Positano: One Thousand Stairs to Heaven (or Hell?)

We had the morning in Sorrento to soak up one last whiff of this beautiful port city. We hadn’t really explored Marina Piccola, the area where we were staying, so after breakfast we took time to check it out. We walked out on the long, diagonal, pier and looked back at the town and the building where our apartment was located.

The view of our Airbnb from the dock in Sorrento

The dock is where all the fast ferries come in from Naples and Capri and it is quite active with visitors and locals coming and going. We had to wait for the crowds to thin to get our photos.

This post’s author on the dock in Sorrento.

I finally dressed up a little and tried to be more colorfully clothed to blend in with the Italians who are snazzy dressers.

Beach time in Sorrento is a colorful affair.

Early in the morning this beach in Marina Piccola was empty. The temperature here today hit 86 degrees so we’re sure that later in the day it was full of sunbathers and swimmers.

Lunch in Positano

Driving in Italy is not for the faint hearted. Since we are both Nervous Nellies, we had a driver take us the 25 kilometers to our next stop – Positano on the Amalfi coast. Ryan has some great video of the trip which was often comparable to being on a roller coaster ride with other cars trying to pass each other on roads too narrow for two directions of traffic. Our driver, Raffaele, seemed to take it in stride and delivered us safely to our Airbnb around 1 p.m. Since we hadn’t eaten since breakfast, our new landlord directed us to a good restaurant just a few steps away before we settled into the apartment. Our waiter took this picture and he apologized for how dark it left us but he wanted to try and show the view we had just out the window from our table.

The view from our Airbnb on Via Corvo (“Crow’s Way”) in Positano

Once back at the apartment, we got our things put away and spent an hour, or so, relaxing and staring at the breath-taking view. We have two large terraces and they both have a similar view – just unbelievable to us. But, we couldn’t just stay there and stare so, next, we decided to walk down into the village center to get a feel for our home away from home for the next three days. If you look closely, you can see the gold dome of a church in the center of the picture above, just in front of the beach with all the orange umbrellas. That pinpoints where we were aiming to go. Because the town is built on the sides of steep cliffs, getting into town is easy from our apartment. It’s all downhill. But, of course, what goes down, must come up, or something like that.

Positano village scenes

As pedestrians, there are many paths made up mostly of stairways, that get you where you’re going. They can be somewhat maze-like but are fun to maneuver through and you know you can’t go wrong if you just keep going down. Everywhere you look the views are stunning! Once in the village, it is quaint and charming and full of tourists. The lanes are narrow and made of cobblestone and you are always going either up or down, rarely level. But, despite all the people, it’s pretty easy to move through the streets and get to where you’re going.

Weddings, churches, and stairs in Positano

Positano is a romantic destination for weddings. We saw a number of brides and grooms in just a short period of time. It’s hard to tell in the upper left photo, but that couple is from Scotland. The groom was in a traditional kilt outfit. We could hear bagpipes playing from somewhere nearby before we came upon the happy couple. At the church in the upper right photo, another newly married couple had just appeared at the main doors and were greeted by friends and family throwing handfuls of rice. Finally, we were ready to head back to our apartment and the photo in the bottom right above shows where we needed to begin our ascent. I determined that I would count how many stairs it took to get back to our apartment.

A gelato break

When I was only at 435, we happened upon a gelateria and decided it was a good time for an ice cream break (when is it NOT a good time for an ice cream break?). You can see that Ryan wasn’t thrilled with the way we needed to do our return walk and was thinking that, maybe, we should find a taxi! But, he persevered and we were soon back at our apartment and ready to relax and enjoy the fruits of our labor. By the way, I counted 986 stairs, so I rounded up to one thousand!

Buona notte from Positano!

As the sun slowly sets into the Mediterranean, the lights begin popping on in our current little slice of Italian heaven.