Walking the Sorrento peninsula, between the Bay of Naples and Amalfi

Look at a map of southern Italy and the Sorrento peninsula is the thin finger of land that points west from the mainland towards Capri, with the Bay of Naples to the north and the Gulf of Salerno to the south. Along its spine runs a ridge of the Lattari mountains, steep and limestone, and on either side the land falls to the sea in terraces of lemons and olives. The north side is Sorrento's, softer and greener, looking across the bay to Vesuvius. The south side is the Amalfi Coast, sheer and famous.

Most visitors see the two from a bus or a boat, and think of them as separate places. On foot, they are not. The peninsula is crossed by old paths, many of them stepped, that were the way people moved between the villages before the coast roads were cut, and walking them you can stand on the ridge with a gulf on either side.

Between the two gulfs

The place that says it best is Sant'Agata sui Due Golfi, Saint Agatha on the Two Gulfs, a village on the saddle of the peninsula above Sorrento. From its edges you can look down on both seas, and it is a natural base for walking: paths drop from it towards Marina del Cantone and the southern coast, and run west along the ridge towards the tip of the peninsula.

That tip is Punta Campanella, where the land ends opposite Capri, across a narrow channel of sea. The walk out from Termini di Massa Lubrense is one of the finest on the peninsula: a stony path past olive groves and wild herbs to a headland with an old watchtower, the water clear and deep below, and Capri's cliffs close enough to make out the houses. The Greeks knew this point, and the Romans after them; it is an old place to stand and look at the sea.

On the northern side, the paths around Massa Lubrense and the hamlets above Sorrento, such as Casarlano, wind between walled lemon groves, where the trees are grown under dark netting, or under the old straw mats, to shelter them through the winter. Below them, Marina Grande is Sorrento's old fishing harbour, still with its boats pulled up on the beach.

The Amalfi side, and the Path of the Gods

Cross to the southern side and the scale changes. The Amalfi Coast is a wall of rock with villages hanging from it, and its best-known walk, the Sentiero degli Dei, the Path of the Gods, runs high along it from Bomerano, a hamlet of Agerola, to Nocelle, above Positano: about seven to eight kilometres, depending on the route you take, with views down the whole coast to the Li Galli islands. From Nocelle, a long flight of steps takes you down to Positano itself.

Above Amalfi, the Valle delle Ferriere follows a stream up a damp, green gorge named for its old ironworks, with waterfalls and ferns; and above Atrani, Ravello sits on its ridge with its gardens and the view that has drawn writers and composers for centuries.

Just You's seven-night Walking the Amalfi Coast is a holiday for solo travellers that covers both sides of the ridge. It begins in Naples, is based in Sorrento, and walks between Sant'Agata sui Due Golfi, Casarlano and Marina Grande on the northern side, the Valle delle Ferriere and Ravello on the southern, Massa Lubrense, Termini and Punta Campanella at the tip, and the Path of the Gods from Bomerano to Nocelle.

For those who would rather not walk all day

The Bay of Naples is also one of the richest places in Europe to stand and look at history. Pompeii and Herculaneum, buried by Vesuvius in AD 79, lie on the bay's eastern shore, and Naples itself, a big, loud, splendid city, is the gateway to all of it.

Travelsphere's seven-night Amalfi Coast, Pompeii & Capri takes in Naples, Amalfi, Capri, Minori, Pompeii, Ravello, Sorrento and Positano, which is most of the classic names in one week. Just You's seven-night Pompeii, Sorrento & the Bay of Naples is simpler: Naples, Pompeii and Sorrento, for solo travellers who want time in each.

When to walk

Spring and autumn are the seasons here. In April and May the hillsides are green, the broom is out and the paths are cool in the morning; in September and October the sea is still warm enough for a swim at the end of the day. In July and August the paths are hot and exposed, the Amalfi road is jammed, and the walking is best left to the very early hours.

Take water, good shoes and patience on the steps. The paths of the peninsula were built for people who carried everything on their backs, and they go up and down without apology. But at the top of every flight there is a view of one gulf or the other, and on the best of them, both.