Pure Shores

South-west Italy is home to one of the most seductive coastlines in the world – making it just the spot for a romantic mini-moon, as Tracy Ramsden discovers

- Tracy Ramsden

Mid-shin on Italy’s boot lies a 40km stretch of unrivalled shoreline that has become the fabled backdrop for thousands of novels, films and paintings. But there is a backstory to how we decided on the Amalfi Coast for our honeymoon destination.

A year after I met my now-husband, Ron, he told me to book two weeks off work because he was taking me on a surprise trip, which after much badgering, I discovered was to Italy. I excitedly tapped my Italian friends for recommendations and bought a copy of Jess Walter’s Beautiful Ruins to read on my sunlounger. But when we arrived at the airport, he placed a rolled up dollar bill in my hand – we were, in fact, heading on a road trip around California. Italy had been a ruse. I wondered why he hadn’t used Skegness, and learned two things that day: one, he was a keeper; two: I now had an Italian itch that would need scratching.

Fast-forward some six years, a mortgage, a child, and now a wedding, and we’ve finally touched down in Naples. Tip one: make the most of your transfer. We visited Amalfi via Capri, so caught the ferry directly to the island – the Calata Porta di Massa (for slow ferries) or the Molo Beverello (for fast ferries) are a short shuttle ride from Naples airport. Forty minutes on the hydrofoil is the perfect introduction to those famous azure waters, as the rocky outline of Capri emerges majestically in the distance.

Stepping off the gangway on to Capri ignites all the bygone glamour of a 40s movie set, with just a hint of debauchery – it is here that some say Odysseus resisted the seductive but deadly song of the Sirens, and the Roman emperor Tiberius engaged in illicit affairs. We taxi up the hairpin roads towards Anacapri and our first stop, Capri Palace, which lives up to its grandiose name.