Stephen Brewer - Frommers EasyGuide to Naples, Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast

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Frommer's Star Ratings System

Every hotel, restaurant and attraction listed in this guide has been ranked for quality and value. Here's what the stars mean:

Recommended

Highly Recommended

A must! Don't miss!

AN IMPORTANT NOTE

The world is a dynamic place. Hotels change ownership, restaurants hike their prices, museums alter their opening hours, and buses and trains change their routings. And all of this can occur in the several months after our authors have visited, inspected, and written about these hotels, restaurants, museums, and transportation services. Though we have made valiant efforts to keep all our information fresh and up-to-date, some few changes can inevitably occur in the periods before a revised edition of this guidebook is published. So please bear with us if a tiny number of the details in this book have changed. Please also note that we have no responsibility or liability for any inaccuracy or errors or omissions, or for inconvenience, loss, damage, or expenses suffered by anyone as a result of assertions in this guide.

Contents

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephen Brewer has been exploring and enjoying Naples and the Amalfi Coast for almost 30 years, writing about the region for magazines and travel guides. He also writes frequently about other parts of Italy and Europe for Frommers.

ABOUT THE FROMMER's TRAVEL GUIDES

For most of the past 50 years, Frommers has been the leading series of travel guides in North America, accounting for as many as 24% of all guidebooks sold. I think I know why.

Though we hope our books are entertaining, we nevertheless deal with travel in a serious fashion. Our guidebooks have never looked on such journeys as a mere recreation, but as a far more important human function, a time of learning and introspection, an essential part of a civilized life. We stress the culture, lifestyle, history, and beliefs of the destinations we cover, and urge our readers to seek out people and new ideas as the chief rewards of travel.

We have never shied from controversy. We have, from the beginning, encouraged our authors to be intensely judgmental, criticalboth pro and conin their comments, and wholly independent. Our only clients are our readers, and we have triggered the ire of countless prominent sorts, from a tourist newspaper we called practically worthless (it unsuccessfully sued us) to the many rip-offs weve condemned.

And because we believe that travel should be available to everyone regardless of their incomes, we have always been cost-conscious at every level of expenditure. Though we have broadened our recommendations beyond the budget category, we insist that every lodging we include be sensibly priced. We use every form of media to assist our readers, and are particularly proud of our feisty daily website, the award-winning Frommers.com.

I have high hopes for the future of Frommers. May these guidebooks, in all the years ahead, continue to reflect the joy of travel and the freedom that travel represents. May they always pursue a cost-conscious path, so that people of all incomes can enjoy the rewards of travel. And may they create, for both the traveler and the persons among whom we travel, a community of friends, where all human beings live in harmony and peace.

Arthur Frommer

The Best of naples & the Amalfi Coast

T ravelers have been coming to Campania to enjoy the good life ever since Emperor Tiberius discovered the pleasures of Capri and his fellow Romans built lavish villas around the Bay of Baiae, outside present-day Naples. Modern-day travelers still descend in search of a little slice of heaven, and, of course, they find it in spades: at posh resorts along the Amalfi Coast, in glamorous hideouts on Capri, at the sybaritic spas of Ischia.

The Amalfi Coast and Capri are fabled seaside playgrounds, and if sun and sea are the draws, youll probably be delighted to discover the islands of Ischia and Procida and the relatively undiscovered Cilento coast, too.

Beautiful coastlines and glamorous lifestyles aside, the region hits you full throttle with all sorts of other pleasures and diversions. Naples, for starters, is maybe Italys most intense urban concoction. The city is a fascinating and perplexing place where youll encounter treasures of the ancient world, medieval churches, and a labyrinth of laundry-hung lanes and sunny piazzas. The ruins of the classical world surround the citymost famously at Pompeii and Herculaneum, just southeast around the bay; at Paestum, farther south; and to the east, in Capua and Benevento. For a weird encounter with the ancients, just hop on a train for the trip west to Pozzuoli. This Greco-Roman seaside city is at the edge of a strange landscape thats littered with ruins and potholed with volcanic vents still hiss and steam.

It can all make your head spin, so brace yourself, because thats what traveling in this part of the world is all about. Heres how to get the most out of the experience.

The best Travel Experiences

Walking Through Old Naples : Everything is over the top in Italys third-largest city. Dark, brooding lanes open to palm-fringed piazzas, and laundry-strewn tenements stand cheek by jowl with grand palaces and medieval churches. Little kids dart around street stalls, and old crones hang out windows to hoist their groceries in baskets past crumbling facades. A wander through Quartieri Spagnoli or anywhere else in the old city is like witnessing street theater, and a surefire exhilarating experience. See .

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Arriving in Naples by Boat : At some point in your wanderingsreturning from Capri or Ischia, maybeyoull savor the pleasure of gliding into the bay, with a sea breeze at your back and the spectacle of the city spread out ahead of you. Mt. Vesuvius looms to the east, Castell dOvo greets you on the seafront, Castell SantAlmo looks down from the top of the Vomero hill, dozens of church domes pierce the skyline. Youll know what they mean when they say, See Naples and die. See .