Amalfi Coast Geography

The coast is the seaward face of the Lattari mountains, limestone rising to almost 1,450 metres at Monte Faito and dropping to the water in a few kilometres. There is effectively no coastal plain: the towns occupy river mouths, rock ledges and the floors of steep ravines.

Those ravines — valloni — are the coast’s organising feature. Amalfi and Atrani each sit at the bottom of one, which is why they are a few hundred metres apart and feel entirely separate. The Valle delle Ferriere above Amalfi is deep and damp enough to hold a relict population of ferns from a wetter climatic era.

Beaches are small, mostly shingle, and usually at the foot of a stair. Furore has a fjord-like inlet where a stream cut a slot through the cliff. Offshore to the west lie the Li Galli islets; Capri is visible from most of the western coast.

The terraces are the largest human structure here: dry-stone walls carrying lemon groves up slopes too steep to farm otherwise, maintained by hand because no machine can reach them.