Naples & the Amalfi Coast: a 5-day road trip
Naples to Amalfi via Pompeii, Sorrento, Positano — about 78 km of driving across Italy, suggested over 5 days.
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Stops on this route
Naples
Naples is southern Italy's largest city, a dense port metropolis founded by Greek settlers nearly 2,800 years ago and later a Roman resort, a Spanish viceregal capital, and the seat of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Its historic center is a UNESCO World Heritage site, packed with baroque churches, narrow lanes, and street life, and the city is the birthplace of pizza and a major hub for Italian coffee culture.
Pompeii
Pompeii was a thriving Roman city buried under volcanic ash and pumice when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, killing many residents and sealing streets, houses, and public buildings beneath the debris for over 1,600 years. Rediscovered in the 18th century, it is now one of the most extensive and best-preserved archaeological sites in the world, offering an unusually direct view of daily Roman life.
Sorrento
Sorrento is a resort town perched on tall volcanic cliffs at the northern tip of the Sorrentine Peninsula, overlooking the Bay of Naples with views across to Vesuvius and Naples itself. It has drawn travelers since the Grand Tour era for its mild climate, lemon groves, and old-town lanes built on the layout of the original Greek and Roman settlement, and it remains famous for limoncello and inlaid wood craftsmanship.
Positano
Positano is a steeply vertical village on the Amalfi Coast, its pastel houses stacked up a cliffside above a small beach and harbor in a way that has made it one of the most photographed towns in Italy. Once a modest fishing village, it grew into a fashionable retreat after World War II and remains known for its cliffside architecture, ceramics, and handmade sandals.
Amalfi
Amalfi is the historic town that gives the coast its name, a former maritime republic that rivaled Venice and Genoa in the medieval Mediterranean before losing power to a series of storms and political shifts. Its compact center is built around a cathedral square reached from the water by a monumental staircase, and the town remains known for handmade paper, limoncello, and the deep coastal ravine landscape around it.
Road charges and rules along the way
Italy
No motorway vignette or environmental sticker is required for passenger cars in Italy; motorways are free or distance-tolled.
Mandatory equipment: Headlights (daytime running lights or dipped beam), Safety vest (reflective, high-visibility), Warning triangle, Snow chains
Driving in Italy: full guide →
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Plan this route with EuroDrive Scout — tolls, vignettes, ZTL alerts, fuel and parking →