Dukey1

Thank you VERY much for these helpful links

Dukey1

Helps when one is in shape as we are and that's why we are.

Paqngo

All the stairs help offset the gelatos 😁

Trophywife007

Will you be staying at the Due Torri in Verona? We stayed there a couple of years ago and loved it.

john183

Any thoughts about hiking the Path of the Gods? Or walking to Arco Naturale on Capri?

Nlingenfel

Agree, watch Niki Positano on Youtube. It's a great show. I just found it, because our trip has been postponed again, like the majority of Americans. Watching a lot of travel videos.

annw

Sounds fairly set, but since you are music fans going to Verona for Opera, let me put in a plug for the Ravello Music Festival/Concert series.

We've stayed in Positano, Amalfi, and Ravello, and strongly prefer Ravello, but even staying elsewhere you could attend a concert or ideally stay in Ravello a night or two and attend more than one.

https://www.ravelloarts.org/festival/2019-concerts

Dukey1

My apologies for having neglected this thread. As to Verona, we enjoyed the Due Torri but find the Academia more convenient. Hoping Verona is going to actually happen as planned this year.

jeffergray

I would only add at this point that my wife and I spent 5 nights or so in Positano for our honeymoon in 1993, and it was one of our best travel experiences ever! We had a car, so we did excursions to Amalfi, Ravello, Paestum, Sorrento, and Pompeii/Herculaneum, as well as a day trip by boat to Capri. We thought the Emerald Grotto, just around the corner from Positano, was almost on a par with the Blue Grotto on Capri, and was much less overrun by tourists. You could add Salerno with its cathedral into that as well; I'm sure there are buses that run up and down the coast highway, and probably tours that you could arrange as far afield as Paestum, which is extraordinary. The temples are so well-preserved, even though there was a time when the coastal plain on which they sit was flooded by the sea: you can still see the marks that sea creatures bored into some of the columns.

Finally, if you should perhaps decide to visit Pompeii/Herculaneum on your way down or by a day trip, be aware that there is a remarkably well-preserved but little-known villa nearby at a town called Torre Annunziata (the ancient Oplontis) that once belonged to Poppaea, the wife of the Emperor Nero:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Poppaea
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oplontis

We stayed at La Sirenuse, and it was wonderful -- we had a room that looked out over the swimming pool towards the sea -- but after the hotel was featured as a cover story in both Conde Nast Traveler and in Travel and Leisure back in 1997, its rates went up substantially.. I'm not sure we would stay there if we went back again. They do run a cooking school out of La Sirenuse, however, so perhaps you could arrange to take some lessons, or just get a dinner or two. I can still remember having pasta with a walnut sauce there almost thirty years ago.

John Steinbeck paid a visit to Positano in 1953 and wrote a memoir of his trip there for Harper's Bazaar that you might enjoy reading, in order to get a sense of what it was like in the immediate post-war era. He stayed at La Sirenuse, and so La Sirenuse has posted his account on its website, which you can find below:

Steinbeck.pdf

Leely2

I'm not ready to start planning travel yet--too anxious about being disappointed--but thank you, Dukey, for this thread. Because even thinking about a plan vicariously is a mood lifter. Things have been sad for so for what feels like so long now.

I think you will have a wonderful trip.

I too went to a concert at Villa Rufolo in Ravello (where we were staying). A stunning setting and the experience was lovely.

zebec

Take a bow Isabel--what photos!!

OP Dukey, here are some additional options for your Positano stay. Before that though, know that if you want a splurge villa rental in the seaside stretch of Ravello known as 'Marmorata', we have an absolutely killer recommendation, happy to advise. We were to have stayed there last spring but then covid...

