Blogs from Positano, Campania, Italy, Europe

A quick decider since it is Saturday to head out on the train to Sorrento and then bus to Positano. A bit quieter with the locals but plenty of tourists. Beautiful ride along the jaw dropping coast line to Positano...we made it Mary! So the bus driver has done it a hundred times and obviously confident...we choose the side of the bus for the view and a view we certainly got....sheer drop down the cliffs to the sea! Shame we couldn't photograph through the window...very windy road. Positano maybe the oldest place on the Amalfi coast with settlements dating back to the Upper Paleolithic Age. The Church housing a Byzantine of origin black madonna. Even though the day was quite warm we didn't swim but we did put our feet in..glad we have come on the ... read more

Today we have planned to take a bus along the Amalfi Drive to Positano. We have heard that the road is steep and windy, and that the bus drivers all drive like maniacs, so Issy doses up on her travel sickness tablets. I wonder if she'll stay awake. She says that she wants to sit near the front of the bus so she can see what's going on, and that this helps her with her motion sickness. I'm not sure how this works. I think I'd rather be up the back where I can't watch the bus driver risking our lives. The bus is packed, and luckily for me there is no seat for me up the front next to Issy, so I do get to sit up near the back. The stories we had heard ... read more

Oh my! Another breathtaking day; this time in Positano north of Praiano - still on the mid western coast of Italy. This is definately more set up for tourism with boutique clothing shops, souvenirs and fine foods. Again much is closed but we found a lovely restaurant on the beach and treated ourselves to a lovely seafood lunch. Also found the best coffee so far - caffe Americano is the way to go. This town is even more stunning than Praiano. The amazing steps, streets and buildings mounted onto precipitous cliffs is mind boggling. We saw some tools of the building trade today and gained some idea of how these seemingly inaccessible places are constructed. Powered wheel barrows, scaffolds with steps and conveyor belts not to mention cranes - big dollars we suspect. Two more days ... read more

Geo: 40.6299, 14.4863Overcast all day, with a few spots of rain.Up earliesh, then checked out and got our car. Drove to Herculaneum and parked in their underground car park. It was cold, rainy, and windy. And we hadn't had brekkies. Still, we enjoyed the city. It was surrounded by modern city, but excavated quite deeply below the modern city. We understand more buildings are still buried under apartment blocks. The first mural we saw was probably the most impressive. Given the weather, we opted not to get an audio-guide, which might have been a mistake, but, on the other hand, we did not really want to linger. We wandered most of the town and viewed many of the open, colonnaded homes. Then we walked the 1km or so to the train station and caught a train ... read more

A splendid few days relaxing in Positano with my lovely wife, Robyn. We even chartered a rubber zodiac for an afternoon having lunch among the happy fishes.... read more