Checked for accuracy before publishing
Everyone who’s stood shoulder to shoulder with fifty other people trying to get “the” Positano shot knows the secret isn’t a secret anymore. The real Amalfi Coast, the one that still feels like yours for a morning, is a twenty-minute bus ride away and costs next to nothing to see. You just have to know where the buses stop and which car parks are actually free.
What’s Included
- The Path of the Gods hike from Bomerano to Nocelle, one of the best free views on the entire coast
- Fiordo di Furore, a fjord-like inlet you can swim in without paying an entry fee
- Nocelle, the sleepy hilltop hamlet most Positano visitors never bother reaching
- How to use the SITA bus network instead of taxis or rental cars
- Where to actually find free roadside parking along the SS163
- Timing tricks that get you empty trails and empty viewpoints before the coach tours arrive
How To Do It Right
Start with the Path of the Gods. If you choose to get a rental car, there is free parking in Bomerano at the intersection of Via Casalone and the main road SS366, and there are signs from the piazza pointing you to the trailhead, so you don’t need a guide to find it. The walk runs roughly eight kilometres from Bomerano down to Nocelle, tracing an old mule track high above the water, and it’s genuinely one of those hikes where the view earns every bit of the hype the beaches don’t.
Go early. One hiker on the trail forums mentioned starting at Bomerano at 7am on a Saturday in August and having the path practically to themselves before the heat and the crowds caught up. That’s the whole trick: this coast is brutal by 11am in summer, both temperature-wise and people-wise, so front-load your day.
From Nocelle at the trail’s end, you’re a short bus hop or a set of stone stairs from Positano proper, so you can finish with a swim instead of a slog back to your car. Nocelle itself is worth a slow coffee stop rather than a photo-and-go. Almost nobody who day-trips to Positano makes it up here, which is exactly the point.
For the fjord fix, head to Fiordo di Furore, the narrow inlet with the little arched bridge that’s become an unofficial coastal landmark. The Fiordo di Furore is free to visit and open all hours of the day and night, and you can reach it on the Positano-Amalfi SITA bus line, or park along the highway if you’re driving. There’s a small pebble beach down the stairs where locals actually swim rather than pose.
Practical Tips
- Buses over cars: The SITA Sud network runs the coast road on the Unico Costiera fare system, with short-hop tickets priced in the low single digits of euros; if you’re island-hopping stops for several days, the multi-day Unico Campania tourist pass tends to work out cheaper than buying individual tickets each time.
- Buy tickets before boarding. You generally can’t pay the driver, so grab tickets from tabacchi (tobacco shops) or bars displaying the SITA sign before you reach the stop.
- Parking: Skip the paid lots in Positano and Amalfi town centres entirely if you can. Bomerano’s free spot near the trailhead and the roadside pull-offs near Furore are the kind of parking locals actually use, not the ones aimed at tour buses.
- Timing: Aim to be walking or swimming by 8am and off the road again before the mid-morning coach convoys hit the SS163. Late afternoon, after the tour groups peel off toward Naples, is the other quiet window.
- Bring cash in small denominations for bus tickets and the odd bar stop, and proper trail shoes, not sandals, because the Path of the Gods has loose gravel sections that punish flip-flops.
Why We Hunted This
We keep writing about the coast’s free stuff because the paid stuff is where people quietly overspend without noticing. A private driver for the day, parking fees stacked in every town you stop in, and an entry ticket here and there adds up to a chunk of a day’s holiday budget fast, and most of it buys you the exact same view you’d get for free with a bit of planning.
The bus-and-boots version of this route costs you a handful of euros in bus fares and whatever your trail shoes already cost. Compare that to a chauffeured coastal tour, which routinely runs into three figures per person once you add stops and waiting time, and the gap is not subtle.
Mostly, though, we hunted this because the crowded viewpoints aren’t actually the best ones. Nocelle and the Path of the Gods give you the same cliffs and the same sea without the elbow-to-elbow scrum, and that’s worth more than the money you save.
