Slow-tourism is the practice of staying longer in one place, moving more deliberately, and engaging more deeply with a location to prioritise experience over itinerary. I am fortunate that I visit Italy each year for my work as a trainer at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Umbria, where I teach journalists how to use their smartphones for professional photography and videography (the photos in this article were taken with my iPhone). On the back of this, my wife and I explore a different region each time, and we’ve developed a pattern of sustainable travel:

• Visit in off-peak or shoulder seasons
• Stay in one place for at least four or five nights
• Choose ‘second city’ destinations (Umbria instead of Tuscany; Atrani instead of Amalfi)
• Find accommodation away from the tourist centres, ideally in residential areas
• Get an apartment with a kitchen, or at least a kitchenette
• Get up early to beat crowds
• Make deep-dive itineraries that focus on a 10-kilomtre radius
• Explore on foot.

I use Google Maps Streetview to check out the neighbourhood when planning a trip. This virtual walking tour gives me a feel for what to expect. It’s how I found accommodation perfect for us on the Amalfi coast and on the island of Capri, and allowed us to feel we were part of the neighbourhood. Café camerieri came to know our orders, and the grocer would suggest fresh local produce, knowing we were to cook our own meals.

Several ferries run daily from Naples to the island of Capri, which has been an exclusive enclave since the Roman emperor Augustus claimed it as his own private resort 2000 years ago, setting a standard of exclusivity that to this day continues to beckon the world’s elite. From his successor Tiberius - who ruled Rome for 11 years from Villa Jovis, the hilltop ruins of which still stand – to an exiled French aristocrat, a scandal-ridden magnate, and numerous movie stars, the island historically has been a sanctuary for those wanting luxurious seclusion.

The advent of social media has shared the beauty of the region to the world, and it’s easy to believe seclusion now  is possible only with a price tag. Rooms in the island’s five-star hotels range from €1000 to €2000 a night but Capri can be affordable and offer solitude, you just have to know how to find it.

Peak season is June/July, so visit April or September.  We prefer April. It is early spring and the island is in bloom. Citrus trees bow with fruit, the days are clear and bright, and the temperature is a comfortable 15 to 22 Celsius. The city’s workers paint, clean, trim in readiness for peak season, as busy as the bees among the myriad of flowers that fill the lanes with a delightfully natural perfume.

We found an AirBnB that was simple yet pleasant, affordable, with a private patio and views of the mountains and the sea. Set among the residential houses of the terraced hillside, it was peacefully quiet and removed from the hectic bustle of the Marina Grande and Capri city centre. The steep pathway to our quaint bungalow seemed to keep most of the tourists at bay. Porters at Marina Grande will take your luggage to your accommodation.

Wealth clings to the edges of the island – glittering and attention-seeking - but once you go up and in, every yard becomes a garden of fruits, vegetables, and orchards. This is the heart of the community.

The island criss-crosses with steep narrow paths, and winding stone stairs that descend into the many scalloped coves that ring the island’s cliffs. Municipal workers and luggage porters get around in small electric vehicles, and the main roads connect one side of the island to the other, but the only way to get to the upper reaches are by foot. You need moderate fitness and mobility.

We delighted in our daily walks. This is where we found our exclusivity. Far from the crowds, on paths either residential, stone or forest dirt, with every corner revealing yet another stop-in-awe view of vertical white limestone plunging hundreds of metres into swirling waters.

An afternoon of exploration led us to Villa Lysis, built in the late 1800s by a French nobleman in exile for the scandal of being homosexual. Entry was just a few euro and only one other couple were there. Take the walk down Via Krupp – proclaimed the most beautiful road in the world – from the Gardens of Augustus to Marina Piccola, where you can catch a municipal bus back to the city centre or Marina Grande. We took another public bus to Anacapri and walked to the Blue Grotto, wandering among olive groves and stopping to meet resident cats (Capri officially is a cat sanctuary) but the line-up to visit the grotto, even at this early time of year, was 100 people long.

We were sad to leave Capri. A brief but beautiful ferry ride to Amalfi set us up for an equally as enjoyable, although somewhat different, experience.

Even in April, Amalfi and Positano are should-to-shoulder tourism. We avoided the throng by booking an apartment in the next village of Atrani, the smallest municipality of Italy with a population of 700. It is connected to Amalfi via a large, well-lit pedestrian tunnel few tourists seem to know about.

The Amalfi port is busy with ferries and the waterfront is a squabble of tourists and hawkers, overcrowded and hectic. Our host arranged for porters to pick us up and take our luggage to Atrani, and as a bonus they took us as well. Two young men then lifted our three bags onto their shoulders and jogged through the medieval laneways and up the 150 stairs to our apartment.

There’s only about 200 metres between the towns but a world of difference. Despite tourism in Atrani rising 93% after the Netflix show Ripley (which I’ve now watched five times, and was delighted to discover Dakota Fanning’s character regularly used our medieval tunnel) but it remains quiet and largely unaffected. Being so small it cannot accommodate many visitors, and most visitors drive through without stopping or realising its charm, on their way to the more accessible Minori and Maiori coastal villages.

Quiet at night, pleasant during the day. And a free beach in front of us that gives over to a paid beach club in peak season. But stairs. Lots of stairs! This is where the groundbreaking Dutch artist MC Escher found inspiration for this drawings of visual paradoxes, infinity stairs and impossible architecture.

A highlight for us was the day we planned to sit back and read books. But first, my wife wanted to explore some of the back alleys of Atrani. A local couple we met at a crossroads pointed us in the right direction, which is to say they pointed straight up, and we took MC Escher’s impossible, never-ending steps up the mountainside. The path wandered through orchards, and backyards, past beautiful hotels, along a woodland path where enterprising locals had thoughtfully placed cold drinks and an honesty box. Skip ahead three hours and we were still walking; nine kilometres and the equivalent of 140 flights of stairs later and we found ourselves at the delightful mountaintop village of Ravello.

Five days and many kilometres of walking stairs and mountainside paths, swimming turquoise water beside boisterous, splashing local boys, wandering medieval tunnels that echo old women singing from their kitchens, and funnel the aromas of their cooking; despite being so small, there’s a lot to take in. While most attention is on nearby Amalfi and Positano, this hillside coastal village retains a lot of authentic charm. A network of medieval tunnels and stairs connect all sides of the village to the town square, Piazza Umberto, where it is possible to sit in relative peace.

Looking back across two weeks on Capri and the mainland coast made me reflect on how consistently crowds prove to be the wrong measure of quality. The best things on Capri and the Amalfi Coast – in fact, almost everywhere I have travelled - tend to be a short distance from where most people stop, requiring just a little more effort. A steeper path. A longer walk. A tunnel connecting one village to a quieter one. Augustus had his privacy enforced by a garrison and a fleet. The rest of us must earn it one flight of stairs at a time.