Fornillo, Positano

Less crowded and large free area

It’s a feast to eyes

The first evidence of a settlement in Positano dates back to Prehistory, more precisely to the Upper Paleolithic in which the "Grotto La Porta" was frequented by peoples of gatherers and hunters. This small cave, located at 120 m. o.s.l. and at 10 m. on the highway, it was a very wide time of which it is still possible to distinguish the terminal part and two niches. In 1955, Antonio M. Radmilli (University of Pisa) organizes several surveys to identify prehistoric visits, both on the surface and in some caves. During the excavations, several fossils emerged, some of which are malacological like shells of molluscs, while the fauna is represented by the remains of mammals (wild boar, ibex, deer and roe deer), birds, amphibians and fish. The findings made it to be assumed that the people who frequented the caves had an economy based mainly on the collection of molluscs, while hunting for birds and mammals was rather marginal [

This place is totally overrated. As a consequence, it's crowded and extremely expensive. The attitude of the locals doesn't help, either. I tried two paid parking lots. Both full. Normally, I would have left behind 35-40 Euros back there. Surprisingly, I found a free by_the_side_of_the_road spot a little further. I'll come back to this in a minute. At the beach, they were asking for 22 Euro for a sunbed --- 88 Euros for my group (two parents with two kids). Generally, at the beach, we usually get / pay for one umbrella and two sunbeds. Me and the kids spend our time in the water (or build castles in the sand) while my wife sunbathes and guards our belongings. So two sunbeds is ample seating for our needs. This is the first beach I ever encountered where they were hell_bent on charging us for 4 persons. They said (I kid you not, these were the words) "you can restrain yourself to only two sunbeds, if you wish so, but you must pay for 4 persons". After a definite NO, we set out to look for the free area of the beach. We found it on the rightmost extremity, right next to a spot where motor boats kept coming and going. We laid down our towels just as everybody else there and started contemplating the water: are we really going to swim in those propeller_infested waters? Not to mention the strong burnt_gasoline smell... Our contemplation was shredded however by the sharp sound of a whistle. A lifeguard came by and started sending away all the towel_tourists. Some italians started a heated debate with him, but overall everybody vanished. We didn't like the place anyway so we went as well. Some 300 meters to the north we encountered Fornello beach. Same story. Pay for 4. We again went on the lookout for the towel area. This one was usable. Or....NOT...! Never in my life have I encountered so many jellyfish that actually sting!!! And oh, boy, they STING !!! The kids started crying almost simultaneously, and they were only waist deep in the water; they didn't even start their swim yet. Both charged madly for the shore, with red patches of irritated skin developing on their knees and bellies. After conforting them, I started meditating: is this the world_renowned Positano? I was supposed to pay 30-40 Euro for a day's worth of parking, then 88 Euros for 4 sunbeds when I only needed at most 2, and in the end I can't even have a decent swim? Now let's talk nature: the water is clear but it's kind of gray (not green / blue as you can encounter in other places), there's no sand, the gravel is completely unspectacular (it totally resembles the stuff construction workers mix with cement to make concrete), and you have houses literally hanging above your head (the signature of the place). Yes, it's half_interesting, but not enough to compensate for the "skin them alive" attitude of the locals or the jellyfish. I literally do not understand how this place got so famous and how I could fall so bad for the hype. The world has infinitely nicer beaches. Hell, Italy itself has infinitely nicer beaches, elsewhere (we ended up going to Sicily; we were much better treated and we did find beautiful places to actually relax and enjoy our vacation).

It’s scenic but the entire beach is black hot pebbles not sand, and there were dozens of people stung by jellyfish with no signs warning you. Luckily Fernandos has healing spray