We Arrive In Positano

Greetings:

We were a little disappointed that Grazia, one of our hosts, was not able to stop by on our last night in Torre Archirafi. However we did get to enjoy Grazia and Aldo’s son Fabrizio. He is a college student in Catania studying physics. He told us that Aldo works for Telecom (Italy/Europe’s AT&T) and that Grazia taught philosophy and history in high school. She is also involved in a world wide project of tracking Sicilian emigrants. So far she has visited the US and Germany and soon will be going to Australia. We have been very pleased with their apartment and hospitality.

Also on our agenda was to treat ourselves to dinner at La Vecchia Posta, the wonderful fish restaurant that we had been to earlier in the week. This time we were treated to spaghetti con vongole (small clams), deep fried teeny, tiny fish and grilled serrago and spigala (sea bass). Encore!

Five thirty AM came early of course but our minds were quickly blown. As we packed the car and started the drive to Catania it was still fairly dark. Chris started to notice how nice all the lights of the small towns on the shoulders of Etna looked. Gini blurted, “I was right! It was smoke!”. At the top of Etna was a seam of bright orange/red. If ever there was an actual depiction of the eye of Sauron, there it was; not the appropriate analogy to sum up our visit to Sicily but we will never forget that sight as it slowly faded with the dawn.

Imagine our reaction as we landed in Napoli (Naples) and the first thing we saw looming over the city was Vesuvio, the destroyer of Pompeii. This time two thousand years separated us from its activity. Gini had arranged a driver to take on the winding roads of Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast so Chris could just sit back.

The cliffs and towns are dramatic. Positano has one road that coils its way down through the town and then back up seeking Amalfi. It had been raining for ten days (not our fault this time) but we still thought things were going well as we arrived at our reserved hotel and were excited by what we saw:

It looked directly on to the sea. However we did notice a sign in the doorway:

Ah Chiuso! What does that mean, Chris? Closed! NO!

As we peered in we observed all the furniture was covered and the electrical wiring looked like the ceiling had spewed spaghetti. Within a few minutes our driver, Gian Paulo, a long time resident of Positano, had discovered the transitive property of hotels. The hotel next door, the Villa Gabrisa had taken on the reservations and we were warmly received in excellent English by Gabriele. He has been taking good care of us since our arrival with information, luggage and advice. Ecco Villa Gabrisa:


We were quickly shown to our room (#9…#9…#9…#9). Here is what we saw from our small veranda.

To the left:

Straight ahead:


And to the right:


Somehow we were going to survive.

After briefly settling we headed for the streets. About a third of all hotels, stores and restaurants are closed because it is January (the only way we could afford to come here). It also allowed traffic to move and for us to walk unimpeded.

Even though we have enjoyed Cinque Terre (five Italian towns along the cliffs of the Liguorian Sea) and would still go back in a heartbeat, Positano is something else. Here are some of the views as we walked spiraling downward toward the water:




We think of this as a ‘signature’ view of Positano since we have seen it on travel posters:


Oh here are some more:







We finally reached the beach and looked back up:

At sea level you see:

We were attracted to little alleys, gateways, gardens and, oh yes, every fifteen or twenty feet a glamorous store. Though I am not sure we had mingled with all the intended clientele at this point:


Gini felt we should capture a pre-Baron era nostalgia:

Oddities did abound, however. Could someone please explain the daily process of parking this car on the edge of a cliff:

Heavy lifting anyone?

Then there was a view whereby we thought that we saw an unbelievable placement of a swing set and stretched our lens’ telephoto ability to the max (check out the upper left corner):

Now after Gini recovered from her collapse in hysterics she made Chris promise that he would not repeat his description that this is actually a house where the family had had fourteen children but none of them lived past the age of nine – so we shan’t.

We did happen upon a small grotto where the city of Positano was planned:


Perhaps we can claim that the panorama mode on the camera was finally used correctly:


Veni, Vidi, Vertigo!