Amalfi Coast Safety Guide

The Amalfi Coast flashes pastel villages at you, glued to limestone cliffs while the Tyrrhenian Sea glints like hammered silver below. By day the air tastes of lemon zest drifting off terraced groves. After dark it turns to the salt-sweet scent of anchovies crackling in seaside trattorie. Violent crime is rare. Yet the corniche roads are razor-narrow, summer crowds thick, and the terrain vertical, one absent-minded step on polished cobblestones can send sandals sliding toward a 300-meter drop. Most mishaps are minor slips, sunstroke, or purse-snatches in Positano 's jammed pedestrian lanes, all avoided by staying alert and wearing solid shoes. Emergency crews move fast in the bigger towns, Amalfi, Positano, Ravello, where bilingual medics run small hospitals and Guardia Medica boats reach lonely coves within 20 minutes. Intensive-care beds are scarce, so serious trauma is helicopter-evacuated to Naples. Insurance that covers aeromedical evacuation is prudent, not paranoid.