Naples to Amalfi: A 7-Day One-Way Italian Sailing Itinerary

Your week begins at Porto di Mergellina in Naples — ten minutes from Capodichino airport (NAP), with the Castel dell'Ovo silhouette across the bay and the headland of Posillipo above. Larger motor yachts above 75 meters embark instead at Marina di Stabia at Castellammare, twenty-five minutes south of NAP and the largest superyacht facility in the Bay of Naples. Either way, your professional crew meets you at the slip with cold drinks and a chart briefing that frames the week ahead. Many groups arrive a day early and stage Pompeii on the buffer day — 30 minutes from either marina by car, with a private archaeologist guide booked weeks in advance to walk the site as the 9:00 AM gates open.

Mid-morning the captain slips lines for the 12-nautical-mile run southwest to Procida — the smallest of the Bay of Naples islands and the right place to start the week. Procida has none of Capri's intensity and none of Ischia's spa-day traffic. Marina di Chiaiolella, the protected bay on the island's southwest side, is where the captain anchors for the afternoon.

On a 35-meter-plus motor yacht the boat itself is most of the day — the swim platform comes off the transom, the chef sets a long welcome lunch on the aft deck, the water toys come out, and the bay holds quietly through the afternoon. Dinner is on board at anchor; the chef's welcome menu, a Greco di Tufo from the cellar, and the lights of Marina Corricella across the water as the harbor settles for the night.

A short 5-to-7-nautical-mile hop takes you from Procida to Ischia, the largest of the Bay of Naples islands. The thermal springs on Mt. Epomeo's volcanic flanks have been drawing visitors for two thousand years, and the spa culture is still the island's calling card. Your captain's choice of anchorage shapes the day — Casamicciola for the better-protected bay and an easier tender to Negombo's terraced thermal pools, or Forio on the western coast for the late-afternoon sun and a quieter evening at anchor.

If your group wants the spa morning, a private booking at Negombo or Poseidon Gardens gets you a dozen pools at different temperatures in the hillside; both are walk-from-the-tender. If you'd rather stay on the boat, the snorkel kit comes off the swim platform and the chef sets a long lunch on the aft deck. Larger motor yachts are most of the day — flybridge for cocktails, beach club for the afternoon, formal dinner setting on the aft deck.

Late afternoon, the captain repositions to the Castello Aragonese — the medieval fortress on its own islet off the eastern shore of Ischia, fortified into its current shape under the Aragonese in the 15th century and the visual marker most charter clients carry away from Ischia. Dinner is on board at anchor, the silhouette of the Castello off the bow as the lights come on along the causeway.

Today is the longest passage of the week — an open 18-nautical-mile crossing south from Ischia to Capri. On a 35-meter-plus motor yacht this is comfortable inside two hours; the cliffs of the Sorrento Peninsula grow on the bow and the Bay of Naples falls off the stern. Most weeks the crossing happens during late breakfast on the aft deck.

Capri appears as a single steep limestone wall, then resolves into the two harbors on either side of the island. Marina Grande on the north shore is the only marina that takes overnight stern-to berths up to 60 meters — book months ahead in summer. Marina Piccola on the south side is the day anchorage in 6 to 10 meters of sand. Your captain's choice depends on yacht size, weather, and how the next day is staged. On the way in, the captain holds station off the Faraglioni for the photographs, then noses around for the famous arch passage at Faraglione di Mezzo when the sea is flat enough.

The Capri play starts now. The day-tripper ferries from Naples and Sorrento land between 9:30 and 11:00 in the morning and clear out between 16:00 and 18:00. Your captain's plan is to be in the harbor by mid-afternoon, get you ashore for a quiet stroll up the funicular to the Piazzetta around 17:00 once the cruise crowd has thinned. Dinner at L'Olivo at the Capri Palace up in Anacapri (the only two-Michelin-star room on the island) or Mammà off the Piazzetta for the one-star option, and back aboard for a quiet night.

Up early — chairlift to Monte Solaro at 8:00 AM before the first ferry from Sorrento has landed. The chair runs from Anacapri to the highest point on the island in twelve minutes, and from the summit you can see the whole Amalfi Coast laid out south and the Bay of Naples north. By 9:30, when the day boats are coming in, you're back at Anacapri for an espresso and a walk through Villa San Michele — Axel Munthe's villa-and-garden, built into the ruins of one of Tiberius's chapels in 1896.

Late morning, the tender drops you back at the boat where the captain has anchored at Marina Piccola in 6 to 10 meters on sand. Lunch is on board at anchor. On a 35-meter-plus motor yacht the lunch service is the formal setting — the chef's tasting menu, a Capri-cellar bottle, the swim platform dropped after coffee. Capri's Marina Piccola is famous for being the photo-postcard angle of the Faraglioni — the long lazy afternoon at anchor under the rocks is the entire point of being on a yacht here.

