One of the best parts of our trip to Italy, if not THE best part, was our stay in Positano.
It is just as magical and beautiful as it looks in pictures.
Everything abut it was perfection.
We did 4 nights in Positano and almost extended our trip to 5 once we were there….. and definitely could have done 6 🙂 We both loved it so much.
We did this part of our trip a little bit different than most people, for a couple of reasons.
Most people that are making their way South through Italy would go to Rome from Florence and then end in Positano. I changed it up for two reasons. I wanted a break from all of the sight-seeing and go-go-go because I thought Rome would just be exhausting after all the big city things we had been doing. I am really glad I made that decision because Rome WAS physically exhausting, but luckily we had relaxed for 5 days prior.
Also, getting OUT of Positano can be tricky. If there is “bad weather”, the ferries do not run. (and this happened to us when we were leaving…. and there was not a cloud in the sky….) Also, the roads are super windy and tiny, and taking a car from Positano to the Naples airport would have meant getting up extremely early, getting a car to Naples, and also having a layover on the way back.
I forgot that was my third reason – I didn’t want to go to Naples as everyone says its the worst part to be and I wanted a direct flight straight home.
So, because of all of that, we took a little bit longer of a train ride and bypassed Rome to go straight to Positano.
Then afterwards we went back North to end our trip in Rome.
I had planned a ton of the trip and almost all of it was very easy.
The one thing I could not decide on or figure out was the best way to get to Positano.
I was nervous about the ferries not running, but I didnt want to get packed onto a bus on the windy nauseating roads (which we had to do on the way out of Positano and was quite the experience, but more on that next post).
We had originally decided to take the train to Sorrento, and then take a bus or a ferry or something when we got off. (because I couldn’t figure out the schedule of any of them in advance).
I changed our route while we mid-train. Our train to the Naples train station was ending in Salerno…. and I realized while we were on board that there were ferries from Salerno that would take us straight to Positano. So I did the whole “pass your end location” again and we went a little bit past Positano but got to stay on the fast train to Salerno which saved a lot of time in the end. I used the internet on the train to change our ticket for a few Euros to Salerno, and from there we went to the little travel agency at the entrance of the station to buy 2 ferry tickets to Positano.
It ended up being perfect. We walked a few blocks to the water, sat and ate pizza at a place where no one spoke a drop of english and sat in the sun with some wine while we waited for our 2:00 ferry.
these two giant pizzas and a half bottle of wine was something less than $10. loved it.
We had a 30 minute ferry ride and it was beautiful and we got to see all the little stops along the way like Amalfi and Praiano and it was like a free tour added right in.
The only obnoxious part was the group of University of Arizona study abroad kids ripping pulls from an Absolute bottle and hanging off the side of the boat (literally about to fall off) taking pictures in their crop tops absolutely WASTED. It was horrifying. I was mortified to be an American.
but the rest was great 🙂
When we arrived in Positano, there are all of these bag boys ( I believe in red shirts? ) asking where you are staying and you can pay them to bring your bag to your destination because, DUH, its like a million steps and who wants to lug their crap themselves.
Although I assured Kip I hadn’t heard from anyone that this wasn’t legit, in true Kipper fashion, he did not trust giving our bags to total strangers, sooooo his backpack went on my back and he grabbed the suitcases. When the hotel manager saw us sweating carry our bags in to the lobby she definitely looked at us like we were crazy 🙂 And I looked at Kip like he was too, but we had our things and checked right in!
I talked last time about our incredible hotel, Hotel Miramare.
I can’t recommend the hotel, Rosita, and our room (221) enough.
See more on that here.
Rosita gave us the low down on places to go and things to do, and we changed out of our slightly sweaty clothes and went down the stairs to Brezza for apertivo. Brezza is right off the main little pier, next to Chez Black and Three Sisters & all of that. It overlooks the water and everyone coming in off the beach. It was one of our favorite spots for the whole trip, their free snacks that came with our apertivo were incredible and it was such a great casual happy hour. Loved it.
We went back to the hotel to shower and go for dinner, and we went up the stairs to a spot above our hotel for a delicious pasta meal (no clue what the restaurant was, I’m sorry! I didn’t write it down) before spending the rest of our first night on our balcony with wine.
It was beautiful all lit up at night.
It was the first of many simple days and perfect relaxing nights in Positano and we were already in love.
Our first morning, we woke up and had a delicious breakfast at our hotel.
The breakfast room was so gorgeous, and it was one of our favorite breakfasts of the trip – they had tons of options (and lots of hot eggs and bacon or sausage, which Kip didnt have everywhere so he was super pleased).
We had been told to avoid the main beach where all the boats drop everyone off, and instead to walk across the (gorgeous) pathway to the left to Spiaggia Beach.
It was heaven.
and we may have been one of the first people there the first day…. oops.
I didnt sleep in on this trip – I wouldn’t have wanted to anyway, but I was always ready to go by 8 am after likely tossing and turning despite multiple glasses of wine to the face the day and night before.
no complaints – more time to sit on the beach! 
you have to rent the chairs, and depending on how close you are to the water the more euros per chair they will charge you.
the ones right up front were 8-10 euro, and cheaper as it went back.
also, WHY are the lounge chairs in America not like these? They have this little shade cover you can pull up so that you can perfectly shade your face and it makes it so easy to read.
I loved those damn lounge chairs. The blue and white stripes didn’t hurt either.
we read and swam and relaxed on the beach until lunch time.
they also had a cliff jump that was fun to watch kip and everyone go off of, but no pictures because it was all the way around the side in the water so I had to swim around to watch.
For lunch, we walked back up a tiny bit to Lo Guarracino (two fishes) which overlooked spiaggia beach.
it was pricier for lunch, much pricier than the little places that were right on spiaggia beach (where we ate later, and were still delicious) but it was worth it for the view and a nice afternoon lunch break.
and they turned my pizza into a heart. it was so cute.
seriously this little walkway to and from spiaggia beach was one of my favorite parts
we showered up and relaxed on our deck before going to one of the restaurants all the way at the top of Positano.
La Tagliata.
They send a car from the restaurant to your hotel to pick you up, and then will also take you back after dinner.
It was gorgeous and super romantical and my pictures display absolutely none of it 🙂
the food was so, so good and the staff was so sweet.
we had an insane risotto here that Kip talked about repeatedly.
are these posts wordy enough for you?
did I confuse you enough with my directions for how we ass-backwards made it to Positano?
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And incase you missed previous Italy Posts:
LOVE this post!! Will definitely try to check out Brezza when we do a day in Positano next month. Your photos are beautiful!! xx
just phenomenal! did you hit up the internet to plan this all or did you have friends/family that had been before?
It looks like heaven!! Literally just a slice of it! My boss goes to Positano every summer and now I know why! xo, Biana
You really were in paradise!! Italy is at the top of my list for European travel and I am coming back to all your posts for inspiration when the time comes!
AHHHH thank you times a million for this! T-minus 6 weeks til' my Italian vacay and putting the final touches on the Positano portion now!
I am headed to Rome in a couple of weeks – do you have any suggestions? The recaps of your Italian adventure are amazing and so helpful!
Hi Rachel!! Yes and no – Rome was so overwhelming and I feel like you can do a million things. I can send you the document I put together with all of the recommendations that others had given me and let you know what we did (since I still haven't done a Rome post :D). email me at Taylor.oshay@gmail.com!