Salerno – Aston Martin

Salerno has always stood in the shadow of its more photographed neighbours, Amalfi to the west, Positano further along the cliffs, and that has left it with something rarer, real streets that still belong to the people who live on them. The SS18 runs south along the Cilento coast toward Agropoli and the ruins at Paestum, an open, uncrowded stretch once the switchbacks of the Amalfi Drive finally ease.

Aston Martin trades in tailored restraint, elegance with something coiled underneath it in Salerno. Rent or hire an Aston Martin with Zeus Prestige and it arrives exactly as booked, ready for the open SS18 toward Agropoli while Castello di Arechi still holds the morning light.

Above the gulf, Castello di Arechi holds three hundred metres of altitude and a view that explains why this stretch of coast was fought over for a thousand years before anyone thought to photograph it. Back at sea level, the Lungomare Trieste does the same work at a walking pace, palm-lined and unhurried, with the Duomo's bell tower marking the edge of the old town. Salerno does not perform for visitors the way Amalfi does. It simply gets on with being a working port city that happens to sit at the start of one of the most beautiful coastlines in Europe. Rent or hire a luxury car with Zeus Prestige and the SS18 is exactly the open road the Amalfi Drive never quite lets you have. Clients arranging Ferrari rental in Salerno tend to use the city as a quieter base for the coast, avoiding the summer crowds stacked up further west.

Browse the full Sports Cars collection available in Salerno for more like it.