It's official: Italy's Amalfi Coast is so overrated
But you knew that, right?
It occurred to us, as we peered out the window of an airplane cruising from Rome to Athens, that the Amalfi coast may be mid. It is certainly overhyped. In fact, the area of Italy that it occupies is almost shockingly small, as our exclusive aerial photo reveals.
That isn’t to say it isn’t pretty: it is. Lush hillsides plunging toward the sea, some nice seaside villages like Positano and Ravello that look good even if mass tourism robbed them of their souls decades ago with no hope of going back in this century.
But again: small area, geographically, anchored by other landscapes and towns of middling appeal. Also, as we have previously reported, Italians today have a manners problem — i.e., do they actually have any? We recently had a series of unfortunate encounters with the natives at Rome’s overcrowded, mismanaged airport.
If the Italian government handed us citizenship like they did to techno man-boy Elon Musk, we would hand it right back. If the Italians are so keen to hawk houses in nowheresville villages for a buck, there must be a reason. Italian beaches on the mainland are small, noisy, and overcrowded. Italy produces no pop music. We have, with a few exceptions, had much better pizza in New York City than anywhere in Italy.
The list could go on, but we don’t deliver listicles at Greek Column, only the truth. And today the truth is Amalfi, the dolce vita you’re selling is skin deep at best. Try Tinos.