“Positano bites deep. It is a dream place that isn’t quite real when you are there and becomes beckoningly real after you are gone.”-John Steinbeck

One look at this city makes it easy to understand why I was so glad we pursued the virtually immobile relaxation route in Capri.

There are stairs that lead you all the way up from the coastal beach area to the top of the city. And there are thousands of them. And they look like this:

In order to get anywhere, including up the mountain to your bed & breakfast while carrying all of your luggage that seemed like a pride-inducing minimal amount for a three-week stay in Italy but now seems like a major, heavy, unwieldy mistake... To get anywhere you either take these thousands of stairs, or you catch a bus that chugs up the mountain, picking up passengers only once every hour.  We succumbed to that bus about halfway through our climb while carrying all of our bags, but I'm proud to say that's one of the only times we took that bus. The rest of the time, we bravely forged up and down countless staired passages... After all, we'd come to Positano to see just these very stairs; we might as well embrace them and see what their paths hold!

And they held a lot. Namely a rare peek into how some of these locals live. Positano is supported largely by tourism today, and we met quite a few people during our time in Italy who'd visited Positano, but went up no further than a quarter mile or so into the town. The area near the coast is laden with restaurants, clothing stands, tourist information booths, and artists hawking their work. It's all very cool to see, very lively... but I'm so happy we chose to get off the beaten path and see just what all this village offers. The locals' gardens, their homes, their small farms, their pets, their flowerbeds, their kindness...

We took one entire afternoon and walked ALL the way down, capturing all of the charm as we went. People along the way were so kind and friendly, and seemed to have such an open and honest way about them. The trek down was completely worth it, since we got to experience this less seen version of Positano, which was followed by some of the most amazing views I've ever seen.

Even on a cloudy day, the colors of the city are as rich as the spirits of its people. I can't say enough about how breathtaking this village is... There is just so much to soak up - homemade pastas, vegetables fresh from the garden, wines straight from the vineyard, the simple goodness of people, and scenary clearly drawn by God's hand. Just unforgettable.