With its famous Amalfi neighbours nearby, the cliff-top town of Vico Equense near Sorrento is a picturesque coastal haven. Find your own private spot on a small, sandy beach tucked away among the rocks. Treat your body to life-enhancing thermal waters. Or take a ferry to the beautiful island of Capri before returning to your boutique hotel to watch the sun set over the Bay of Naples.
FOOD
Food, glorious Italian food, is everywhere. Try delicacies such as salami seasoned with orange peel and smoked scarmoza cheese and stuffed with chilli and black olives. And you literally can’t miss the infamous ‘pizza by the metre’ coming out of Gigino’s pizzeria. On the other end of the gourmand scale, you have four Michelin starred restaurants to choose from in this one small town alone.
LOCAL CUSTOMS
If you’re in Vico Equense on January 6th, watch the extraordinary Feast of Pacchianelleprocession pass through the streets. Based on the Nativity story, crowds of locals dress up in traditional costumes of bakers, pizza chefs, wine makers and other professions. And they carry symbolic gifts for the baby Jesus, such as oil, nuts, limoncello and cheese.
DAY TRIPS
Spend a few pleasant hours strolling around town, stopping off at the Chiesa dell’ Annunziata, the only Gothic Church in the area. For never-ending views of the Amalfi coast, ride a cable car high up over the beech woods to the summit of Monte Faito that’s even higher than Vesuvius. And for a soothing natural therapeutic treatment, relax and revive at the Scrajo Mare – a beautiful beachside complex of baths fed by hot springs.
Feel like you’re really getting away from it all at Monte Faito. Find the right spot and the only living beings you’re likely to meet are native goats grazing among the trees.