What is Positano known for?

Terraced houses climbing from the beach to four hundred meters on the Lattari slope, painted pink, ochre and white, no level streets in the centro storico. Byzantine icon at Santa Maria Assunta, brought by sailors who heard the voice say posa, the legend that gave the town its name. The light linen and cotton resort wear pioneered here in the 1960s, plus handmade leather sandals stitched to order in the centro storico workshops.

Positano is a comune in the province of Salerno, Campania region of Italy, about 45 kilometers from Salerno.

Campania · Salerno

Positano

The vertical village of the Amalfi Coast, terraced houses climbing four hundred meters from Spiaggia Grande to the Lattari ridge under a tiled Byzantine dome.

45 km / 28 mi

Nearest hub (Salerno)

3,747

Population

May–Sep

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Positano is built on the rugged limestone of the Lattari Mountains, the houses stacked from the Spiaggia Grande up to elevations above four hundred meters, which is why locals call it the città verticale. The settlement grew from the ninth century around the Benedictine Monastery of Santa Maria, which kept a Byzantine icon of the Madonna brought from the East. The story goes the sailors heard a voice say posa, posa, set me down, and the village took its name from the verb. After being sacked by Pisa in the thirteenth century, the town fortified itself with watchtowers and prospered as a small fish-trading port. The twentieth century made it a writer's refuge: John Steinbeck described it in Harper's Bazaar in 1953 as a dream place that isn't quite real. Today Positano runs almost entirely on summer tourism, with a UNESCO Amalfi Coast inscription and a Bandiera Blu beach.

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Gallery

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Known for

Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta
Mother church with majolica tiled dome and a Byzantine icon of the Black Madonna brought from the East in the twelfth century, around which the village grew.
Spiaggia Grande
Main pebble beach below the centro storico, the postcard image of the Amalfi Coast, with the pastel facades of the village rising directly above the sand.
Sentiero degli Dei
Path of the Gods, the high ridge trail of the Monti Lattari from Agerola to Nocelle, a frazione of Positano, with the Faraglioni of Capri offshore.
Villa Romana di Positano
First-century AD Roman villa buried by the eruption of 79 AD beneath the church, opened to the public in 2018 with frescoed cryptoporticus.
Li Galli archipelago
Three small islands off Positano associated with Homer's Sirens, owned in the twentieth century by Rudolf Nureyev, visible from the Spiaggia Grande.

When to visit

Best months · May–Sep

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

May, June and September are the open months on the Amalfi Coast, water warm enough for swimming and the road still navigable. July and August fill the village past capacity, with day boats running from Capri and Sorrento and the SS163 backed up for hours; locals avoid the centro storico between eleven and four. April and October stay quiet, with the Path of the Gods at its best and the town easier to walk. November through March is winter on the coast: rough sea, many hotels and restaurants closed, and the bus to Sorrento often the only reliable transport when the road takes a slide.