The height of Italian beauty

As Gore was saying to Woody, "All politicians are corrupt. And usually stupid." It was mid-morning in the beautiful paved square that is Ravello's social hub. Children play games, adolescents eye each other up, men drink coffee together and old peasant ladies, draped in black, sit on the steps and survey the world benignly. A dog chews on a ham bone that the butcher has thrown out of his shop doorway. Choral music drifts from the imposing Byzantine church. For the time being, however, the sound that is most diverting comes from the next table at one of the cafés that fringe this quintessentially Italian scene.

Gore Vidal, Ravello's most famous resident, is giving the movie star Woody Harrelson the benefit of his views on American politics. Eavesdropping is not the most attractive of pastimes, but it's hard to resist when the venerable man of letters is in full flow. The iniquities of the death penalty, the crassness of George W Bush and the excesses of Hollywood – all covered in the time it took to have a couple of cappuccinos and a panino.

Ravello is perched on the heights overlooking the Amalfi coast. Serpentine roads twist and turn their way up here from the coastal towns a thousand metres below. If you look one way out of your car window, you see ancient brick walls with an abundance of vivid wild flowers exploding out of them. If you look the other way, there is often nothing but a sheer drop. In the Fifties, the author John Steinbeck often came here to escape Naples' ferocious summer heat. He perfectly described the absolute terror that grips you as your taxi driver swerves along a single-track road, wheels squealing, head turned firmly towards his passengers while he carries on talking. Steinbeck recalled: "My wife and I clutched each other, weeping, and prayed to God that we wouldn't die."

The hour or so of terror brings its reward. Ravello, cool and sophisticated yet rustic and authentic, is a destination worth any amount of travelling to reach. Indeed, its relative inaccessibility is part of its appeal, although the constant relay of American coach parties enjoying guided tours testifies to the fact that it's no longer off the beaten track.

Before you ascend to the glories of Ravello, however, there is much to explore on the Amalfi coast, each new town appearing more preposterously pretty than the one before. The town of Amalfi itself is about as perfect as a place can be without being designed by the Disney Corporation. Much of it is carved into a mountainside, with its buildings clinging unfeasibly to the rock face and the town stretching down to the sea.

There is a public beach and a small port, at the far point of which is one of the finest restaurants I have ever encountered. Simple and unprepossessing, they serve only fish and pasta, and there are just six choices of starter and main – plenty when you like the sound of everything – and you sit outside surrounded by geraniums and candles. The salad Caprese makes you question how a humble tomato and a piece of mozzarella can taste like nectar.

The delights get a little more luxurious up at the Palazzo Sasso, Ravello's most well-appointed hotel. It is, quite literally, the height of luxury. It gazes down on the Amalfi coast from its splendid vantage point above the town. The view of distant towns, isolated coves and dramatic cliffs is one that stays in the mind's eye for ever.

This is a seriously luxe hotel, a pink palace surrounded by palm trees, with terraced gardens offering secluded sun-bathing opportunities, a swimming pool that is as inviting as the Med itself, and a roof-top deck and Jacuzzi for when the sun slips behind the mountain. There is an outdoor restaurant for lunch, where you can enjoy the view and a smoked swordfish sandwich, and a very serious Michelin-starred restaurant within. After five or six courses of exceptional high-definition Italian food, you can withdraw to the piano bar and sink a few glasses of limoncello, the ubiquitous local lemon liqueur. The service is discreet and attentive, and the hotel eschews much of the buttock-clenching formality that is often the downfall of holiday hotels at this end of the scale. If you want respite from the hedonistic pleasures of Palazzo Sasso, Paestum is within range of a day trip. It is thought to have been founded by the Greeks in 650BC, and unlike Pompeii and Herculaneum, the region's more famous ruined cities, it is often deserted.

If you prefer to continue your embrace of the Amalfi region, it's worth making the tortuous coastal journey to Positano, the most picture-perfect town in the area. Take note, however, that in the height of the season the journey is complicated by the weight of traffic on these small roads. But Positano, also, is well worth the effort. The town, perched on a mountainside and all pastel villas and terraced vineyards, does not allow cars, but the walk down to the beach, through narrow alleys with a mixture of tacky tourist shops and international designer labels, is something of an adventure. After a day at the beach, however, the steep walk home is somewhat more challenging.

The most famous hotel in Positano is Le Sirenuse, which opened its doors in 1951 and is run by the same family who originally used it as a summer house. Like most of the hilltop properties here, it doesn't look like anything out of the ordinary from the road. It isn't until you walk through the cool marbled reception rooms and on to the sun-dappled terrace that the full impact hits you. Luckily, you can swoon into a chair, order a restorative Campari, and gaze at the Mediterranean. In the distance is the island of the Sirens, from which those women sang so seductively.

All of the luxurious rooms at Le Sirenuse share this enchanting view. From here, there is an easy coastal walk of astounding loveliness, but a little further afield there are a number of hikes on offer for the sturdy. We went in June and the sun shone nine days out of 10. The walking options are probably better earlier in the season, before it gets too hot, or in September.

The charming woman who runs Le Sirenuse asked us what our plans were. Excitedly, we said we were going to Capri, another island twinkling enticingly in the distance. It takes about 20 minutes in a speedboat to get from Positano to Capri and yet our host said she had never been there. How could that be possible? We soon realised why. Capri gets more and more gorgeous the nearer you get to it – until you actually get to it. Boat loads of back-packing tourists disgorge themselves at the port every half-hour and then wander randomly from one pizzeria to another. There is a high street stuffed with over-priced designer boutiques, and packed buses and open-air taxis crawling up the mountain roads. After the peace and tranquillity of Positano and Ravello, it was too much to bear. We headed straight back to the mainland.

Sally Ann Lasson travelled to Naples with Exclusive Destinations (01892 619650; www.exclusiveworldwide.com). It offers three nights at Le Sirenuse and three nights at the Palazzo Sasso from £1,055 per person based on two sharing for departures from 1 May. This includes return flights from Lon- don Gatwick to Naples on British Air-ways, B&B accommodation and private transfers to and from the airport