What an amazing sunrise. I mean seriously amazing. And we get to see it every day for the next five days.
After having a lovely breakfast on the patio this morning where Michelle looked after us, we decided to walk down into Praiano to have a look around. We were told about the artists tower on the way and to go take a look and speak with the resident artist, Paolo Sandulli. Off we set and we were not disappointed. First we start with the view from our garage on top of our hotel:
The artists tower.
The view on the way out to the artists tower.
Paolo himself. We did not take any photos or video of his specific art out of courtesy. I linked to his website above and his style is whimsical and all about the sea. In fact, he was dyeing sea foam when we approached – you can see some examples in the background as the hair on his sculptures.
After touring his tower and buying his book, we started in towards Praiano. It is a small town with not a lot going on – a few restaurants, a beach and really not much shopping to speak of. There is art and ceramics everywhere here and I believe much has been made by Paolo.
It is very much a coastal town with boats and fishing equipment everywhere as well.
The interesting thing about coastal Italy – they have to build into the cliffside. As we were walking around we discovered this little grotto bar just above the sea.
We spoke with a few different companies and decided to reserve a boat for the day tomorrow. It is hot here, much warmer than we had planned, and tomorrow is supposed to be the warmest day.
Once we walked along the path along the waters edge, we headed back up the hillside to catch a bus into Positano. After driving into Praiano and navigating the small streets, it was really something else to be in a bus while they did it. At one point there were two buses trying to pass each other on what was basically a one lane portion of the road. Our bus kept backing up, making the line of cars going around a corner back up, a lot of honking ensued and I cannot believe there wasn’t scuffing of bus on bus as they drove past each other. It was crazy. Here is the classic view of Positano.
There was some sort of car show or organized drive happening as we were walking into town. A bunch of Fiats and MG convertibles started driving by us on their way out.
Love all the little ceramic planters that add to the colorfulness of the area.
Positano is definitely a more touristy hub. Once we hopped off the bus, we headed down the streets into the city center towards the beach. Ceramics and linen shops lined each side – apparently this area is known for both. We were on the hunt for a specific gift for our moms for watching the kids – I found something I think is super neat and I am getting one of as well, haha. While there we met another Lorenzo, who owned a ceramics shop and made us laugh. There are signs everywhere that you cannot take photos or videos in shops and he let us know that was because he was worried about people copying the designs and selling them for much cheaper. He looked at me and my camera and said, “You can take photos. I can tell you won’t do that.” So here are a few of his shop and one of he and Jeremy.
We grabbed lunch at Buca di Bacco where we sat on a balcony overlooking the sea and the beach. It was great people watching as well as watching all the water traffic.
After eating, we headed back through the shops on the lookout for a pharmacia because the tourist shop that sold some had it priced at 25 Euros. For those of you who aren’t familiar … that is $30 for ONE CAN OF SUNSCREEN. So I made Jeremy look up a pharmacia online, away from the touristy area and Google gave us walking directions, so off we set. We headed along the shoreline, another beach and then started up some stairs. And kept climbing. And climbing. And climbing some more. I got evil eyes from my husband to suggest finding a place with cheaper sunscreen. We FINALLY popped out onto a major road, he saw a touristy shop and found some for only 18 Euros and grabbed it.
From there we headed down the road back towards Positano center, stopping for a Pimms and a Peroni at a place overlooking Positano beach and the sea while we tried to cool off from our crazy hike up all the stairs. We were treated to some spectacular views through our little hike, so I think it was worth it. Jeremy does not.
We headed back towards the central town to grab some stuff at the small market for lunch tomorrow, a small extra carryon duffel for the trip home (we both can check a bag and mine weighs too much) and went to wait for the crazy bus ride back to our hotel. Along the way we were able to get some new views of the town.
