Bello Positano

When I planned my trip to Italy, I had a really difficult time deciding where to go. I know that 4 weeks is a complete luxury and as the country has been on my list for so long - albeit waiting for me to have an appropriate shoe budget with me - when it came down to it, I had so much advice about where is beautiful (everywhere) and what not to miss (everything) I had too many options.

But after 9 weeks at Syama I just wanted to park myself for a while and not do too much. In the end I decided to stay in Positano, on the Amalfi Coast - it's such a beautiful part of the world and I needed to unwind.


My terrace

Luckily, my Dad's boss from when he was an apprentice pharmacist in New Zealand in the 1960s has a daughter who married an Italian and they run beautiful Hotel Villa Gabrisa in Positano and they gave me a room with this fantastic view. I spent the next few days having massages, sampling the local food, wine and limoncello, and going for walks down to the village ...


View down

... to capture the view of picture-postcard-perfect ...


Positano

... but the road home was a little more arduous.


View up

(I didn't photograph the worst scala, I still think you should visit.)

I spent an afternoon on the boat so I could see Almalfi, the next largish town to the southeast.


Leaving the town in our wake

Amalfi is also very beautiful but much flatter than Positano and the road actually comes down to meet the ocean in front of the cathedral.


Amalfi cathedral

What a lovely staircase up to the door!

Amalfi also proved to provide better shopping than Positano, which offered the traveller a delightful array of ...


Resort wear

Fortunately being close to amatriciana territory, the shopping in Amalfi was a little more my style!


The chili shop

So several days chilling out in Positano was exactly what I need to recover from the last busy stint at Syama.


Pan sings Positano's praises