Working Remotely in Naples, Italy & the Amalfi Coast
This is part of my remote work travel series where I review places I visit as a digital nomad.
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It’s here: the mega-post about Naples and the Amalfi Coast (Conca dei Marini to be exact!)
I’m combining these two places because I think these two were the most underwhelming cities on our trip, but still worth the visit for the pizza and views alone. As a travel blogger, I’m going to tell you like it is, got it? No fluff or unwarranted niceties on this blog! Consider AmySuto.com the gritty reboot to… whatever website you were reading before about digital nomad life and writing, I suppose.
What Digital Nomads Need to Know Before Visiting Naples and the Amalfi Coast
Amalfi and Naples were our last-minute substitutions for Athens and Santorini, which were quite literally on fire the weeks we were supposed to be there. (Nothing quite like apocalypse-like conditions in the apocalypse, right?)
Because of that, Amalfi and Naples ended up being our least-planned and also least-favorite stops so far.
What I didn’t like about Naples is that it’s like Manhattan on steroids. Take the crush of people and multiply that by 200% and then add in scooters and cars careening down narrow cobblestone streets, zipping in and out between street vendors, and voilá! You get Naples. It’s overwhelming but has incredible food and rich history, so it’s worth the trip, but only for a few days.
Amalfi seemed like a dream destination, and the views and beach hangs are pretty cool. We took the ferry from Naples to Amalfi and it was quite a neat trip. However, there’s a ton of mosquitos, tourist traps, and cabbies excited to overcharge you even for short rides. Most Airbnb’s don’t have parking so good luck renting a car or scooter, and the roads are so narrow you wouldn’t even want to (a scooter crash happened moments before we arrived at the coast and stopped traffic short.)
Capri and the Amalfi coast are nice for a weekend or getaway, but not for long stays. We ended up cutting our stay short because we felt stranded on (a very beautiful cliffside!) and were disappointed by the food and how hard it was to get around. We love places that are walkable, and Amalfi was walkable as long as you didn’t mind hiking up a literal mountain.
What We Liked About Naples
The first night we arrived in Naples, I had the best pizza I’ve ever had in my life (at Sorbillo’s!) on the most chaotic street I’ve ever been on in my life.
On our food tour, our guide likened Naples to lasagne: it’s built on Greek and Roman ruins and a lot of the ancient artifacts are just parts of the city. The beauty and grittiness of the city was wonderful to behold, even with remnants of the party of the night before still strewn on the streets. We found a library-themed bar we enjoyed and met some other cool travelers passing through Italy.
The Buffalo mozzarella is an absolute must. Mozzarella is something sacred in Italy, and I had a caprese sandwich that parted the skies and showed me the heavens above, forever changing the trajectory of my life. (I’m only partially kidding.) Italians have two rules when it comes to their mozzarella: it must be served within two days, otherwise it has to be cooked and can’t be served fresh. Secondly, it shouldn’t be refrigerated in those first two days to preserve the texture and juiciness. If you haven’t had Buffalo mozzarella, you haven’t had real mozzarella.
The one part of Naples we missed that I would have loved to go on was the underground ruins tour. It seemed right up my speed (I love abandoned and underground things) and I’m bummed we found out about it too late. It’s on my list for the next time I pass through Italy!
Our Top 4 Travel Tips for the Amalfi Coast
If you do intend to stop by the Amalfi Coast, here are some of our top tips to get the most out of your stay:
Stay in a hotel or resort in Amalfi or Positano. These will be walking distance to restaurants and (small!) beaches. Be prepared to pay more for restaurants here and to rent a chair on the limited beach space.
