Poistano

I’m sure whoever travels to Amalfi Coast w miss Poistano. It’s a jaw-dropping beauty. Wherever we went, people stopped to admire the view and say “Gosh, soooo beautiful!” That is true, though. It is THAT beautiful!

When our ferry approached Positano, everyone was busy taking photos. Lonely Planet says “Positano is the Amalfi Coast’s most photogenic town”. I totally agree. Just look at the colour. All you need to do is clicking. You don’t need photoshop or anything else. The whole town is like colour palette, white,pink, yellow, orange. So please to the eye!

Same with any other towns and cities we visited in Italy, Positano has had its rise and fall. Like Amalif, it was destroyed by a tsunami. It had been attacked by pirates in 15th century. In 18th century, it became a major port and trading hub for a short time. Due to poor economy, most of the residents moved to US during 19th century. From 20th century, it started to attract a lot of tourists after a road was built to connect Positano with other cities on Almafi Coast and Naples. People can easily get to Positano since then. Also, thanks to John Steinbeck who wrote about Positano.

Positano is a place for wandering and exploring. Follow your heart, let the place surprise you. No wonder this place has been an inspiration for so many brilliant artists, musicians, movie makers, and writers. The narrow streets with ocean view even reminded me of Santorini.

Church of Santa Maria Assunta is probably the main historic attraction in Positano. We could see the majolica tiled dome from the ferry. It was also built in a way that you can see it everywhere in the town. The church was restored in 1783.

The church is dedicated to a Byzantine icon representing a black Modonna. There is a story about how the icon arrived in Positano. The icon was stolen from Byzanitum. Some pirates were transporting it from the East across the Mediterranean. When the ship reached Positano, some says the water was very calm without any wind. Some says there was a storm blew the ship out of its route. In any case, the sailors heard voice “Posa, posa!” which means “put down, put down!” So the icon was unloaded and carried to Positano. There are paintings in the church actually show the story.

Same as Amalfi, Positano is also a touristy little town. However, this one is slightly different. Apart from all the souvenir shops, you can also find many boutiques which sells cute dresses, sandals, accessories, hats, and so on. Do you know Positano was the first town to import Bikini from France in Italy. How cool is that! 🙂