We stayed in a five star
hotel with striking views of the Italian beach. We slept in a room with gold
plated sheets and our own semi-private canal in Venice. We traveled to see the
sweeping sights of Rome and the sunny island of Capri. Our last stop was a
small province of Italy embedded in the mountainside. We thought it wouldn’t
compare to the sights we had seen before, but it ended up being the talking
point of our favorite part of our trip. Positano, Italy.
Our taxi glided along the newly redone road. I leaned
against my mother, sick from the long car ride and from inhaling too many
croissants coated in chocolate. The road
was next to a cliff on both sides, and there was nowhere to look.
“We
are almost here” said the taxi driver in a heavy Italian accent. I slowly sat
up and peered out of the window. One side of the cliff had fallen, and in its
place was a sweeping hill with tiny, brightly colored buildings in yellows and
reds and blues and pinks. The bottom of the cliff reached down to a sparkling
turquoise sea. The sea touched a beach of glimmering white sand, with
picturesque umbrellas on the beach. It looked like a retouched postcard. The
taxi zoomed into town, the streets curving in a calming way down the cliff. The
taxi dropped me and my mom off in a small, blue and white bed and breakfast
inn. It was quiet, but when we walked in the attendants greeted us as if we
were the most important people in the world. They led us to our room, a pale
yellow room with two twin beds with matching yellow flowered duvets. There was
a balcony off of the room, carpeted blue with flowers decorating the whole
terrace in hand made pots.
The
beach sparkled and called to me, begging me to come down and play in the sea.
My mother led me through the streets down to the seashore. We passed sweet
smelling vendors calling out their products in Italian. Lemon leaves stretched
out to us, perfuming the whole air with their scent. Side streets split off the
cobbled main road, and fountains decorated the town center. My mother led me
further down the road, and we passed under a bridge of flowers that grew in
crisscross patterns.
The
beach was flocked with people when we got down there. Children played in
bathing suits and teens laughed and tanned with their friends. I ran
immediately to the water. It greeted me with warm, open arms, and I dove
underwater. I was still young enough to play mermaid. I pretended I had a
shining fin of scales, and flipped in the water. The rocks were worn down and
felt soft under my feet. I let the waves carry me to shore, and sat at the edge
of the water and stared out the town. A temple stretched out to my far right,
and at the very top of the hill I could see glowing lights. The cliff was
jagged and covered in dark green moss in several places. Shops covered the rest
of the Earth. I leaned back, and let the warm water rush over me and cover me
head to toe. This was better than any of the “high class” places I’d ever been.
