Behind the bend lies ... Positano

I don't live in Positano and am yet in for the experience of staying there overnight since I am now based in Sorrento. Not having to drive over there from Sorrento if I want to be there to enjoy early morning scenes. But I am very grateful to being so near to this paradise-like corner just across the mountains called Monti Lattari. 

The Sorrento "hinterland", driving up the SS 163 that leads to the other part of the coast. View towards Meta di Sorrento and the Gulf of Naples

I remember so well my first excitement when, not having been to the Costiera before, I had seen faint glimpes of this "secret" coast (that is, unknown to me at that time), from Capri belvederes on clear days. And it is exactly this trip across the mountains and the "great expectations" I had, that were of course topped by reality, that I would like to describe in this post.

Trying to figure out the Amalfitana Coast from a belvedere in Capri, half hidden in the mist, on a late September afternoon. 

What I do know very well in the meantime is the roads leading from Sorrento to Positano, as I am often going back and forth there. Every time gives me the opportunity to get new glimpses and new views of the due mari, when from Colle di San Pietro, following up the SS 163 one can look down on the two seas - the due mari, that is to say, the Gulf of Naples and the Gulf of Salerno.

Here is a series of pictures I took on that very FIRST experience and glimpse I was able to take down on this fairy-tale like coastline, discovering for myself a family heritage I had not been aware of before, as my grandmother's family had been living on the Costiera Amalfitana near Amalfi, before moving to northern Italy.

Driving down Via Nastro Azzurro (the "blue ribbon" road) towards the OTHER SIDE

Olive trees and orchards lining the road down

And this is the first glimpse I ever got towards the Gulf of Salerno and towards Positano

Finally we have made it - looking down towards Li Galli

the Monti Lattari shrouded in the early morning mist

Stopping here like others do: I was wondering, which herbs and Mediterranean macchia is growing here??

Behind the second bend lies ... Positano

Another view down on tiny beaches or rocks lining the shore, it is still very early in the morning

Typical slope ovegrown with macchia and pines

People looking back towards Punta Campanella 

Detail of olive trees and grass lining the road

Blue sea wakening slowly up, there are so many pines around

Impressive slopes, looking towards Punta Campanella

Finally - my very first glimpse of POSITANO

... and here we are finally entering the Provincia di Salerno

... but it will take us some more time to reach Positano.

If you want to go there now: in the low tourist season from early or mid-October onwards, buses to Positano become less frequent. Still, Mondays through Fridays the SITA bus is leaving Sorrento at 06:30 am, when it is still quite dark. By the time you reach the crest of the mountain, passing though Meta di Sorrento and Piano di Sorrento, and continuing up the winding road lined first with olive groves, citrus orchards, vegetable gardens and later on with deciduous trees such as acacia and pines, towards Colli di San Pietro. From here, the road is winding down like a ribbon towards "the other Coast", the Amalfi Coast that borders the Punta Campanella Marine Park. We are still in the district of Naples now, just one mile before the road leads into Positano will you finally reach the Salerno district (Provincia di Salerno).