ferment, lighter crust, modern crowd.

Ciro Salvo trained for two decades before opening 50 Kalò; the name is dialect for "good dough." His version uses a 24-hour cold ferment which makes the crust noticeably lighter and more digestible than older-school Naples pizzerias. Closer to the waterfront than the historic center, with seating that's actually comfortable.

Photo: Brechenmacher & Baumann · Courtesy of Le Sirenuse

Open at 6 p.m. The line forms at 5:45. The best terrace in Positano.

Stand-up bar at Le Sirenuse — no reservations, first-come, first-served. Get there before 6 or accept that you're not getting a terrace seat. The view is the most photographed view in Positano. The Negroni is €30 and worth it for the show.

Courtesy of Music on the Rocks

The coast's only proper nightclub. Built directly into the cliffs below Le Sirenuse.

Cover from €30, cocktails around €20, the actual late-night option in Positano. Doesn't get going until after 1 a.m. — until then the crowd is still at dinner. Bold lighting, international DJs, a setting genuinely unlike anywhere else: the cave walls are the original Amalfi rock face, lit theatrically. Dress to impress; it's flashy, unapologetically Euro, and always loud.

Small bakery on the beach end of Positano with a granita stand outside. €3, paper cup, no ceremony.

Sfusato amalfitano lemons, ice, sugar — that's it. Eaten standing on the beach with a wooden spoon. The kind of thing that makes you understand why the Romans were obsessed with this coast.

Courtesy of Gelateria David

The best artisan gelato on the peninsula. The owner picks the lemons himself.

Family-owned since 1957. Mr. David sources his sfusato lemons from his own grove and his fior di latte from a buffalo dairy in Agerola. Result: denser, less sweet, more recognizable than the chains. Avoid the souvenir shops on Corso Italia; walk five minutes for half the price and twice the quality.

A small dome of sponge cake soaked in limoncello and limoncello cream. Light, almost weightless.

Same Pansa as breakfast, but the dessert is what most people don't realize they came for. Technically Sorrentine in origin, but the version at Pansa — refined, less sweet, with proper sfusato cream — is the one. Take three to-go.

Capri's historic gelateria. The waffle cones are made on the spot — you smell them from the Piazzetta.

Open since 1971, two minutes from the Piazzetta. The waffle iron at the door is the giveaway — they make every cone fresh, which is why the line moves slowly and why nobody minds. Almond and pistachio are the calls. Skip the seasonal flavors.

One of Italy's most famous pastry chefs, on the beachfront in Minori.

Sal De Riso is to Italian pastry what René Redzepi is to Nordic cooking — a generational figure who reinterpreted regional traditions and made them famous everywhere. The ricotta and pear cake is non-negotiable; the delizia al limone is the most refined version on the coast. Beachfront café, stand or sit. Worth the detour to Minori.