7 Days on the Amalfi Coast and in Sicily: Positano, Capri, Ravello and Taormina

Land in Naples and take a private transfer down the coast, about 90 minutes. Positano tumbles down its cliff to the beach in pastel stacks, and your hotel on Viale Pasitea, the road that zigzags through town, sits halfway between the top and the sea.

Late lunch is at Da Vincenzo, a family-run trattoria on the same road, known for traditional Campanian cooking. Spend the afternoon wandering down the lanes to Spiaggia Grande, and at sunset have a limoncello on a balcony as the town lights come on.

Take an early ferry from Positano to Capri, about 40 minutes in season. Have a cappuccino near the harbor, then meet your captain at Marina Grande for a gozzo, a traditional wooden boat. The trip circles the island to the Faraglioni, the three rock stacks off the south coast, with stops to swim in coves you can't reach on foot.

Lunch is at La Fontelina, the beach club and restaurant on the rocks right below the Faraglioni. Afterwards, ride up to the Piazzetta for a gelato and some people watching, then take an evening ferry back to Positano.

Ravello sits on a ridge above Amalfi, quieter and greener than the towns at sea level, about 45 minutes from Positano. After breakfast with a view, walk to Villa Cimbrone, whose gardens end at the Terrace of Infinity: a balcony of marble busts with nothing beyond it but sky and sea.

Then walk down to Amalfi on the old stone paths through lemon terraces, roughly an hour and mostly downhill. Lunch is on the waterfront at Lido Azzurro, and the afternoon is for Amalfi Cathedral, its tiled bell tower and its Cloister of Paradise. A ferry or bus takes you back to Positano.

Leave Positano early for Naples airport, about 90 minutes, for the short flight to Catania. It's under an hour in the air, then about an hour by car up to Taormina. Hotel Villa Belvedere, with its garden and pool looking out to sea, is a short walk from the center.

In the evening, stroll Corso Umberto, the pedestrian main street, and have dinner at Trattoria da Nino. Order the pasta alla Norma, Sicily's dish of tomato, fried eggplant and salted ricotta.

Drive inland to the Alcantara valley and Castiglione di Sicilia, a medieval hill town on the north side of Etna, for a morning among castle ruins and a long Sicilian lunch. In the afternoon, taste volcanic wines with local cheeses at Tenuta di Fessina, among the vineyards below the volcano.

On the way back, stop at the Gole dell'Alcantara, a gorge of basalt columns carved by the river through old lava. In summer, when the water is low and very cold, you can wade along the riverbed. Dinner is nearby before the drive back to Taormina.

Get to the Teatro Antico when it opens, before the tour groups. The Greeks built it in the 3rd century BC and the Romans rebuilt it, and the view through its broken stage wall, down the coast to Etna, is one of the most famous in Italy.

At midday, have a granita at Bam Bar, the best known in town, with a warm brioche to dip in it. Spend the early afternoon in the Villa Comunale, the hillside gardens laid out by Florence Trevelyan in the late 1800s, then a late lunch of pasta alla Norma at Osteria da Rita.

Breakfast at Wunderbar on Piazza IX Aprile, the terrace square with the best view in town. Then take the cable car down to Mazzarò and walk to Isola Bella, the little island joined to the beach by a sandbar. It's a nature reserve now, with a small museum in its old villa. Catania airport is about an hour away.