It's hard to believe we have been in Positano for a week. Our villa was more than we all had dreamed of. With it's beautiful outdoor terrace overlooking the azure blue Mediterranean Sea, we enjoyed meals, drinks, converstions and moments of breathtaking scenery.
I loved going out of my bedroom terrace late at night watching the fishing boats do their work or watching the mega yachts all lit up for everyone in the mountainside to see they are there. One morning I woke up at 5 AM and just watched the sunrise over the harbor. Little did I know I would be treated to a helicopter taking off from one of the mega yachts at the crack of dawn.
We ventured out to many of the small towns and always come back to breathtaking Positano...the loveliest of the Amalfi Coast cities. It's homes built up the raveen, it's shops of linen and lace on every hairpin turn. The RESTAURANTS...not a single bad one in town. The bakeries...oh the bakeries!!!. The down hill walk...the one I made at least 2 times a day if not more and then the uphill walk back.
The narrow streets with traffic that was never ending. Busses, Mercedes galore, scooters, motorbikes, fiats, fancy cars..everyone trying to get there amidst the pedestrian traffic and traffic jams. Be carefull, walk as close to the side of the street as possible, you might just get hit by a side mirror.
We dined in some memorable restaurants. Chez Black on the beach, Capitano with it's dining hanging out over the cliff, Mediterano with a most memorable night singing italian songs with a soloist who was really good. A great little place in Ravello with the freshest pasta and Santa Croche in Nocella with pasta to die for. It seemed everywhere I went I was always ordering Melon and parma ham. No melon in the world tastes like it does here. We also dined chez Nora and the gang.. pasta, risoto, chicken, parma ham, olives, cheese ect. We had a great little grocery store down the street who kept our villa supplied with bottle water, meats, olives, cheeses, croisants. Our villa owner, Matteo supplied us with enough fresh fruit to last the week and a very nice bottle of preseco.
We had our wine shop we would stop in to get enough bottles for the day, along with lots I mean lots of Lemoncello. A quite friendly man who I had the pleasure of dancing down the street with last night to his wine shop to buy more lemoncello to take to the UK.
One thing I enjoyed everyday on my walk down to the beach was the dogs I became accustomed to petting along the way. There was Thelma and Louiise Matteo's dogs, Lola his cat. A couple westies, a pug, a few terriors, yellow lab and the most amazing minature poodle down on the docks that loved it's owner so much he would do anything for him. It was obvious that his owner loved him just as much. He went everywhere with him in his boat and on the dock. I had wanted to get a photo of him this morning when we left but they wern't there. His name was Easy!!
I'm sure you have heard me mention the stairs but OMG I have never seen so many stairs in my life. I made the unfortunate mistake of taking the stairs from Fornillo beach the first day and it ruined me for the rest of the trip. The shin splints were so bad I asked the pharmacist for help. After helping me he proceeded to tell me that walking the path was not going to happen for me on this trip.
I very hapheartly got onto the bus as much as I could. Partly because my shins hurt and partly to try and get over a phobia of cars on cliffs...I think possibly I am better on the latter. Riding the bus here one cannot be squemish when hanging on the cliffs. It's amazing what these guys do. Narrow roads, hairpin turns, hugging the cliffs with a little stone wall to guard you. Backing up against a cliff that drops hundreds of feet..I really cannot explain what it's like to ride a bus here. exhallirating and terrifying at the same time. I did it and I conquered it!!
My last entry here for Positano is the porters...Blu Porters that is. These guys showed up this morning, just two of them to deliver our luggage to the ferry. I could not believe they carried down 10 bags in one trip. They took their belts off, tied two bags together with their belts, slung them over their shoulder, placed two more bags on their shoulder and carried one in each hand down 70 steps. I mean STEEP steps. Absolutely amazing. They delivered our luggage to the ferry and we were off on Ferry, trains and Florence.
