FROM SAN LAZZARO TO AMALFI

length: 9 Km • walking time: 2 h 30 m • starting point: via Miramare, S. Lazzaro

An easy trail that proceeds mostly along stone steps and alleyways that date back to a time of the Maritime Republic in which the main street of the village was the principle road from Amalfi to its western hamlets. Along the way admire citrus terraces, and at times ancient homes, rocky landscapes and many beautiful views over the coast between Conca and Capo d'Orso.

Path information
From St. Lazzaro Piazza, enter via Miramare near the Leonardo Restaurant, then enter the steps to the left that zigzag as they descend the embankment. Pass through the gardens and scattered homes of Tovere. After passing a shrine (the little Madonna), take the left to steps descending towards a deep valley and pass to the opposite side. Here, after a small, level stretch you encounter a junction where you will need to bare right along a path that first passes through uncultivated brush, and then on to the cultivated fields. When you reach the main road, bare left and after a few meters you will enter steps that take you down to the main road to Amalfi, near the church of St. Michael. You then take the steps that go down to the rear of the church until they emerge to the left into a pedestrian street. Here proceed east passing under the terraces, and go over a stream and along a right curve where there is a junction at which you will need to bare right, over a set of descending steps until you reach the main road again. Avoiding detours, continue downhill, crossing a bridge and pass under the Cemetery. Immediately after, you take the steps to the left and climb through the narrow lanes of Lone (alternatively you could continue straight and reach the private beach of Duoglio).
Pass through the center of Lone, bare left passing a chapel and a small square. Keep going until you get back onto the main road for Amalfi, and follow it until you reach the Hotel Cappuccini. From here, take the steps that lead to an old pedestrian street at the top of the main street, following it, until you reach the historic center of Amalfi.
For returning to Agerola, use the SITA bus service.

Valuable information and points of interest
The route exploits the stone steps and streets that at one time (during the Middle Ages on until the early twentieth century) were the only links between the various villages and hamlets of the community.
The scenes that you will pass through, are the best examples of the symbiosis and interpenetration between natural and artificial that has made this coastal landscape famous the world over. The vegetation of this stretch is still wild and is of Meditarranean brush and associated garrigue, and you will encounter the Holm Oak, the Strawberry Tree and the Carob.
The entire route is panoramic, and you will always walk with the sea in front of you. Initially the components of the mountains remain dominant while as you slowly descend, the landscape appears increasingly exploited by homes and cultivated terraces. Once at Vettica Minore, near the church of St. Michael, from above you can observe a beautiful example of an ancient home with its barrel-shaped covered roof which in some areas, overlaps. There where you reach the main street for the second time, you will also observe an ancient defense tower. Passing beyond the deep valley, a deviation from the route here could be down to the private beach of St. Croce and of Duoglio but you could also reach them via the sea with one of the boats, that in the summer, leave from the port of Amalfi. From Lone on you follow the main road of the villages, the principle artery that centuries ago linked Amalfi with its most western hamlets (in fact, all of the coastal suburbs up to Vettica Maggiore, that were in ancient times, hamlets of Amalfi).