Positano

Positano is the most photographed town on the Amalfi Coast, a vertical cascade of pastel-coloured houses — ochre, pink, terracotta, and cream — stacked from the upper road down a precipitous hillside to the small black-sand beach of Spiaggia Grande and the even smaller Spiaggia del Fornillo around the headland. The village is accessible by car only from the SS163 coastal road via two one-way approach roads that deposit visitors in the upper town, from which a network of steps and steep lanes descends to the seafront. The main artery is Via dei Mulini, lined with boutiques selling the handmade Positano sandals and embroidered linen garments that have defined the village's aesthetic since the 1960s, when John Steinbeck wrote about it in Harper's Bazaar and launched its reputation. The Church of Santa Maria Assunta with its majolica-tiled dome and 13th-century Byzantine icon of the Black Madonna anchors the lower village above the beach. Boat trips depart from the harbour to the Grotta dello Smeraldo sea cave, to the Li Galli islets where Sergei Diaghilev and Rudolf Nureyev once lived, and along the coast toward Amalfi. Beach clubs on Spiaggia Grande charge for sun loungers and umbrellas; the Fornillo beach is slightly less expensive and less crowded. The best view of the vertical village profile — the classic Positano photograph — is from the upper road or from a ferry or boat approaching from the sea. Parking is extremely limited and expensive; arriving by ferry from Amalfi or Sorrento, or by SITA bus, is far more practical.