The hard part of combining Naples and the Amalfi Coast is joining a chaotic city, two buried Roman towns and a vertical coastline without spending the trip managing a rental car. This six-day route doesn't use one. It travels by train and ferry: two days in Naples, two in Positano, one through Amalfi and Ravello, and Herculaneum on the way back.
The pace and the physical demand are moderate, and it suits couples, honeymooners and friends from April to June or September to October. Every stop is mapped in the complete Naples and Amalfi Coast trip.
Decide about day four first
One day decides whether this route fits your group: the Path of the Gods. It is an 8-kilometre walk from Bomerano down to Nocelle, followed by a choice between 1,700 steps and the bus into Positano. Everything else in the plan is moderate. If an 8-kilometre morning on a cliff path isn't for you, keep the rest of the route and replace that morning with something slower in Positano.
Then lock in the few fixed points:
- The timed slot at the Sansevero Chapel on day one.
- A ticket number at L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele: take one as soon as you arrive.
- Franco's Bar at opening on day three, or expect a queue.
Day 1: Spaccanapoli and the first pizza
Walk Spaccanapoli, the dead-straight street that splits the old city, with shrines, scooters and laundry overhead. Lunch is at Da Michele, where the choice since 1870 has been margherita or marinara.
The Sansevero Chapel holds the Veiled Christ, marble that looks like gauze. Rest before evening: the Via dei Tribunali street-food crawl is frittatina, cuoppo and a second pizza because you're here.
Day 2: Pompeii first, its treasures afterwards
Take the Circumvesuviana from Napoli Centrale and enter Pompeii at Porta Marina at opening. Four hours covers the Forum, the Villa dei Misteri and the amphitheatre.
Back in Naples, a late lunch of slow-cooked ragù at Tandem Ragù restores you for the National Archaeological Museum, where Pompeii's mosaics and frescoes actually live, including the Alexander mosaic upstairs. The order matters: the museum means more once you have walked the streets its objects came from. End with an aperitivo on Lungomare Caracciolo, facing Castel dell'Ovo and Vesuvius.
Day 3: Arrive in Positano by sea
Take the 09:30 ferry from Molo Beverello. The sea approach is the right first view of the coast, so sit on deck on the left side. Spend the middle of the day walking down through Positano's lanes to swim at Spiaggia Grande, or rent two chairs at the quieter Fornillo end.
Lunch is spaghetti alle vongole at Chez Black on the beachfront row. Then Franco's Bar for a sunset spritz. Keep this day short; tomorrow is the long one.
Day 4: The Path of the Gods
Take the bus up to Bomerano for an 08:30 start. The plan allows three and a half hours for the 8 kilometres high above the coast, downhill into Nocelle. Lunch is pasta at Trattoria Santa Croce on a terrace hanging over the sea. Then your knees decide: the 1,700 steps straight into Positano's top lanes, or the bus.
Dinner at Da Vincenzo is grilled fish and a proper wine list. Do not add anything else today. The walk and the descent are the day.
Day 5: Amalfi and the gardens of Ravello
Go by boat to Amalfi for its striped Arab-Norman cathedral at the top of its ceremonial staircase. Then choose between the paper museum, whose water-powered mill still runs, and a lemon granita. After a beachfront seafood lunch at Marina Grande, take the bus up to Ravello.
Villa Rufolo's garden terrace inspired Wagner and holds summer concerts on a cliff-edge stage. Villa Cimbrone ends at the Terrace of Infinity, marble busts against a 350-metre drop to the sea. Stay up in Ravello for dinner at Cumpà Cosimo and its mixed plate of seven pastas.
Day 6: Herculaneum on the way home
Herculaneum is smaller and deeper than Pompeii, and better preserved: wooden beams and second floors survive. Give it two and a half hours on the way back to Naples. Then finish the trip the Neapolitan way: a warm sfogliatella riccia at Attanasio by the station, coffee at Caffè Gambrinus beside the Galleria Umberto I, and a last pizza, fried this time, at Zia Esterina Sorbillo.
Choose your Amalfi trip
This route works because it contrasts the city with the coast and pairs Pompeii with Herculaneum. If the coast alone is the point, the Amalfi honeymoon itinerary spends five slower days between Positano and Ravello, with a private boat to Capri. For a couple-focused shortlist of coast stops, use the Amalfi Coast for Two collection.
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