The Amalfi Coast was one of the highlights of my summer tour of Italy. As we drove along the two-lane road (narrow on many curves) from Napoli, I was flabbergasted by the castles, stacked houses, rocky prominences, vineyards planted on straight-up hillsides, lemon orchards on patios--all back-dropped by the blue Mediterranean Sea.

We sailed to Capri on a bright blue morning, enjoying the color of the Mediterranean and the light breeze. Rome had been very hot, and it was hot here, too, but with the water right there either I didn't notice the heat or it had abated, at least a bit.

The harbor of Capri was jammed with boats of every size and description, from mega-yachts to tiny motorboats. It looked dangerous to navigate, but like the Roman auto drivers, the boaters seemed to take it all in stride and avoid ramming each other.

On a boat tour around Capri, we saw most of the standard tourist sights: the blue grotto, arch rocks, and the like. It turns out that the island served as a summer home (and probably still does) for notables from Rome and elsewhere.

As a former high-school Latin student, I was interested to see the spot where Caesar Augustus (or did we say Augustus Caesar?!) spent his summers. Today the spot is an expensive resort, decked out with bright blue canopies and umbrellas, set back from a rocky shore where the waves pound in.

The town of Amalfi seems like a large, steep, quiet village today, but it was once a booming Mediterranean port city that rivaled Genoa and Pisa for trade. Colorful shops and trattorias cram together along the sides of the narrow streets. Fantastic aromas--of sweet pastries and tomatoes and lemon things--cling to the air. There's plenty to eat and buy here, and you need not worry that you'll run out of cash; there is an ATM everywhere you look.

The tomb of Christian Saint Andrew resides in the crypt of the Amalfi cathedral, known as Duomo di Amalfi. Construction on the cathedral began around A.D. 1000. The daunting stairway upward to the church dominates the town scene.

People say that some of Saint Andrew's relics still remain in the church's crypt. Tourists can see a reliquary made of gold, which is said to have housed the saint's skull. People also say that during mass on holy days, Saint Andrew's relics emit a liquid called Saint Andrew's manna, believed to be miraculous for those anointed with it.

The region called by us the Amalfi Coast is renowned for its large, juicy lemons. These are not like the lemons we know in the U.S. Some can grow as big as footballs, and all seem oversized compared with ours. A favorite lemon creation here is limoncello, a syrupy sweet concoction served icy cold and straight up. One limoncello recipe goes like this:

6 limoni (lemons)
1 litro di alcol a 95 gradi (a liter of 95% alcohol)
1 litro di acqua (a liter of water)
700 gr di zucchero (1-1/2 pounds! of sugar)

To concoct the limoncello: Peel the lemons, cutting off the yellow part of the skin and discarding the white part. In a big jar, add the yellow skins to the alcohol and let stand for 10 days. Then boil the water with the sugar for 5 minutes, allow the syrup to cool, and add it to the lemon-peel-and-alcohol mix. Wait a week. Strain the liquid and pour it into a decorative bottle.

Don't think for a minute that I looked up this recipe on cooks.com or something. This recipe comes from a souvenir towel I bought on Capri (actually, I bought the towel to get the recipe home). The towel says that the limoncello so prepared is "an excellent digestive to drink cheerfully with some friends!" Trust me, you will be cheerful after you put away a couple of these drinks!