Under the church terrace that closes the head of the bay, a few metres from the water, you walk into a frescoed room from the imperial age: what is left of the Roman villa that already occupied this beach in the first century BC. Systematic excavations began in 2003 and the site opened to the public on 18 July 2018 under the name MAR. Its painted walls are the only surviving example of wall painting in a Roman villa anywhere on this coast, so whoever sunbathes here is doing it where people sunbathed two thousand years ago.
What to see
Spiaggia Grande is the largest beach in Positano and, along with Fornillo, the only one you can reach from the town without a boat: every stairway coming down from the upper districts ends here, at the bottom of the funnel. To the west the shore runs up against the Torre Trasita, a circular tower planted between Marina Grande and Fornillo beach that served as a barrier tower against raids from the sea. On the same stretch of coast the Torre della Sponda, the oldest of the three, keeps its original cylindrical shape and dates from the 13th century.
Above the beach, the majolica dome of the collegiate church of Santa Maria Assunta is the outline you recognise from every photograph. Inside is the Byzantine icon of the Black Madonna, which tradition ties to the town's name: the sailors carrying it by sea, caught in a storm off this bay, are said to have heard a voice repeating “posa, posa”, put it down, and once the icon was landed the sea went quiet. The bell tower was rebuilt in 1707; over the doorway a plaque of 1902 recalls Flavio Gioia, the local man credited with inventing the compass.
Visiting
You arrive on foot and downhill: the SS163 coast road runs high above, and from it the ramps and steps that cross the village drop all the way to the shore. SITA buses connect Positano with Amalfi and Sorrento; the airports used are Naples Capodichino and Salerno. At the eastern end of the beach is the ferry jetty, with sailings to Amalfi, Capri, Sorrento, Ischia and Salerno, and in summer the sea is almost always quicker than the road. Fornillo is a walk away; La Porta, Arienzo and San Pietro Laurito are effectively boat-only. Half a day is enough, though the climb back up has to be counted in.
Our editors' tip
Buy a ticket for the first sailing of the morning, even just as far as Amalfi: from the sand you never see the whole village, and the moment the boat clears the bay the houses stacked up the slope open out like a staircase. Come back down on foot, which is the right way to take the measure of a vertical town. And for the wait on the jetty: John Steinbeck wrote about this bay in May 1953 in Harper's Bazaar, “Positano Bites Deep”, arguing that the place only turns real once you have left.
