My incredible September stay on the Amalfi Coast – when tourists aren’t clogging the streets… and temperatures are in the mid-twenties

After visiting the Amalfi Coast in 1953, John Steinbeck wrote, “Almost always when you find a place as beautiful as Positano… your impulse is to hide it.”

The American writer felt confident enough to share his discovery, writing in Harper’s Bazaar that the city’s remote and somewhat inhospitable location would put off the average traveler.

That was more than seventy years ago and he couldn’t have been more wrong.

The Amalfi Coast rivals Santorini in summer for ‘overtourism’ – but that’s no excuse to avoid it all.

Go now when the crowds aren’t clogging the streets and the sun is still kicking up temperatures in the mid-twenties.

Make an appointment: Harriet Sime discovers the delights of the Amalfi Coast out of season

“Go now when the streets aren’t filling up and the sun is still kicking up temperatures in the mid-twenties,” says Harriet. Above is the bridge over the Furore Fjord on the Amalfi Coast

I’m here with my husband, Dan. Our base is Santa Caterina, a venerable hotel steeped in Italian glamour, a ten-minute walk from Amalfi town centre.

We arrive in complete darkness and wake up to the sun high in a cloudless sky and a light breeze whispering through the hotel’s terraces, decorated with glossy tiles, white furniture and lemon trees.

The hotel is busy with tourists, mainly Americans, who have the same idea as us; to see a more authentic side of the world’s most famous coastline.

To watch leathery-skinned local men gesturing on benches as they enjoy their first espresso of the day; to see neatly dressed children going to school and nonnas passing on the latest gossip to passersby as they hang out their laundry.

Prices are also much cheaper at this time of year. For example, at Santa Caterina the rooms in October are more than half of what they are in the summer.

On our first morning we skip the hotel’s glass elevator, which takes guests to the beach club, a few hundred yards down the cliff, and decide to walk. Signs reading ‘Pathway to the sea’ lead us through descending terraces that tumble over the rocky path to the water.

Harriet checks into the Santa Caterina hotel, a ten-minute walk from Amalfi town center. Upstairs is one of the hotel’s bedrooms

Harriet says Santa Caterina, seen here, is ‘steeped in Italian glamour’

Later we arrive in time for the ‘passeggiata’ of the town of Amalfi, when the place comes to life. Colorful Fiat 500s and screeching scooters crowd the streets.

Outside the greengrocer there is a sign that says: ‘Do not touch the fruit. If everyone touches themselves, we’ll make jam.’ After about an hour we reserve a table in the shadow of the perfectly formed 9th-century cathedral for Aperol Spritz and olives before heading out in search of pizza.

A series of steep steps from the town’s main artery lead us to Donna Stella, a courtyard restaurant run by two look-alike sisters who serve pizzas for £7 each.

“I’m the pretty one,” says Lorenza, as she places two enormous margheritas on the table. She explains how the restaurant, which opened in 2006, will now close for a short time between December 20 and March 1.

In the past, the fastest way to reach Amalfi was from Naples Airport, a 90-minute drive away – but that all changed this summer, with a new EasyJet route from Gatwick to Salerno-Amalfi Airport, just 30 minutes away hotel.

We spend our last day in Positano, a 25-minute, bizarrely winding drive west, where we have lunch at Villa Treville, overlooking the town’s black sand beach.

Harriet takes a day trip to Positano (seen above), where she enjoys lunch overlooking the town’s black-sand beach

We devour plates of stuffed artichoke, burrata and spaghetti alla nerano, a local zucchini pasta, while reminiscing about all the authentic encounters and observations we experienced that make traveling all the richer.

That fleeting conversation with Lorenza, the smile exchanged, the two minutes of football Dan played with a young local boy kicking a ball down the street.

They would never happen in July or August. I rest my case.