Glorious Positano

It was with fond memories of romance and unforgettable scenery that we returned to the Amalfi coast three years after our honeymoon.  This time we weren’t trekking from village to village along overgrown cliffside goat tracks on scorching hot summer days, but rather, lazing about and filling in the gaps with things we had missed or not had time for the first time round.

The trip down held less surprises than the first.  We knew to expect the tedious 30 plus stops on the non-air-conditioned Circumversuviana train from Naples to Sorrento as well as the mostly frightening bus ride from Sorrento along the tight curves of the coast road where you find yourself looking either into oncoming traffic, rocky cliff faces or an endless drop to the ocean!  So it was still a relief to have the journey done with and safely settled into our hotel in Positano, our home for five nights.

We had two active days, venturing out of Positano and two more gloriously lazy days just lying on the beach.

A diddy little bus took us up the narrow, windy roads above Positano to a hamlet village by the name of Montepertuso.  A place well known for a hole in the rock above the village believed to have been created when Mary cast the devil away from the area.  We were lulled into a false sense of security by a sign board saying it was only a 400m/15min walk to reach the hole and decided that that was an easy, manageable walk.  Hot, sweaty and thoroughly out of breath we should have twigged that it was an uphill, steps only climb, to reach the point of interest!  None the less, we were glad we did it as it was the only walk we didn’t do on the walking tour three years ago.

Looking down to Positano from Montepertuso

The Villa Rufolo, a 13^thCentury home to a few important people with its magnificent gardens was our other ‘active’ excursion.  We braved the buses once again to head to Ravello where this Villa is situated.  It was easy to see why this is the star attraction of the town, the gardens were immaculate and the views were breath-taking!

To avoid the crowded main beach in Positano we made the small walk along the cliff side path to Spiaggia del Fornillo, where we enjoyed a day of dips in the sea alternating with lounging on the sunbeds (under an umbrella of course!).

On our second beach day we took the boat with the red fish, as recommended by a number of fellow travellers, to an even smaller and less crowded beach (Spiaggia Laurito) to do much of the same!  

There are some more photos of Positano if you follow this link