Skip the tourist trap. We’re asking locals and well-versed folks only for their edit of the secret spots they visit time and time again.
Marina Sersale is one of the best people to ask for travel tips for Positano on Italy’s Amalfi Coast. During World War II, her family moved from Naples to Positano. They quickly realised it was a great place to live and so stayed even after the war ended.
In 1946, Sersale’s father Paolo became the mayor of the village and in 1951, the family opened the hotel Le Sirenuse in a restored 18th-century palazzo. Sersale’s uncle Aldo managed the property while her aunt Anna oversaw what today we’d call ‘social networking’. The family still owns the hotel to this day.
“I’ve been going to Positano basically since I was born,” Sersale says. “And my relation to it is visceral. Positano is home and I feel it deeply mine.”
Sersale is such a fan of the area that, alongside her Argentinian husband Sebastian Alvarez Murena, she created two perfumes that embody it, Eau d’Italie and Acqua di Positano. She says anyone she hears talking about Positano mentions they’ve fallen in love with it and that author John Steinbeck’s 1953 quote that “Positano bites deep” rings true.
“All my life I’ve had people coming to me saying, ‘Oh, you know my husband and I fell deeply in love in Positano’. Then I have those saying, ‘My husband and I got engaged in Positano. And a few later, ‘I was actually conceived in Positano’.”
Here Sersale shares her tips for making the most of a visit to Positano.
The Best Time to Visit Positano
Sersale says the best time of the year to visit Positano depends on how you want to experience the village. In March and April, it’s warm spring weather and emptier than in summer. May and June offer almost guaranteed blue skies and perfect beach-hopping temperatures.
“July is full summer and the pleasure of long days on a boat and coming back to dinner with purple starry sky,” she says. “August for the raw energy of Italian summer, frittata di maccheroni — a sort of big pasta omelette — watermelon and white wine with peaches. September and October for a different kind of light, a serene atmosphere.”
Positano over the holidays feels intimate and is filled with locals and Italians who have been coming to Positano in winter for generations, she says.
The Best Restaurants in Positano
When Sersale visits Positano, she has most meals at Le Sirenuse which has three eateries, relaxed Aldo’s Cocktail Bar and Seafood Grill, formal La Sponda and the pool bar. Aldo’s is her dinner venue pick.
“I wasn’t a long-drink fan until I tried the Mediterraneo gin and tonic there,” she says. “My husband Sebastián is more of a Champagne person. These two happily open the way to our favourite dishes: riso al salto — sauteed risotto — for me, cotoletta Milanese for Sebastián who also adores oysters.”
For lunch, Sersale and Alvarez Murena regularly go to — “it’s embarrassing to admit how many times we eat there” — Da Adolfo, a Positano institution on the beach of Laurito, opened in 1966. To start, her husband orders mussel soup while she has mozzarella grilled on lemon leaves or sometimes tuna carpaccio. For mains, he has grilled anchovies and she has the catch of the day grilled.
“We try to resist their torta caprese, both classic chocolate and their special lemon one,” she says. “But that’s not always easy to do.”
The Best Things to Do in Positano
Admire the Views
“This may sound partial, but it isn’t: I think the nicest thing to do in Positano is to sit on the terrace of Le Sirenuse, have a drink and look at the view,” says Sersale. “That alone is worth the trip and it’s what we do most.”
Walk the Path of the Gods
When you’re done relaxing, walk the Path of the Gods, a 6km-long mountain trail that takes about 3.5 hours to complete. The trail passes through olive groves, home terraces and expanses of blue sky and sea. Sersale calls it one of the most spectacular treks in the world.
“You’re suspended in between the blue of the sky and that of the sea while you walk through lemon groves and bushes of wild mint,” she says. “Incidentally, it was what inspired our Acqua Decima fragrance and every time I wear it I congratulate Sebastián and myself for how we portrayed such a spectacular place.”
Visit the Roman Villa
Another must-do in Positano, according to Sersale, is to visit the Roman Villa which you’ll find below the church of Santa Maria dell’Assunta. Preserved since the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, the villa was once the summer home of a wealthy Roman family.
“Since the 1950s, it was known that buried under the main church was a Roman villa,” Sersale says. “My father got a glimpse of it when he was mayor and they did some restoration work on the main church then but that was all. Fast-forward 60 years and now part of the villa has been excavated and can be visited. It’s mind-blowing — on par with the most beautiful parts of Pompei.
“It’s been hidden away from the light for twenty centuries so the colours are so perfectly bright it seems like it was painted last year. The style, too, both frescoes and stuccos, is quite unusual. We’ve been to see it many times and can’t stop going.
“At the end of the tour, you also get to see some exhibits on loan, some of which are artifacts retrieved by the authorities, confiscated from smugglers of antiques. One of these is a Roman terracotta dish decorated with a giant octopus and all the fish and molluscs which were eaten at the time. It’s just so beautiful, and the fact you can recognise every type of fish gives you a fascinating sense of continuity.”
The Best Hotels in Positano
Finally, where does Sersale recommend you stay when you’re in Positano? Le Sirenuse, of course. “Not because it’s our family hotel but just because it’s one of the most beautiful places under the sun,” she says.
Another option is Torre Sponda, a family estate with four villas you can book. The property has gardens, a pool and private access to the beach. “It’s set in luscious gardens overlooking the sea, just magnificent,” says Sersale.
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