Amalfi Coast Day Trip from Rome by High-Speed Train and Boat

From Rome Termini by high-speed train

The day begins inside Rome Termini, the city's main railway station, where your escort meets the group and hands out the tickets. High-speed trains link Rome with Salerno in about one and a half to two hours via Naples, crossing the green countryside of Lazio and Campania at up to 300 kilometres an hour, with comfortable seats, Wi-Fi and toilets on board.

This is the main reason the trip works so well: by road, an Amalfi Coast day trip from Rome means up to four hours each way on a coach, ending on narrow bends shared with buses and traffic. By train you arrive rested, and the station in Salerno is only a short walk from the ferry piers, so your escort leads you straight from the platform to the boat.

Salerno and the ferry cruise to Positano

Salerno is a lively port city at the eastern end of the Amalfi Coast, with a long palm-lined seafront and a medieval castle on the hill above. From its harbour, public ferries run along the coast from spring to autumn, and the cruise to Positano takes about an hour, following the cliffs past Vietri sul Mare, Cetara, Maiori, Minori and Amalfi.

Travelling by sea is also the easiest answer to how to get to Positano without a car: the ferry lands right on the town beach, while the road has limited parking and heavy summer traffic. Find a seat on the open deck to see the watchtowers, lemon terraces and villages perched above the water, and keep your camera ready for the approach to Positano.

Positano

Positano rises from the sea like an amphitheatre, its pastel houses climbing a steep ravine above the Spiaggia Grande beach, with a dome of glazed majolica tiles at the bottom. You have about an hour and a half of free time to wander the stepped lanes lined with linen boutiques and handmade sandal shops, have an early lunch or swim from the beach.

Once a trading port of the Amalfi republic, Positano became a quiet fishing village in the 19th century and then a byword for seaside style in Italy after the 1950s. Just offshore lie the Li Galli islands, tied by legend to the sirens of ancient myth. When the free time ends, the group meets again at the pier for the short ferry ride to Amalfi, about 25 minutes along the coast.

Amalfi and its cathedral

Amalfi gave its name to the whole coast. Between the 9th and 11th centuries it was a maritime republic trading with Byzantium and the Arab world, and its wealth built the cathedral above Piazza Duomo, with a striped Arab-Norman facade, bronze doors cast in Constantinople and a tiled bell tower. Your escort leads a short orientation stroll and gives an overview of the cathedral and its 13th-century Cloister of Paradise.

Then you have about two and three-quarter hours of free time, the longest stop of the day. Climb the lanes to the Valley of the Mills, where handmade paper has been produced since the Middle Ages, have lunch by the harbour or swim from the town beach. The cathedral complex is usually open daily from morning to early evening; entry to the cloister is paid separately.

The return cruise: Atrani, Minori, Maiori and Ravello

In the late afternoon the ferry carries you back to Salerno in about 45 minutes, a cruise that shows the eastern half of the coast. Just beyond Amalfi you pass Atrani, a tiny village of white houses around a square by the beach, and high above it you can spot Ravello, the hilltop town of gardens and villas more than 300 metres above the sea.

Then come Minori, with its Roman seaside villa, Maiori and its long beach, and the fishing village of Cetara, known for its tuna and anchovies. At Salerno your escort walks you back from the pier to the station, a few minutes away, for the high-speed train to Rome, arriving back at Termini about 11 hours after the start.