We did a walking tour of the Amalfi Coast with Vermont Bicycle Tours, awesome. Positano is breathtaking. Walking through the ruins of Caesar Augsutus' villa on Capri is both awe inspiring (the engineering) and humbling (2,000 years old).

It was stated earlier: drink Italian wine, preferably local. We enjoyed some seriously good, inexpensive wine. We found local hole in the wall restaurants when on our own. One in Naples was a wine bar that serves dinner to about 10 tables every evening. The owner/cook had some recipes published in a pasta cookbook and gave us copies. I ordered his specialty dish and asked him to sign the cookbook. I was immediately made part of the family. Excellent food, excellent wine, very nice people.

A story about how nice, we were wandering about trying to find the restaurant. A local guy was walking down the street and we asked him about the address. He said he needed his glasses, went back to his residence to get them, came back to us and lead us to the restaurant. That typifies our experience with the locals.

FWIW, my wife and I were with another couple, between the four of us we mastered Italian at the level of a 2 year old Italian child. However, we are all low key and respectful. I believe the language barrier was overcome by us trying (and often failing) to speak Italian and maintaining a combination of respect and sense of humor.