The afternoon belongs to the Blue Grotto if conditions allow — a tender drop at the cave mouth on the northwest side of the island, and one of the grotto's wooden rowboats through the 80-centimeter opening. €18 per person, payable cash to the oarsmen, closed when the swell is up. By late afternoon the day boats have cleared and the island settles. Dinner is your call: Da Paolino under the lemon canopy at the foot of Monte Solaro (booked weeks ahead during peak season), Mammà off the Piazzetta, or back on the boat for an evening at anchor with the Faraglioni framing the cockpit.

A short 5-nautical-mile hop east takes you from Capri to Nerano. The captain anchors offshore Marina del Cantone in 8 to 15 meters of sand, and Lo Scoglio runs its own wooden tender from anchored yachts to its terrace at the foot of the village. The order is set: spaghetti alla Nerano, grilled day-boat fish, a Greco di Tufo from the cellar. By August the bay is a parking lot of 30-meter motor yachts at midday — the concierge holds the table months ahead.

After lunch the swim platform is open in Recommone Bay just east of the main beach, sheltered from the boat traffic and quieter than Marina del Cantone proper. Mid-afternoon the captain repositions for the 8-nautical-mile run east along the coast to Positano. The approach is the angle of Positano most photographs of this town can't reach from shore — the cliff-stack of pastel houses cascading down to Spiaggia Grande, the dome of Santa Maria Assunta with its majolica tile catching the late sun.

Positano has no marina — yachts up to 50 meters pick up a buoy 300 to 400 meters offshore in the cooperative-managed mooring field and tender guests in to the wooden jetty at Spiaggia Grande. Dinner is on shore tonight: La Sponda at Le Sirenuse for the one-Michelin-star room with the lemon-tree-and-candlelight terrace, or Zass at Il San Pietro a tender ride east of Positano with its own private sea-level dock and a cliff elevator up to the dining room. Back aboard at the buoy by 23:00, lights of Positano stacked above the cockpit.

The shortest passage of the week — a 6-nautical-mile run east along the coast from Positano to Amalfi, with two stops along the way that the round-trip itineraries skip. First stop, mid-morning: the Fiordo di Furore, a 25-meter pebble cove under the SS163 arched stone bridge. The mothership stands off, the tender threads under the bridge for a swim and photographs. Twenty minutes, not lunch — there's no dock and no taverna at Furore, just the cleft under the arch. The bridge itself is photographed as much as anything else on this coast.

Second stop, late morning: Conca dei Marini and the Emerald Grotto. The yacht anchors in the bay; the tender carries guests to the floating ticket booth at the cave mouth, where one of the grotto's small wooden rowboats takes you in through the 80-centimeter cave opening — the only way in, since no tender or larger boat will fit. €10 per person, payable cash. The grotto's interior light is the same emerald color as the Blue Grotto's blue, generated by the same effect — sunlight refracted through a submerged opening. Hours are roughly 09:00 to 15:00 daily, closed when the sea is up.

Mid-afternoon arrival at Amalfi town. Marina Coppola at the harbor takes yachts up to 35 meters in 8 to 11 meters of water — sheltered, ten minutes' walk from the Cathedral of Sant'Andrea. Yachts above 35 meters anchor offshore and tender in. Half-day Ravello shore excursion if your group hasn't done it yet — tender to the Pennello pier, twenty-minute private driver up the SS373 hairpins, an hour at Villa Cimbrone's Belvedere of Infinity, and back down for a 13:00 lunch on board. Dinner ashore: Eolo on Amalfi's seafront for the harborside view, or Rossellinis at Palazzo Avino back up in Ravello for the one-Michelin-star room with the cliff terrace.

A last slow breakfast at anchor in the shadow of the Amalfi cathedral, a final swim off the swim platform if the morning is warm enough, and the captain slips lines for the 12-to-15-nautical-mile run east along the coast from Amalfi to Salerno. The route is one of the most underrated stretches on this charter ground — the cliffs of Conca dei Marini and Praiano fall behind, the Maiori and Vietri sul Mare coastline opens to port, and the Gulf of Salerno widens toward the long curve of the Cilento Coast on the southern horizon.

Most weeks the captain runs this leg through lunch on board — the chef's farewell plate, a final glass of the cellar's best, and Marina d'Arechi's breakwater growing into focus by the time dessert is cleared. The marina takes yachts up to 100 meters in 8 meters of water at the quay — the southernmost charter base in the Bay of Naples region and the only one on the Amalfi side that handles full superyacht infrastructure.

Disembarkation by mid-afternoon. The crew has the transfer arranged — direct to NAP for guests flying out the same day (50–60 minutes by car via the A3), or to Salerno's Stadio Arechi station for the Frecciarossa direct to Rome's Termini in as little as 1 hour 26 minutes. Many groups stage the post-charter day differently than they would on a Naples round-trip — onward to Pompeii via Naples, a Cilento Coast extension south, or a Capri-Amalfi-Pompeii overnight in Sorrento before flying home. Your captain and chef will step off the boat already talking about when you're coming back, which is usually how the good ones end.