POSITANO

Monday, 16 May. We were up at 7:00. The weather was windy and overcast. Ciro came early to prepare our breakfast and we ate in our room. (It was exactly the same breakfast as the previous day.) At 8:55, five minutes before we were going to leave for our pick-up in Piazza San't Antonino, Monica called to tell us that the cruise had been canceled due to windy weather. There was no cruise on Tuesday, and we were leaving on Wednesday, so the cruise was out.

We decided to take the bus to Positano, as we'd planned before discovering the cruise. We stopped by to collect our refund from Monica, then walked to the train station, also the bus station. We bought our tickets, but there was a long line of people waiting for the bus to Positano. We didn't get on the 10:05 bus and resigned ourselves to taking the next one, scheduled for 10:35. But suddenly another bus pulled up and we happily boarded, not knowing that this was a "special"' bus to get rid of the crowd.

This bus left at 10:15 and headed south across the Sorrento Peninsula. By 10:30 we were in sight of the Gulf of Salerno, and moments later on the Amalfi Drive. The road was level but very curvy. We went out over each mountain ridge, then back in as we crossed the valleys between the ridges. Surprisingly soon we spotted Positano.

Amalfi Drive & Gulf of Salerno

Looking back to the west

Around the corner from Positano

As we rounded the final curve approaching the town, the bus screeched to a stop and the driver ordered everybody off. (I think it was at Via Corvo.) It was 10:45, a scant 30 minutes since we'd left Sorrento on what was supposed to be a one hour drive. The driver was really eager to get rid of us and get back to Sorrento. We were still at least 100 yards or so short of the first of the two bus stops for Positano, the one highest and most distant from it. (I think that would be Viale Pasiteo.) When one passenger asked about going to the other stop, the driver loudly said he wasn't going to the other stop. We then realized that this "special"' but had been added just to get rid of the crowd waiting in Sorrento, not to provide us the regular bus service.

Jane was still using her cane, and the long walk down Viale Pasiteo was very taxing for her. We took it easy, even stopping for a few minutes in a tiny "park"' with benches under the trees. The views were great all the way down, but that walk wasn't something we'd have chosen to do if we had a choice. This (the west side) didn't seem to be the most interesting part of Positano, but at least by the time we left Positano we would be able to say that we'd seen most of it.

Looking down at Positano's beach from the road above

Jane above Positano

In a shallow cave along the road We still don't know what these are

Actually, we'd visited Positano before, in 1962 when we'd driven all the way around the Sorrento Peninsula. At that time we'd driven down the same road we were now walking and had lunch at a beach front restaurant. But all we could remember was a general impression of the town.

Gradually we began to see hotels, restaurants and other tourist activities along the road, but it wasn't until we got close to Piazza dei Mulini, lined with ceramic shops and clothing boutiques, that we felt we'd finally reached the tourist area. By then we'd been walking for more than an hour. A road from this piazza led to the eastside bus stop (Sponda), only a short distance away.

Flowers & steps

The first tourist shops along Viale Pasitea

Positano view through a gate

Santa Maria Assunta in central Positano

Starting to look touristy

Piazza dei Mullini Finally we're in the tourist area

Facade of Santa Maria Assunta

We continued our descent, enjoying all the interesting shops, until we came to the Church of Santa Maria Assunta. We'd seen the mosaic dome of this church with our first glimpse of Positano. I located the town's only tourist office in a nondescript little building just below the church. I was the only customer there, probably because no one could find it. Anyway, I finally got a Positano map so we could find our way around.

 

La Cambusa Restaurant View from our table

We wound our way around to Piazza Amerigo Vespucchi on the beach and decided to splurge and have lunch at La Cambusa, a fancy restaurant with a great view of Spiaggia Grande (the main beach) and Marina Grande. As in most tourist restaurants of this type, the waiters acted like they were doing us a favor, but we weren't in any hurry and the light lunch we ordered was very good.

After eating we explored the beach between Torre Sponda and Torre Trasita, two of the town's 16th century defensive towers. We enjoyed the views back into town from different vantage points.

Looking east from the beach

Looking west from the beach

Piazzetta on west side

Then we walked back to the Church of Santa Maria Assunta to see the interior and continued leisurely on toward Piazza dei Mulini. Jane found her afternoon gelato along the way.

We visited the little church of Santo Rosario on Piazza dei Mulini. Most notably it had a rather grotesque sculpture of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in front of it. Via Columbo, a real road with cars, ran up the hill from the square to the east side bus stop (Sponda), and we walked up there. We found a large group of people waiting for buses going in both directions (Sorrento west, Amalfi east). We only had to wait about 20 minutes. The 2:45 bus came at 2:55, just as a few raindrops started falling. The bus was jammed, and we were about the last to get on it. Someone gave Jane, with her cane, a seat. 

View back on our walk to Sponda

Hillside houses

Apocalypse sculpture at S. Rosario

This bus took the scheduled hour to get to Sorrento, arriving at 4:00 in a light rain. The driver kindly dropped us off at Piazza Tasso instead of the train station, saving us a couple of blocks walk. We stopped at the tourist office for information about Capri but only got a boat schedule, no maps or anything else. We got to our room at 4:30 and cleaned up and rested until dinner.

At 7:15 we walked to the Taverna dell' 800 where we had another delicious meal, finishing at 9:00. Then we walked over to Villa Comunale, the lookout near our B&B. The view of Naples all lit up was spectacular. In fact, it was lit up from north of Naples, through Pompeii, and all the way up the Sorrento Peninsula. Marina Piccola was very pretty, too. We got back to our room about 9:15.