We’ve now been in Positano for a fortnight and have gone from a pasty white colour to a burnished brown (Jean) and a slightly brown tinge (Me). Our stress levels have dropped and our ability to spend time doing next to nothing has increased.

Positano is busy but less busy than last year. The number of people in the village each day seems less and everyone – including the locals – seem happier about that. The general consensus seems to be that 2024 is a return to 2022 visitor levels.

The main reason for this seems to be a reduction in the number of American visitors holidaying this year versus last year.

By coincidence, there is an article on stuff.co.nz today (originally from the Washington Post) looking at tourism on the coast and painting a pretty grim picture of the numbers and the crowding. Some of it rings true but, based on our two weeks, some of it seems to be more about last year than this year.

This last few days we had a visitor from the north staying with us. Our friend Tina has been on holiday in Tuscany and she came down to stay in the casetta for a few days. Days of wine and … more wine.

After two weeks it is time for us to move on to Tuscany – high speed train from Napoli to Firenze, then a rental car to Radda in Chianti and our place for the next few days – Relais Vignale.

As a farewell to Positano, here are a grab-bag of images from the last week.