Amalfi

Coffee at Bar Bruno (not Caffe Positano, not the one by the church — the other Bruno, two streets up). Cornetto and espresso at the counter, standing, like a local. Walk up the vertical streets toward the mountain. Duck into the lemon-laden tile shops. Spend fifteen minutes doing nothing. Notice that's the whole instruction.

11:30 AM on the beach, past Music on the Rocks, there is a small wooden pier with a boat flying a red flag. This is the shuttle to Da Adolfo — a restaurant on a cove reachable only by water. Ten minutes across, no reservation, a handwritten menu, and grilled mozzarella on lemon leaves that tastes like it was invented for this meal. Order the fritto misto. Drink the house white. Swim between courses if you want to. The boat goes back every hour.

Back by 3. The afternoon is for your hotel pool and a book you won't finish. This is not a failure of planning. This is the plan.

Aperitivo at Franco's Bar, at the top of Le Sirenuse, 6:45 PM sharp so you catch the last light. Split the negroni and the view. Dinner at Next2, 8:30, the terrace. Order the vegetable tasting (yes — trust us) and whatever pasta the waiter recommends.

Leave at 9. The tour buses arrive at 10:30. Villa Rufolo's gardens are small enough that if you are the first people through the gate, you will have the view of the coast from the gardens entirely to yourselves for thirty minutes. Wagner wrote part of Parsifal here. You will understand why.

Lunch at Rossellini's, the Michelin-starred dining room at Hotel Palazzo Avino. The tasting menu is long and worth it — ask for the terrace table if the weather holds. Two hours, minimum. The wine pairing is extravagant and we allow it.

After lunch, walk through Ravello's small square to Villa Cimbrone. At the end of a cypress path is the Terrace of Infinity — a marble balustrade with eighteen white busts staring into the Tyrrhenian. Gore Vidal lived just below. He called this the most beautiful view in the world, and he was right.

Early ferry. Blue Grotto before the line. Hike to Villa Jovis, Tiberius's cliff-edge palace, where almost no one goes. Lunch at Il Riccio, beach club above the Blue Grotto. Gelato in the Piazzetta. Last ferry home.

Taxi to Bomerano, walk four hours along a cliff trail that ends in Nocelle, then 1,700 steps down to Positano. Finish with lemon granita at the cafe at the bottom of the stairs. Hotel pool for the rest of the afternoon.

Ferry to Amalfi town. Paper museum for forty-five minutes. Walk fifteen minutes over the headland to Atrani — a village so small it has one square and one clock. Lunch at A'Paranza. Ferry back by 4. Dinner at La Sponda (Le Sirenuse's restaurant) — the 400-candle room.

Charter a gozzo (the classic wooden boat) for four hours. Swim stops at Li Galli, the Green Grotto at Conca dei Marini, and a long slow lunch on board — the captain cooks. Back by 3. Pack. Last dinner at Max. Car at 9 AM in the morning to Naples.