Travel Guide · Italy

48 hours in Positano

A journey to the heart of the Amalfi Coast

Travel with StyleOctober 20263 min read

There are places you visit and places you remember. Positano belongs to the second kind.

Built like an amphitheatre into the cliffs of the Amalfi Coast, its colourful houses tumbling down towards the deep blue of the Mediterranean, it looks almost like a film set.

Yet its real charm lies in the small moments: an espresso overlooking the sea, a walk through the narrow lanes, an early-evening aperitivo and that light just before the sun goes down.

A first encounter with Positano

The best thing you can do when you arrive in Positano is not to try to see everything.

Drop your bag, put on comfortable shoes and start walking.

The narrow lanes, the small boutiques and the balconies full of flowers make a route that needs no map.

Positano is not a place you tick off a list. It is a place you live.

See Positano from the sea

If you have the time, Positano is worth seeing from the sea.

A short boat trip reveals the town from an entirely different side. From there you can really see how the houses are built into the hillside, and why this stretch of coast has become one of the most recognisable landscapes in Italy.

And of course, it is the perfect moment for a few photographs.

The evening belongs to aperitivo

As the sun begins to sink, Positano changes character.

Sit somewhere with a view of the sea, enjoy an aperitivo and let time pass without hurry.

This is perhaps the true Italian way of travelling:

less schedule, more experience.

The last sunset

Before you leave, keep a little time for the sunset.

Don't necessarily look for the “perfect” spot. Find a place where you can stand for a few minutes and look out at the sea.

Because in the end, this is Positano.

It is not only the photographs.

It is the light, the streets, the sea, the Italian sense of beauty and the feeling that, for a while, time moves more slowly.