Private Positano and Sorrento Day Trip from Rome by Car

From Rome to the Bay of Naples

The Amalfi Coast lies about 270 kilometres south of Rome, so this is a long but rewarding day. After pickup your driver takes the motorway south through the hills of Lazio and into Campania, passing the plain of Caserta and skirting Naples with Mount Vesuvius rising on the left. The drive to the coast takes about three and a half to four hours, with a coffee and rest stop on the way whenever you need one.

An Amalfi Coast day trip from Rome by private car avoids the train changes, crowded buses and ferry timetables that make the coast hard to reach on your own. Large coaches are restricted on the coast road, while a car or minivan can stop at the small viewpoints. Your driver knows the traffic patterns, and the route and stops can be planned around your group from the moment you leave the hotel.

Sorrento, above the Bay of Naples

Sorrento sits on a terrace of volcanic cliffs facing the Bay of Naples, with Mount Vesuvius and the island of Ischia on the horizon. Its old town is a grid of narrow lanes on the plan of the Roman town, full of shops selling lemons, ceramics and the inlaid woodwork that has been made here for generations. Below the cliff, the fishing harbour of Marina Grande keeps its coloured boats and simple seafood restaurants.

With free time in Sorrento you can stroll from the main square to the public gardens with their famous view over the bay, look down into the Valley of the Mills, an overgrown gorge with the ruins of an old flour mill, and walk through the lemon and orange groves that surround the town. Sorrento is also the gateway to the Amalfi Coast road, which starts just beyond the town.

Positano, the vertical village

Positano is the image most people have of the Amalfi Coast: pastel houses stacked up a steep ravine, bougainvillea over the stairways and a dark-sand beach lined with boats. At its heart stands the church with the green-and-yellow majolica dome, just behind Spiaggia Grande. Once a harbour of the Maritime Republic of Amalfi, Positano became a famous resort in the twentieth century and today is full of linen boutiques, sandal makers and cafés.

Your driver drops you as close to the centre as traffic allows, and you have free time to wander down to the beach and back. Is Positano worth visiting on a day trip from Rome? For the view alone, yes; the best photo is from the coast road just above the village, where we stop on the way in or out. The best time to visit Positano is spring and early autumn, when the lanes are less crowded than in midsummer.

The Amalfi Coast road

The Amalfi Coast road (the Amalfitana) was carved into the cliffs in the nineteenth century and runs for about fifty kilometres between Positano and Vietri sul Mare. It twists above the sea through tunnels, over bridges and past lemon terraces, with the villages of Praiano, Furore and Conca dei Marini clinging to the slope. The UNESCO World Heritage listing of the Amalfi Coast covers this whole landscape of towns, terraces and cliffs.

In summer the road is busy and narrow, which is why a private driver who knows it well makes such a difference. You can sit back and enjoy the view while he handles the bends, and ask to stop at the panoramic lay-bys above Positano, at the fjord of Furore bridge or wherever the light is best. In the default option the road takes you on to Amalfi, the old capital of the coast.

Amalfi, the old maritime republic

Between the ninth and the twelfth centuries, Amalfi was one of the great Maritime Republics, trading with Constantinople, Alexandria and the ports of North Africa; its sea laws were followed across the Mediterranean for centuries. The town's centrepiece is the cathedral, reached by a broad flight of steps, with a striped façade, a bronze door cast in Constantinople and the beautiful Cloister of Paradise with its interlaced Arab-Norman arches.

In the default option you have about an hour in Amalfi town: enough to climb to the cathedral, sit in Piazza Duomo by the fountain, walk up the main street towards the Valley of the Mills, where the town's famous handmade paper was produced, and look over the harbour. Afterwards your driver takes you back along the coast and onto the motorway for the return to your hotel in Rome.