Fifteen minutes from Amalfi's cathedral steps the crowds vanish, the air cools by five degrees and you are walking up a gorge of chestnut woods, rushing water and the ruins of the mills that made the republic's paper. The one walk on the coast that is better in August than in April.
Behind Amalfi the Canneto stream has cut a deep, green cleft into the Lattari mountains, and for seven hundred years its water turned the wheels of the town's industry.
Amalfi made paper from the 13th century, the thick, cotton-rag sheet called bambagina, and the lower valley, the Valle dei Mulini, was lined with mills that pounded rags into pulp by water power. Higher up, a medieval ironworks, the ferriera, gave the upper valley its name. Floods and the coming of industrial paper emptied them in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the forest has been climbing back over the walls ever since.
The upper valley is now a state nature reserve, protected for a microclimate that is unique on this coast: humid, shaded and almost subtropical, it shelters plants that died out elsewhere in Europe when the climate cooled. The walk is a gentle climb along the stream from the town, past the Paper Museum and the mill ruins, to a series of waterfalls in the woods, then back the same way or out over the ridge to Pontone.
Almost everyone with reasonable legs. There is no exposure, the gradient is steady and much of the path is in shade, which makes it the coast's best summer walk and a good one for older children who are used to walking. It is muddy after rain, slippery on the wet rocks by the falls, and closed in sections after winter storms.
The classic out-and-back from Amalfi. Signs say "Valle delle Ferriere" or "Riserva"; at forks, stay with the stream.
Approximate profile. Solid line: the way up; dashed: the return.
From the cathedral square walk inland up Via Lorenzo d'Amalfi and its continuation, the main street that runs over the buried stream, past the pastry shops and the last of the souvenir stalls. The houses close in, washing hangs across the lane, and the noise of the piazza drops away.
A 13th-century mill that still makes bambagina by hand, with the wooden hammers, vats and presses working. Worth half an hour on the way up or down; a short tour shows the whole process and you can make a sheet yourself.
The lane becomes a stepped path climbing beside the stream, past the shells of one mill after another, roofless, ivy-covered, some with their water channels and arches still standing, between terraces of lemons under chestnut pergolas. A side path climbs right to Pontone; keep straight on, up the valley.
The valley narrows into a gorge of chestnut, alder and hornbeam, the air grows damp and the walls drip with moss and maidenhair. The ruins of the ferriera, the ironworks, stand by the stream. Look for the giant fronds of Woodwardia radicans in the wettest spots.
The path ends in a cool amphitheatre where the Canneto falls in a series of cascades, the finest after rain in spring. Picnic, cool your feet and turn back. The integral reserve beyond is entered only with the forest rangers' permission, and the waterfall section is closed after rockfalls; respect the barriers.
The valley's microclimate is the reason it is protected. Here is what to look for.
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A giant fern with fronds up to two metres long, a survivor of the warm Tertiary period that once grew across Europe. It hangs on in a handful of humid gorges in the south, and this is one of the best places to see it.
The dripping walls are carpeted in moss, liverwort and maidenhair fern, and in spring the rare Pinguicula hirtiflora, a small carnivorous butterwort, opens pale violet flowers above its sticky, insect-catching leaves.
The clear pools of the Canneto hold the Italian stream frog, and on damp days the black-and-yellow fire salamander walks the path. Look, do not touch: their skin is mildly toxic and the reserve is strictly protected.
The walk starts in Amalfi, where every SITA bus and every ferry on the coast stops. For the downhill version, take the SITA bus towards Ravello and Scala and get off at Pontone; not every bus goes there, so check the timetable, or walk up from Scala's square in 20 minutes.
Stay on the marked path: the reserve is protected, the mill ruins are unstable and are explored at your own risk. Do not pick plants or move stones in the stream. The upper, integral reserve needs a permit from the Carabinieri forestry service, and the waterfall section is closed after rockfalls; obey the signs.
Local guides run half-day walks from Amalfi that add the botany, the paper history and a lemon-farm stop. Useful for families or a first visit, and the easiest way to visit the integral reserve when it is open to groups.
Ideas from our Amalfi Coast guide.
Candied citrus, sfogliatelle and the delizia al limone under the cathedral steps. A coffee here before you start, a granita when you return.
The farms on the terraces you walk past run tours of the pergolas and the harvest, with a limoncello tasting at the end. Combine with the morning walk.
More on limoncello →When the day-trippers leave, walk the cliff path to Atrani for dinner in its single, tiny piazza. Or stay in Amalfi for fish soup at Da Gemma, open since 1872.
More in the food guide →
The cliff-top mule track from Agerola to Nocelle, with Positano and Capri ahead.
The old harvest track between Maiori and Minori, through terraces of sfusato lemons.
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A 1,122-metre top above Agerola with the gulfs of Naples and Salerno on either side.
A Roman road to the temple of Athena at the tip of the peninsula, with Capri across the strait.
The FAI's protected bay below Nerano, with snorkelling in the marine reserve as the reward.
Capri's wild west coast from the Blue Grotto to the lighthouse, past Napoleonic-era forts.
Photographs from Wikimedia Commons are used under their Creative Commons licences; Pexels photographs under the free Pexels licence. Click a title for the original, its author and licence.
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