The Road to Positano

I had heard by all who have travelled it of the harrowing ride through the Amalfi coast with its hairpin turns and cliffed edges that drop straight down what appears to be thousands of feet to the churning waters below.  After my near death experience in Rome with my sleepy taxi driver I was quite nervous to get in a taxi on that kind of road.  I thought for sure we would fly right off the edge of a cliff like the Fiat commercial.

Luckily, my new friend Carmine, the taxi driver that took me to the hotel in Naples, gave me his card and told me to call him and he would get me safely to Positano.  And that he did.  He told me to sit in the front seat with him so I could see better and we began our journey.  We tried and tried to converse but my Italian was as broken as his English and at one point he handed me his iPhone with the translator on it so we could effectively communicate.

I wasn't quite sure how far it was but it got more and more beautiful the farther we drove. The terrain changed from dirty graffitied buildings with hanging laundry and dead bushes to breathtaking cliff side ocean views out my window and stunning greenery and grey rock walls jutting up into the sky out the other.  Every corner we turned I gasped in awe and Carmine kept saying, "Just wait...just wait".  And when I had my head turned to look out his window he would slow the car and say, "Look!" and point out of mine.  At one point he stopped the car and made me let him take a picture with me in it.  He said, "take the opportunity, bella."

Here's the result of "the opportunity"

The closer we got to Positano the skinnier the roads got.  At some points they were hardly big enough for a car and a motorcycle to pass by each other.  But somehow everyone managed without a scratch.  I knew we were getting close as a cliff side restaurant appeared here and there and dress shops with soft flowing dresses hung outside the doors.  The streets were very clean and bright colored flowers were everywhere.  Bright fuchsia bougainvillea wrapped itself around doorways and up walls.  Huge lemons weighed down the branches of the lemon trees that dotted the mountainside.  Open windows framed with shutters and window boxes full of pansies and hibiscus and vinca were everywhere.  Old heavy wooden doors set in plastered walls were the entrances to the villas that were somehow built into the stone wall of the cliff side.  And all of it facing out over the turquoise waters of the Amalfi coast.  It still takes my breath away when I think of it.

View from the road above

And I still hadn't even arrived yet.  Carmine drove me as far as he could, as far as cars were allowed and said I would have to walk the rest of the way as the road is too narrow for cars and it becomes pedestrian only.  There was a little parking area where the bell hops from the hotels are called and meet you to take your luggage and lead you down the winding paths to your hotel.  Carmine made sure I was safe, kissed me on both cheeks, and we bid adieu to one another.  He really was a little gift from God because I was nervous about the ride and I ended up feeling safe the whole time.  So far, so good and think I am in love with Positano.







Me and Carmine