Up Pompei

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Only the Italians would do it but at what point in history did some toga clad Roman sail past this coast and think,

"MMMM, that cliff looks vertical enough, perhaps we should build a town on the front of it".

Voila Positano. The concept became infectious enough to cause a plague and scattered along the Amalfi coast is a clutch of similar communities painted against these dramatic cliff faces. It's as if they were planted in the earth centuries back and simply grew out, hanging on solely through rigid self belief and some divine intervention.

Having said that, due to a combination of factors, our first impressions left us just a tad underwhelmed. First up was a long day of travel negotiating a transport system with the hiccups from rolling national strikes. Then on arrival, an apartment that didn't exactly reflect its advertisement. Combine that with 8 months of platinum tinged highlights and we are becoming a touch blasé. Then there is Positano's architecture. Ripping off the band aid, pretty it's not. Haphazard square abodes, devoid of Italian flare, have been slapped down with seemingly scant local regulatory control. These structures fold down to a sea flanked by a standard Mediterranean beach of grey rocks.

How come then that this is one of THE primo tourist destinations on the planet? Because somehow it works. Park yourself on those rocks, turn around, gaze up at the amphitheatre and absorb the moment. All the preciousness of our initial conceptions are swept away and you just have to dip your hat. While you're at it, close your eyes and listen to the voices. Were we in Positano or Bondi? You'd swear Australians have made it their sole mission to drag Italy out of its current financial mire by spending up big here on the Amalfi.

So take one stock standard Positano dwelling and stand it aside on its own. That's why you won't see individual buildings bracing the cover of an Amalfi tourist brochure. Now gather up all those buildings and move Positano wholus bolus to a flat plot of land in some other nondescript area somewhere else in Italy. Within a tick or two of the calendar it would be smothered in graffiti and declared a ghetto.

But it's where and how this town clings to life that places Positano at the pointy end of the tourist map and produces all those indelible postcard images.Those images alone are enough to drag in the visitors but what I found equally engaging is how these Italians have adapted to living on the front of a mountain.

The best show in town is free. For hours of fun for all the family, find yourself a hairpin bend, grab a seat, a drink and then watch the traffic chaos unfold before your eyes. You are spoilt for choice on the 30 or so klms from Sorrento to Amalfi as the route is like an Alan Jones apology, horribly thin and full of twists and turns that seem to go nowhere. (Australian readers only).

Manoeuvring along this road is the complete diorama of vehicles from 3 wheeled Mr Bean mobiles to machismo trucks and buses. They stop, they start, they reverse, they bluff, they huff, they puff, they honk, they push, they shove and they crawl that stretch of 30 clicks in about an hour and a half. Arms stick out windows gesticulating to the heavens above with plenty of,

"Mama Maria Madre Madonnas Frommagio Ponte Vecchios".

Of course if you are smart and young (the following group have a life expectancy of 25), you are mounted on a Vespa type buzz machine and observe road rules as something to be religiously ignored as you zip, zap and weave your way through the mayhem observing carte blanche for any sense of self preservation. It is all Italian to the core.

Once or twice a day, the long arm of the traffic law, dressed head to toe in Carabinieri Gucci, will feel sufficiently obligated to step out and attempt to add some order to the maelstrom. Stop/Go sign in hand, they will hold up traffic in one direction until their cigarette is finished at which point they give the other side a shot. In the meantime, the lines of cars have backed up halfway to Rome and Sicily. Mission unaccomplished, they will then retreat back to their Polizia cubby hole so that normal anarchy may resume.

This is the Amalfi. It could drive you nuts but it's far more likely to drive you back here time and time again.

Yeatesy

More images at:

www.colvinyeates.zenfolio.com

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Photos

Deck chairs lined up for the day
Positano

Positano
Look up and admire

Positano
OK, so the architecture isn't all that bad.

Psycho Vespa
Ridden by another temporary Italian

The hire car
We had to hire one each to fit in

Comments

[penny]

I loooove Amalfi
Wow, this is the best entry so far, I remember sailing into Amalfi a number of years ago, the best part of Italy.

[Mert]

Love your take
Describes the Amalfi coast perfectly.. great writing!

[colvinyeates]

Thanks for that
The Med is winding down.

[Kreller]

Amalfi!
Was getting a bit nervous in the reading that you didn't like the Amalfi Coast....but, sounds like you 'got it' once you took it all in. Still one of the top 5 spots we have ever been to....the sheer magnitude of the mountains and houses intermixed was breathtaking. We took a bus down the crazy, twisty turns of the mountain side and had to reverse to get around a couple of turns and we even clipped a passing vehicle around another, but all in a day in the life there! Neither the driver of the bus nor the other vehicle even stopped to check out the damage! It was an experience, but well worth the prize of the amalfi coast at the end.

[colvinyeates]

Yep
Its a helluva place.