The majolica dome
Yellow, green and blue tile on the church dome.
JeCCo — CC BY 4.0 · Bernard Gagnon — CC BY 4.0 · Bernard Gagnon — CC BY 4.0 · Bernard Gagnon — CC BY 4.0
**Pastel houses stacked down a vertical slope to a beach — the famous image of the Amalfi Coast** — between the sea and the mountain. ⚠ **The town is vertical rather than horizontal**: **there is almost no level street** — **everything is steps**; **the one road for cars loops above it**, **and the rest is stairs down to the beach**. ✅ **At its heart is the church of Santa Maria Assunta** with its dome faced in **majolica tiles** of yellow, green and blue — **the picture you know**. ⚠ **It was a poor fishing village** until the 1950s, **and then John Steinbeck wrote a famous article about it in 1953** — ✅ **and it changed**. ⚠ **Today it is among the most expensive places in Italy** and heavily crowded.
Yellow, green and blue tile on the church dome.
The whole town stacked on its slope, from the boat.
Stairs between houses, shops and hanging plants.
Positano, 84017 Salerno, Italy
**By bus and boat — and both are genuinely better than driving here.** ⚠ **Why not drive**: **the coast road (SS163) is very narrow, winding and hung on the cliff** — ⚠ **two buses cannot pass in places**, **summer traffic paralyses it**, ⚠ **and parking is scarce and can cost tens of euros a day**; **and some towns restrict access at peak**. ✅ **First option — the bus (SITA)**: **linking Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi and Salerno** — ✅ **cheap and frequent**, ⚠ **but very crowded at peak and you may not get a seat**, ⚠ **and delayed by traffic**; ✅ **sit on the seaward side if you can**. ✅ **Second option — the boat**: ✅ **clearly the best in season** — **routes between Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi, Salerno and Capri**; ✅ **it avoids all the congestion**, **is faster**, ✅ **and the view from the sea is the finest view of the coast**; ⚠ **but it is seasonal (roughly April–October)**, ⚠ **cancelled in swell**, **and dearer than the bus**. ✅ **Third option — the train to Salerno or Sorrento** and then bus or boat. ⚠ **⚠ The rule**: **do not plan a tight day** — delay here is the norm.
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