Positano: Live from Spiaggia Grande Beach

The Amalfi Coast – colourful houses cascading down the cliffs – it has to be Positano

Positano on the Amalfi Coast has a great reputation but does it live up to the hype? Tony and Helen Page discover colourful houses cascading down the cliffs, brown bodies lazing on the beach, unexpectedly cheap shopping and plenty of boats cruising up and down the coast – including one to take them back to Sorrento…

“Well, it’s always been a dream to come down to the Amalfi Coast and here we are finally in Positano, and this is the money shot, the nice colourful houses on the cliff-face. We came from Sorrento this morning and the drive down to the beachfront was quite interesting, very winding roads.”

Panorama shot best after lunch

“But if you’re coming in the morning, one thing to bear in mind is that the sun is in the wrong direction and it’s very hazy. In fact we did stop at a lookout point, and we were wondering why people were stopping there when the view wasn’t that great because of the haze, but obviously that was the official stop.”

(Tony: Yep, you see it was no good for a shot because it was right in the sun. I mean you couldn’t see anything, it was just the haze.)

So many deck chairs and umbrellas (and there’s another beach, too)!

“So anyway it doesn’t matter, here we are now on the beachfront and as you can there’s lots of deck chairs and umbrellas and obviously it does get very busy here, looking at the number of deck chairs there are, but at the moment it’s a bit empty because it’s really hot. It’s only 11:20 am, but it was hot right from 10 o’clock this morning.”

(Tony: It certainly feels hot here, I don’t mind telling you.)

“So maybe later on is when the smarter people come down when it’s not roasting. Interestingly, Italy’s had one of the hottest summers ever this year.”

You can tell we’re in Italy…

“So here we are, what is there to do in Positano – ” (A noisy group of people walk by)

(Tony: As you see we’re genuinely in Italy from the noisy behaved people who have just walked straight behind me)

“- Yes, well, Italians are very lively in their conversation.”

Lots of cruises along the coast

“Anyway, what is there to do in Positano? You can go for cruises, there’s lots of cruises along the coast. This morning there was one leaving for Capri.”

(Tony: Yes, we’re going there tomorrow actually aren’t we?)

“Yes we are. But we also found out that we could go back to Sorrento by boat so that’s what we’ll be doing, at about 3:40 pm.”

(Tony: I’m looking forward to that. How long did they say it took with the slow boat?)

“There are two boat services. There’s a fast ferry that leaves at 12:00 which is a bit early for us, or 5 o’clock. And there’s a slow one that takes one hour, 60 minutes, and it leaves at 3:40 pm, but I think that suits us fine as it’s going to be a nice ride along the coast and we can enjoy the coastal views.”

Shopping is surprisingly not too expensive

“So, I think we’re just going to have a relaxing time till when we leave. We’ll be walking along the alleyways, there’s lots of shops. We’ve always thought that Positano or the Amalfi Coast is a very exclusive place, but walking down here we haven’t felt that. What do you think Tony?”

(Tony: Yes, I didn’t feel, I didn’t get the sort of designer shop type feel that you get in places like St Tropez and places like that. It felt rather like an upmarket Vernazza, really. But not particularly expensive or indeed exclusive. I mean, some of the shirts and things were really cheap, but maybe we just missed some of the designer shops)

An upmarket Vernazza, but not as romantic

“And also we were sort of saying that this place reminds us of Vernazza, but I think Vernazza is nicer as it’s got a kind of small feel and more uh I don’t know, more uh romantic I think because it’s smaller.”

(Tony: In case you’re wondering everybody, I am standing at the side of a path and this seems to cause some kind of interest to the locals who seem to be discussing things next to me, but hopefully this won’t be too disturbing for you. Frankly Helen, I could do with a nice cool beer actually, I think.)

A beer with Tony’s name on it?

“Well, actually if you look over there, there’s a beer with your name on it.”

(Tony: Right, that sounds good to me, and we’ll leave the … )

“So, I think that’s where we’ll head out to, what do you reckon?”

(Tony: I think that’s a good idea.)

“Okay, let’s go!”

See more Positano photos HERE.
For more about Positano, see our Positano Trip Planner HERE.

And some things to do in Sorrento and around

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