Apr 16 2008
Four absolutely incredible facts about Positano…
Technically, this is going to be two slightly compelling facts about Positano, some pictures, and a bunch of blabber, but I’m not going to tell you which ones are the compelling ones here at the beginning in the hope that you’ll keep reading.
It’s completely gorgeous
OK, first off, this place is completely, absolutely stunning. Every time I opened my eyes I was re-stunned, which makes getting around a bit of a challenge, and it really never got old. I felt myself going back into shock just looking at the pictures before I wrote this, but this time I thought ahead and drank a bunch of wine first. I’m always thinking. For example, here’s the view from the villa where we stayed.
Today it’s difficult to understand the motivation to build a town in such a place, where the flattest the land gets is about a 60 degree angle, but I imagine it would have done a number on any invading armies. I guess you could just carry your cauldron of boiling oil up to the top and give it a good push. None of this city walls silliness around here, thanks. Here are some more pictures of the general stunningitude and I’ll have a few more in future posts as well.
Everyone there is a professional stuntperson.
If you have a heart condition, are more than six months pregnant, are afraid of heights, are less than four feet tall, consider yourself a nervous person, feel uncomfortable with confrontation, or are not a certified professional stunt person, do not, under any circumstances go anywhere even remotely near the Amalfi coast. Even if you meet all of those conditions, do not attempt to get behind the wheel of a car unless you are actively seeking a unique method of suicide. Seriously, I drove, and I’ve never seen roads that even came close to this. When I die at 45 my last words will undoubtedly be “Damn you Positano!” Here’s some pictures of the madness.
This first one, which seems like a nice, leisurely one-way road, was in fact a two way road where everybody drives 50 MPH and nobody looks before they pull out in front of you.
Here’s one of a typically nutty bus driver making his way around a corner barely big enough for him to fit through alone at about 40 MPH. The bus drivers would, in lieu of slowing down, honk their horns several times in an informative way before they barreled around corners like this. How thoughtful!
And this one really took the cake. The dog in this picture had just finished going for a ride on the back of the motorcycle in the picture. Seriously. A guy goes out with his little puffball dog, puts it on the back of his motorcycle, and then drives around hairpin turns at incredibly stupid rates of speed. WITH A DOG ON THE BACK! I’ve seen dogs fall over in a car when I went around a soft corner at 20 MPH. They are not known for their balance, dogs, but this one is somehow still alive. Or was a few weeks ago, anyway.
They got themselves some good food.
We had some great meals while we were down there, both at home and at the restaurant. There was a little fruit market that was probably only 100 yards (and 200 stairs) away, and they had some great fresh fruit, citrus, etcetera. The citrus is fantastic, everywhere, and, at $0.75 for a kilo, mindblowingly cheap. It’s the area where Limoncello is made, which prompted me, in a moment of inspiration, to invent the Aubrey-tini. And by inspiration, I mean taking the only three things we had and pouring them into a glass. Didn’t some smart person say that necessity is the mother of invention?
- Three parts fresh orange juice
- One part vodka
- One part limoncello
Just don’t drink too many of them.
Here’s a picture of some of the great food we got at the market.
The beach is beautiful, but don’t look down.
The town itself is sort of in a crease in the mountains, and pinched at the bottom is a small beach. While the water is beautiful itself, the main thing that’s nice about it is the views of the town and the surrounding mountains that you get there. But then we messed up and looked down, only to find the one thing that every stereotype (not to mention common sense) tells us we don’t want to find on the beach. Ewww.
Of course I took a picture. In any case, it didn’t spoil the beach, and we got some great pictures of the town from down there. Here ya go.
We stayed in Positano for a week, with side trips to Pompeii, Paestum, Hurculaneum, and Ravello, all of which I’ll cover in future posts. In other news, last night we bought our tickets for our post-vacation-vacation in Southeast Asia. Three weeks in Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam - I can’t wait!
