Thursday, September 16, 2010

Positano is Vertical

Positano on the Amalfi Coast of Italy has been my vacation spot following my watercolor workshop in Cortona.  My plan was to just relax, be on my own schedule, sketch and paint, explore the area a bit, and visit Pompeii.

My hotel, Casa Albertina, is a lovely family owned small hotel run by Lorenzo (fourth generation owner) and his capable staff.  My room is pretty, everything works, and the bathroom is really nice and probably new (not always the case in Europe).   The free breakfast buffet  has the most choices I have ever seen anywhere!   And the Cappuccinos are made to order from really yummy coffee.  The hotel is up 72 steps from the lower circle of the road and down a whole lot more steps from the top circle off the road making it very quiet and insuring that guests get in shape!

Some of the 72 steps, glad I packed light as I had to carry my suitcase and backpack all the way up myself.  Note to self: get smart phone that works in Europe next trip so I can call hotel and let them know I am at the bottom with a suitcase!

7:00 am view of Positano (I only set the alarm for the day I was taking the tour of Pompeii and was being picked up at 7:15am) no other alarms allowed on my vacation!

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Positano later in the day.

Positano evening

My take on Positano:  its vertical, its pretty, its Italy’s Carmel. 

The previous photos were looking down from my hotel, the two above are up.  Streets here consist of one for cars, the rest for walking only, mostly stairs.   The car street is wide enough for cars and tiny city buses to go one way only and it circles the top half of town.  Want to go to the lower half of town and the beach?   It is down stairs.

A page from my watercolor journal.  It is an ink sketch done from Cafe Positano while having lunch.  I love that the ancient stone watch tower now watches over the beach scene at the bottom of the limestone cliffs.

The pass times here are first shopping, second eating, third seeing and being seen, fourth the beach.  Where Carmel has street after street of art galleries, here there are boutiques selling linen clothes and ceramics. 

Shoppers on the only flat street in town, about 100 feet of flat part in the midtown area, no cars allowed.

“Street signs” but the “streets” are simply 3 to 8 feet wide walkways with stairs.

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A few of the hundreds of shops crammed into this village that hangs from cliffs and tries not to fall into the sea.

Weather is perfect, more when I make time.

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