Take buses and ferries, not taxis. This is where we messed up — the 15 minute taxi ride from Amalfi to Conca dei Marini cost us 30 euro — which was almost the cost of our entire several hour train ride to Rome! Just know that buses almost always run late, and we had to run from a bus that was like 30 minutes late to the ferry to Salerno (almost missing it!!) which we took to get to a train station that was a more direct ride to Rome. So… plan ahead :) If you’re trying to get to Positano, take the ferry instead of the bus, because the buses in that direction get full fast/are unpredictable. But the buses coming from Positano to Amalfi are OK. If the buses are full, they’ll just wave and pass you by, so you might be stranded if you aren’t careful. Most small shops have bus tickets, which are only about 1.5 euro per ticket.
Only stay a few days in each city. The beaches in each city are barely beaches (don’t let the pictures on the Internet fool you!) and these are very resort-heavy beach towns (read: expensive). So soak in the beauty for a few days and move on to a new destination.
Rent a boat or kayak and go on an excursion. We love booking experiences through Airbnb Experience, so I recommend booking a kayak or boat tour and get the most of your coastal day. We didn’t get to do this as our plans changed, but we met another couple who said their boat day was the highlight of their trip, so we’d recommend for others!
I’ve liked other beach towns more than Amalfi, but the views are so sweeping and incredible it’s worth a stop as long as you do it right.
How Digital Nomad-ing is Going So Far
We’re coming up on a year of traveling and working remotely, so I thought I’d stop and reflect about this past year. Prior to 2020, the longest I had spent traveling was two weeks. I was deeply ingrained in my routine, my creature comforts, and my habits. When I hit the road for Colorado last August for a month, I didn’t really know what to expect. We were in the depths of quarantine and COVID, and it was weird going from isolation to a house filled with people when the world felt like it was falling apart. It was comforting to be in new places, to be hiking mountain trails and seeing the colors of the leaves change, and to start to unpack what was coming up for myself during isolation with others and get to the heart of the problems I was facing while my partner Kyle and I started our new companies together.
Then, we moved to Palm Springs, I had a spiritual experience at a sound bath in the Integratron in the middle of the desert (if you don’t you’re doing it wrong), and had a true end to summer with a house full of friends who came in and out over the course of thirty days.
Then, I spent time in Reno and Arizona with family before hitting the road again in January for Nashville. We were snowed in for most of the month, and I dealt with the longest winter I have ever experienced while also dealing with my RA diagnosis, and remaking my diet from scratch, on an intense elimination diet.
Banner Elk was a tough month because it was so cold and I hit rock bottom with some health stuff. The snow and cold and isolation of Banner Elk was tough on us, but we made the best of it, and made it to a sunnier, happier month in Galena, Illinois, in a charming little town where we stayed in an abandoned orphanage that was definitely haunted.
Then, summer finally came in Washington State, and the weight of winter was lifted. Our businesses were picking up traction, things were out in the world, and we saw the end of the rainbow for a lot of the projects we were working on.
We drove down the coast and celebrated my birthday, spent a month back in LA getting things in order, and then have been in Europe ever since.
Life always has its ups and downs: from figuring out health and diet things to learning how to step into my strengths as both a full-time writer and entrepreneur, I’ve had a lot of high highs and low lows this year so far. But life has been punctuated by gorgeous views and stunning new places. My partner and I always find ourselves having long walks and conversations either by ancient roman ruins or winding river banks.
By not being stuck in a routine, we have to reinvent ourselves and our perspective every day. We’re meeting people all over the world, broadening our perspectives, and getting a dose of history and culture in every city we visit. The richness of our experiences are seeping into our perspective and work, and I feel so lucky to be able to travel and see the world in this way.
Thanks for joining me on this journey — I’m excited to continue to share my travels with you, dear reader!
Next Stops on Our Digital Nomad Italy Trip
Overall? Amalfi = overrated unless you don’t mind the tourist trap of it all. And Naples = great fun and worth the trip, but stay too long and you risk losing your life to a speeding moped. (What a way to die.)
We’re going to be spending several weeks in Rome, two weeks in Milan, two weeks in Florence, two weeks in Montepulciano, and five days and Venice. Then London and back to LA!
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