(Tribune Media Services) — Eleven hundred and six steep, stone steps that never seem to end.

We’re hiking high above Positano along Italy’s famous Amalfi Coast in the Lattari Mountains. This trail is less than three miles, but the elevation is steep and it’s the toughest hike the Backroads hiking group, which includes my daughter Reggie and me, has attempted on this the fifth day of our trip. Reg is at the front of the pack; I’m in the back.

But from any vantage point, the views can’t be beat — 30-foot-tall cypress trees, juniper trees, the candy-colored houses marching up the steep hills, the terraced gardens with lemons, olives, vegetables and, of course, grapes, wild herbs (ever taste lemon thyme?) and yellow and purple wildflowers. Below us, sailboats and yachts bob in the sapphire-blue sea and ferries chug between the Italian islands. I feel like I’ve hiked right into a postcard.

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written by Andrew