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A Love Letter To The Amalfi Coast

Can you fall in love with a place? I think you can, I’ve fallen in love with more places than people throughout the years so I know it’s not hard for a place to capture your heart. Of all the places  that I fell in love with, I don’t think any place gripped me harder than Positano in the Amalfi Coast. No one quite described it better than American author, John Steinbeck when he said ‘‘Positano bites deep. It is a dream place that isn’t quite real when you are there and becomes beckoningly real after you have gone’.

Before I visited Positano, I’d seen so many beautiful pictures that I thought can this place even be real? Can a place truly be this breath-takingly beautiful? I didn’t set my expectations too high, places are rarely as good as the photos show.

But as we rounded those famous precipitous cliffs on our journey from Naples to our first Amalfi hotel, Il San Pietro Di Positano, the gorgeous scenery came into view. And was it as beautiful as I’d hoped? No. It was better. An hour and a half drive to the hotel and the car stopped but the hotel was no where to be seen…

‘This way to the lift, Mr and Mrs Silver’ … there was no ground level entrance to Il San Pietro di Positano as it’s is uniquely carved into a cliff top, seemly suspended above the sea. 
The hotel wound down the clifftop like a spiral staircase with views of the coast from every angle. Flowers adorn the facade, lemon trees filled the air with citrus smells and the sea gently lapped on the beach below.

A room with view, Rossinis at golden hour, smiles on our faces and spaghetti on our plates… blissful May days and never wanting to leave this Italian heaven. 
A Michelin-starred restaurant at the hotel, plus another on the beach and other local places serving the very best food in town. But forget about the food… the atmosphere of romance clung to the very walls of the place. You couldn’t help but fall in love.

A day trip to Capri was like something out of a movie! We chartered a yacht to take us around the coast, exploring the most beautiful locations…
Before stopping for lunch at another cliff side location, Il Riccio at the Capri Palace Hotel. Of course, I fell in love all over again when walked around the flower-filled island of Capri. Such a small place but full of the most beautiful shops and stylish people…
It was one of the best holidays days I’d ever had and we returned to Il San Pietro with huge smiles of our faces. I couldn’t leave without a one night stay at the almost mythical hotel Le Sirenuse. I place I’d seen so often in pictures that I couldn’t wait to see it to fulfil more dreams!
A brilliant ruby-red facade, the world’s great view of Positano, a Michelin star restaurant and a room covered in 400 candles awaited us… confirming once again that this part of Italy was the most beautiful place on earth and had truly captured my heart!

You didn’t have to work too hard to make me fall in love, Positano… the natural beauty of  the place, the easy charm of the people and the food made with local ingredients. A place to fall in love with and then to fall in love over and over again. I place I’d love to revisit … maybe to renew my wedding vows!

 

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