-lunch and stroll on tiny Procida isle (fresh seafood)--incredible views at say, Hotel Corricella's cafe patio.
-choice of various thermal spas on Ischia, which also has a Botanical Jardin plus a picturesque old historic castle/tower (lunch possible), as seen among Isabel's superb fotos.
-as ekscrunchy has pointed out, lunch in Cetara would be an option, one that Anthony Bourdain favored during his episode on that area.
-as John has mentioned, walks/hikes are famous along the coast; in addition to the well-known ones there are numerous others. We learned that those starting from Scala hamlet can be fun and peaceful.
-from Positano, its an easy bus ride up to tiny Nocelle village for a quieter lunch and/or to start the famed hike that John mentioned.
-Salerno town has both a nice seafront plus an old town.
-you'll be just west the modern-looking splurge 'Il San Pietro di Positano' splurge hotel, maybe worth a looksee at lunch or spa? Its Punta S. Pietro is apparently a lovely lookout.
-Atrani is less busy than Amalfi proper; fantastic views from 'La Scogliera' B&B balconies.
-Minori has a few places to eat and its delis are apparently popular with locals.
-the Cuomo family winery is not far north of where you'll be staying; heard some good things about visiting there.
-vistas: Belvedere Schiaccone right in Positano, then not far off, Vettica Maggiore, Marina de Praia, Fiordo di Furore, and Conca dei Marini.

Hope this helps and have a great trip--will cross our fingers for you.

I am done. The lacrimi di zebec a cosi di covido cancello voyago en costa Amalfi.

sharona

We did this wine tasting while we were in Positano 3 years ago. It was a nice way to spend an afternoon and they provide transportation door-to-door.

https://www.swirltheglass.com

You probably already know about the local bus that makes the loop around Positano. You'll probably want to stock up on tickets. Those hikes up the hill get longer and longer.

mjperry

I agree w other posters that there is plenty to do in Positano for a week -- hike the Path of Gods, visit Ravello, day trip ferry to Capri. If you really want to explore the area, Sorrento is a more central spot w public transportation alternatives - closer to Pompeii, more ferries to Capri, access to Ischia. You may want to split your time between Sorrento and Positano as we did recently. Here's my travel blog post w details: https://travelfam.wordpress.com/category/italy-2017/

Bon voyage!

springstein

Thanks for sharing - took me back to a trip we had there in 2012. Great photos! Hoping to be back in September.

LYC

Lovely discussion here! Dropping by to not miss more ideas around Positano.

KarenWoo

Isabel, your photos are gorgeous, as usual!!!!
Dukey, thanks for starting this thread. It's nice to read someone's planning thread after the horrible 2020! I am not ready to start planning a trip just yet, but I do enjoy reading someone else's planning thread. I am hoping to go to France and Greece in 2021, perhaps in October. France to visit our daughter and her family who we have not seen since October 2019, and Greece because my husband has never been there, and I visited in the 1970's. It's something we might plan at the last minute. Just want to wait and see.

zebec

Yo Dukey,
Those whose Microsoft desktop images show international scenery after they turn on, are just now discovering a gorgeous colour foto of the above-mentioned isle of Ischia. Specifically, that castle-fortress as seen from a spot along the nearby mainland.
Karen, I'm currently working on a foto essay TR from our most recent Greek voyage back in 2014: Folegandros, Samos, Patmos, Santorini and Athens. Will post further down the road.
Carry on with Positano here.
I am done. The de-lightroom.

Pepper_von_snoot

I would do whatever Ekscrunchy suggested.

Thin,aristocrat 🦌

francefling

2020 brought a lot of you tube armchair adventures to thankfully save our travel sanity!

If you like Nicki Positano you should check out Sara and Luca from "Leave Everything and Wander". Their cinematography and drone skills are off the charts! They are a 30 something year old couple from Milano/Torino that spent 3 years driving from Alaska to Argentina and finished the trip about 3 weeks before the spring Covid lockdown.

When the Italian lockdown was lifted in fall they spent 2 months camping around Sicily! Their drone shots from Southern Italy made me cry since that was the last trip I had with my father a few months before Covid. A beautiful, sweet couple that are so incredibly inspiring. You will adore them!!

Looks like 2022 will be a welcomed time to set off again to eat, drink and explore the four corners of our amazing planet!!! Cheers to that everyone!

starrs

We used LoveItaly's private driver on the Amalfi coast and adored him. If you want info, I'll share a link.

I would want at least an overnight on Capri. If I had a week in the area, I would do two nights on Capri.