A slow guide to the Amalfi Coast

Most visitors try to see the whole coast in a day. They squeeze onto the morning bus in Sorrento, stop in Positano long enough for a photograph, queue for the ferry to Amalfi and get back to their hotel tired, sunburnt and slightly cross. I have been the concierge at Limonia for eleven years, and the advice I give most often is the opposite: pick one village, one swim and one long lunch, and let the rest wait for tomorrow.

What follows is the short list I write on the back of a postcard for almost every guest. None of it is secret, but all of it is better at the right hour.

Where to swim

Skip the main beach in Positano between eleven and four. It is beautiful from above and crowded from below. Instead, ask us to book the small boat to Laurito. It leaves from the pier every half hour, takes eight minutes and drops you at a cove with one restaurant, two rows of loungers and water so clear you can count the pebbles.

If you would rather walk, take the four hundred steps down to the fjord at Furore. There is no beach to speak of, just a stone bridge, a few fishermen’s houses and a slip of sand where the river meets the sea. Go before ten and you may have it to yourself.

• Laurito: boat from Positano pier, from 9:30, lunch at the beach trattoria

• Furore: on foot from the coast road, best before 10:00

• Our own cove: the steps below the garden, open to guests from sunrise

Three villages worth the drive

Positano, at dawn

Positano is a different town at seven in the morning. The shutters are still down, the delivery boats are unloading crates of lemons and the only sound is a café pulling its first espressos. Walk down through the lanes to the beach, then climb back up before the coaches arrive. If you would like company, I lead a small group down most mornings: espresso by the beach, the ceramic workshops as they open, and back before the day-trippers arrive.

Ravello, in the late afternoon

Ravello sits high above the sea, and most day-trippers have left by five. That is when the gardens of Villa Cimbrone turn gold and the Terrace of Infinity, a long balcony of marble busts, looks straight down the coast towards Salerno. Stay for an aperitivo in the piazza. If there is a concert at Villa Rufolo that week, we will find you a seat.

Atrani, for dinner

Atrani is a five-minute walk from Amalfi, through a tunnel, and almost nobody makes the journey. The piazza is the size of a tennis court, the church steps double as seating and the restaurants put their tables out where the fishing boats are pulled up for the night. Order whatever came in that morning and do not hurry.

The coast rewards the people who stay put. Give a village a whole afternoon and it will give you a story to take home.

What to skip

I would never tell anyone not to see Amalfi, but I would tell them not to see it at noon in August. The Emerald Grotto is magical from our own boat, early in the morning, and a long wait in a queue of tourist launches later on. Shopping for ceramics is better in Vietri, at the eastern end of the coast, where the workshops are and the prices are fair.

How to get around

The coast road is narrow, winding and wonderful, but it is not a place to learn to drive a hire car. For short hops, the ferries are quicker and far more pleasant than the bus. For longer days we work with two drivers who grew up here, and our own wooden gozzo leaves the hotel jetty most mornings. Salvatore, who skippers it, knows exactly where to stop for a swim.

Whatever you decide, come and find me at the desk. I will write it down on a postcard, book the table and tell you which side of the boat to sit on.