This small town on the Amalfi Coast is located in the center of a land rich in history and art, at the feet of the Lattari Mountains, protected from the Northern winds and therefore enjoying a mild climate that favours a luxuriant Mediterranean vegetation.
The main part of the city sits in an enclave in the hills leading down to the coast. John Steinbeck called it the only perpendicular village in the world, which well explains the peculiarity of this little town, whose houses and hotels in beautiful pastel colors are only accessible by one of the long, winding stairways leading up into the center and going down to sea level.
The legend tells that Positano was founded by Neptune for his beloved nymph Pasitea, from whom the place took its name. It was inhabited by the Oscans, and was a port of the Phoenicians, then a Greek colony and, still later, a Roman town with fine villas for the vacationing Patricians of the capital.
After the fall of the Roman empire there was a long sequel of invasions: Saracens, Normans, Angevins and Aragonese, with frequent raids of Turkish pirates, against whom the inhabitants built 3 huge towers in Fornillo, Trasita and Sponda and other smaller towers in other spots along the coast.
