Amalfi Coast: The City of Positano

 After leaving Sorrento, the first stop the bus made was at Positano. This tiny city hugs the main road and has just a couple of streets on each side. Excited to see the cities on the Amalfi coast, we exited the bus. This statue sits on the wall near the bus stop.

 We decided to walk down the only Positano street visible from the bus stop, Via Cristoforo Colombo, which begins as a slow descent but gets steeper as the walk progresses.

 The Positano beach is visible during the walk down into the city.

 More of the view along the walk...

 Looking back up the hillside, we see the buildings that the SITA bus had passed between before we got off. Extremely picturesque. From what we saw, I would speculate most of the buildings are restaurants, hotels, and a few shops.

 The soft Mediterranean colors are the perfect choice for this setting.

 Finally, most of the way down to the beach, we enter a fairly busy area with a few vendors and shops.

 Somewhere along the same stretch as the last photo, probably within a city block of each other. We toured an art shop, poked our head into a couple of clothing stores, and quickly decided there really wasn't much to see in Positano. So we decided to turn around and head back to the bus stop...there are several other cities along the Amalfi Coast to see and we wanted to pack as much into the day as we could.

 As we walked back up to the bus stop, I took this photo. To get to the bus stop, we are going to have to turn right, just past the store on the right but before the vehicle.

 Turning the camera almost 90 degrees right from the same location, we can see the parking lot for a hotel. Since flat space is at a premium, the parking lot was about 10 cars wide and 3 or 4 cars deep. No doubt a valet has to retrieve guests' cars.

 Here is a closeup of the shop two photos back, with an interesting display.

 Flowers along the walk...

 And we're back to our flute playing statue...let's look for the bus, shall we?

 Now the bus comes by at regular intervals with no more than 30 minutes between buses. I think we had like a 10 minute wait when we arrived at the bus stop. This is looking down the road where we will be heading once we get on the bus.

 I am standing at the bus stop now, looking directly across the street at the road signs.

 This looks up the main Amalfi Coast road (Via Guglielmo Marconi) which is the branch to the right...the bus should be coming at us from there. The branch to the left is Via Cristoforo Colombo - the street we had walked down into the city. It is very warm and every inch of shade provided by the small bus bench cover is taken - that's Nikki in the blue.

 Yay, a SITA bus! Boo, it is heading in the wrong direction (it is heading back to Sorrento).

 .and back to Sorrento it goes. Notice the width of Via Guglielmo Marconi - barely wide enough for a bus and a motorcycle. If you drive this road on your own, well you are a braver soul than I.

 One of the dozens of motorcycles that passes by. And it continues to get warmer. Minutes pass. We've waited about half an hour now. Obviously the bus is late, and it may not come at all. We may have to wait until the next scheduled stop.

 Looking up from the bus stop. These homes must have phenomenal views. But they also have a lot of traffic noise.

 An Italian youth chatting with his buddy in an old Fiat 500 on Via Guglielmo Marconi. These old Fiats are everywhere in Italy! They've recently been "rediscovered" in the United States, thanks in large part to the character "Luigi" in the movie "Cars".

 And finally, hot and cranky after about an HOUR wait, a bus heading in the right direction finally arrives! YESSS! We were a little fearful that there would be no seats since the crowd at the bus stop had grown quite large, but we were all able to squeeze on.

And off we go! We had originally planned on getting off again at the next stop, Praiano, but as we passed through we noted that it was a town just as tiny as Positano and we didn't want to wait longer at the bus stop than it would take to tour the town. So we did not get off the bus at Praiano. We continue on to the city of Amalfi, to be discussed in another post. Let's just enjoy the coolness of the bus and the soft seats for now, shall we? Note to self: Italian transit schedules appear to be mere suggestions.