Praiano gets the sunset that Positano hogs the postcards for. The village faces west, stacked up a cliff halfway between Positano and Amalfi, and in the evening the light drops behind the little islands of Li Galli and sets the water on fire while the people of the terraced bars hold their glasses and go quiet. It is a fishing village that has stayed more or less itself, with a tiny harbour at Marina di Praia tucked into a cleft in the rock, a church with a bright majolica dome, and houses climbing the hillside in tiers of pink, ochre and white. The whole Amalfi Coast is a UNESCO site, and Praiano is the part of it that feels least staged.
The road is the SS163, the Amalfitana, and it is as hard as its reputation. It is a single ribbon of tarmac cut into the cliffs, with the sea hundreds of feet below, a retaining wall on one side and rock overhangs on the other, and it never stops bending. Visibility around the corners is poor, and the buses that serve the coast are wide enough that you will sometimes have to stop and wait while the driver folds in the mirrors and makes the turn in three goes. It is slow, intense riding that rewards patience far more than skill. Go early, before the day-trippers, or in the shoulder months when the lemon terraces are quiet. In high summer there can be queues in both directions, and the authorities have used rules such as alternate number-plate days to control traffic, so check before you go.
The coast has been inhabited for a very long time. Amalfi was once a powerful maritime republic and its sailors traded with the Levant, and the old watchtowers that stand on the headlands, including one in Praiano, were built to warn of raiders from the sea. The terraces on the slopes, held up by dry stone walls, grow lemons and vines, and the lemons of this coast end up in the local liqueur, limoncello, and in cakes and pastries.
For practical matters, Praiano has restaurants and bars with terraces, mostly small family places, and the fish is excellent. Fuel is the thing to plan. The village is small and pumps are scarce on this stretch, so fill in Amalfi or in the hill town of Agerola, a few kilometres above, before you set out along the cliffs. Parking is difficult and often paid, so a small bike has a real advantage here.