Italy · Campania and Lazio
The Bay of Naples and the Pontine Islands
Eight nights from Salerno — Capri and Ischia, then the crossing to Ponza, Palmarola and Ventotene.
8 nights · Round trip from Salerno
This is the week for people who have already done the Amalfi Coast. It starts on the same water and then keeps going north-west, across an open leg most charters never make, to three islands that Italians know and almost nobody else does. Eight nights rather than seven, because the crossing needs the day it takes.
The route, day by day
Day 1
Salerno
Board, provision and take the short leg out. The week ahead has one real passage in it, so the first night stays close.
Day 2
Capri
The Faraglioni early and the Grotta Azzurra before the queue. Done now rather than later, because the boat is heading away from here.
Day 3
Ischia
Thermal water at Sorgeto, where a hot spring runs into the sea, and a night in a working town rather than a resort.
Day 4
Ventotene
The crossing. A Roman harbour cut into the tufa, a marine reserve, and a history of exile running from Augustus to 1943. The smallest of the three and the least visited.
Day 5
Ponza
Coloured houses stacked to the harbour like an amphitheatre, and Chiaia di Luna under a two-hundred-metre cliff — untenable in a westerly, unforgettable when it is calm.
Day 6
Palmarola
An hour west and nobody on it: no road, no village, grottoes, and water that goes an unlikely green over white rock. A lunch stop and an afternoon, then back to Ponza for the night.
Day 7
Procida
The passage back south, breaking at Corricella — the harbour that photographs itself — before the last stretch of coast.
Day 8
Salerno
Down past Sorrento and the peninsula with a final anchorage at Ieranto if the timing allows.
Worth knowing
- Eight nights rather than seven: the crossing to the Pontine takes the extra day and repays it
- This route works better on a motor yacht, which shortens the open leg considerably
- The Pontine anchorages are exposed — the order of days 4 to 6 follows the forecast, not the page
- Ponza harbour is small and full through August; June and September are a different island
- Naples airport is closer to the boat than Rome for either end of the week
Yachts that sail this route
Itineraries
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