Positano

Called "The Pearl of the coast", located in a fascinating position with its typical pastel coloured houses displaced on terraces between citrus plantations and gardens, once only a small fisher village, today the small centre of Positano is one of the most famous and exclusive tourist resorts of Italy.
Squared houses with their domed roofs, small climbing streets full of shops with thousand colours, a mild and dry climate, and a fascinating atmosphere attracted during the centuries especially foreign artists, writers and travellers.
Perched on the southern foot of the Monti Lattari mountains, at a distance of 40 kilometres from Salerno, the town offers a view which reaches from the south to the east on the sea until Capri's Punta Licosa, with its three small islands laying three miles in front of the coast and building the "Li Galli" or Sirenuse archipelago. According to a legend Positano was founded by Poseidon for the love of Pasitea, the nymph he was in love with.
Historically the village was built by the population of Paestum, explaining the name "Pestano", successively changed in "Paesitano" and finally in Positano.
It's sure that Phoenicians and Greeks on their journeys towards west, visited this area populated in that time by Oscans and Picenians.
With the fall of the Roman Empire, also Positano became part of the Republic of Amalfi, first sea republic, and had a flourishing period due to the commerce on sea with the other Mediterranean countries.
In order to defend themselves from the continuous raids of the Saracen and Turkish pirates, the population of Positano built three towers of defence which still today stand proudly in Fornillo, Trasita and Sponda and furthermore they widened the villages on the mountains called Montepertuso and Nocelle.
It had a real tourist boom in the second after war period.
Interesting is the parish church of "Santa Maria Assunta" with its huge majolica dome and a bell tower from the 13th century.