A prosperous port in the days when little Amalfi was a major seapower, the lovely Costa Amalfitana town of Positano has diminished somewhat in the succeeding four or five centuries, though not, it must be said, in its beauty. The stunning image of the multicoloured houses rising pyramid fashion up the hill from the port was what began to hook foreign visitors in the fifties, and turned a poor fishing village (more than half of the population had emigrated to the US by then) into one of the chic'est resorts in Italy. John Steinbeck unwittingly wrote a superb piece of advertising copy for the town in his 1953 Harper's Bazaar feature, the rich and beautiful came, and the fishing village was turned into a very upmarket tourist trap.
You may have seen the town immortalised in the movies Only You and Under The Tuscan Sun (it's not in Tuscany of course). Residents past and present include movie-maker Franco Zeffirelli and musician Shawn Phillips. And Positano (rather improbably) is where Mick Jagger and Keith Richards composed the song 'Midnight Rambler'. Nearby towns include Sorrento, Praiano, Ravello and Salerno, with Naples, Herculaneum and Vesuvius just north of here. Capri and Ischia lie off the coast.
Sights in this Campania town include the Black Madonna in the Church of Santa Maria Assunta (a 13th century Byzantine icon), and the annual Cartoons on the Bay Festival ... and that's about it. This ridiculously pretty town is about the beach, the harbour, the shops, bars, cafes and restaurants. Choices of beach are the Spiaggia Grande in the town and the Spiaggia del Fornillo, accessed by a pretty path around the headland.
To the left you'll find a selection of hotels, to get you in the mood
- see also our full listings of Positano hotels.
