Everyone arrives in July. The water is warm, the terraces are full, and the coast road moves at the speed of a parked car. Come four weeks later and the same stretch of Italy behaves like a different country.
September holds the summer sea without the summer crowd. Restaurants that would not look at you in August will find a table by the window. The light softens through the month, which matters more than it sounds when the whole point of the place is looking at it.
Where to base yourself
Ravello sits high and quiet, and rewards anyone happy to trade beach access for gardens, silence and the best view on the coast. Atrani is the small one next door to Amalfi — the same harbour life at half the volume. Praiano splits the difference: a proper village that still has sunsets facing Positano.
How long to give it
Five nights is the minimum that lets you stop moving. Add Naples at the start for the archaeology and the pizza, or Puglia at the end if you want the pace to drop further still.
Book the hotel before the flights. On this coast the rooms are the scarce thing, and the good ones go a season ahead.