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Condé Nast Traveler
2 days ago
- Condé Nast Traveler
The Best Villas in Positano, Italy
Perched on the rugged cliffs of Italy's Amalfi Coast, Positano is a picture-perfect seaside village known for its pastel-hued buildings cascading down to the Tyrrhenian Sea. Loved for its mystical winding streets, chic boutiques, and gorgeous coastal views, this former fishing village has become one of the most sought-after seafront destinations in the world. The Spiaggia Grande, Positano's main beach, offers golden sands and lively beach clubs for day-to-night itineraries, whilst the secluded Fornillo Beach is a more tranquil escape for sunbathing sessions soundtracked by lapping waves of a quick dip into crystalline waters to cool off. With its striking majolica-tiled dome, the Church of Santa Maria Assunta stands as a symbol of the town's rich history, housing a revered Byzantine icon of the Madonna. Whether you're exploring hidden coves by boat, hiking the breathtaking and aptly named Path of the Gods, savoring ultra-fresh seafood, admiring a striking sunset from a cliffside terrace, or wandering through alleyways perfumed by citrus trees, Positano is pure Mediterranean enchantment. The best hotels in Positano are tempting, but these are some of the best villas in Positano for a more secluded stay with loved ones. We've vetted these listings based on Superhost or Guest Favorite status, ratings, amenities, location, previous guest reviews, and decor.
Telegraph
01-05-2025
- Telegraph
Overtourism has ruined the Amalfi Coast – and Puglia could be next
Hiking with a guide in the hills behind Amalfi in October 2024, I felt the full effect of overtourism in the popular coastal town as we emerged into the sunshine. Even in shoulder season, the crowds heaved around the town's cathedral, lines snaked out of every gelato shop and packed-out tour buses wheezed along the roads. 'It's chaotically busy, even at this time of year,' affirmed my guide Gianluca Paolillo, who runs hiking tours from Ravello and Scala. 'In the summer, the popular trails like the Path of the Gods and the Amalfi Lemon Trail have too many people on them. It can take hours to complete just a short distance and the tourists are not careful. Every year we have people falling from the cliffs while trying to take the perfect picture.' The giant, gnarly sfusato lemons that grow on the hillsides here have become a symbol of the coastline. As famous here as Mickey Mouse is in Florida. Every souvenir shop sells trinkets and T-shirts with them on, ceramics are all decorated with sunshine yellow patterns, and the gelato shops' most-sold flavour is a sweet-sour lemon sorbet. And then there are the £50 'Amalfi Lemon Experience' tours, offered on sites like Get Your Guide. This Disney-like version of a stroll amongst the lemon groves often includes a cooking class and a set of pictures of the purchaser posing next to a giant citrus with the sparkling Mediterranean Sea in the background. 'Everything on the coast is geared to tourists these days. Locals can't afford to spend time here any more,' mused Gianluca. Amalfi, Tuscany, Rome, Sicily, Venice and the Italian Lakes all suffer from overtourism, but there were always areas of Italy that remained blissfully unscathed – like Puglia. The heel of the Italian boot, this sun-baked region is home to Caribbean-like beaches, gastronomic agroturismo (farm stay) properties and, until recently, fewer international tourists. But some locals believe this is changing. 'When I first moved to London 12 years ago, nobody had heard of Puglia. Fast forward 12 years and people have either been or they have a holiday booked,' says Alessandra Tasca, head of wine at OMA restaurant in London, who grew up in Monopoli, a coastal town in northern Puglia. 'The change has been rapid and Puglia has not handled it well. My friends living there are concerned about the future.' This summer, the first direct flight from the US to Puglia will launch, with low-cost Italian airline Neos making the destination more accessible than ever to visitors from across the pond. The inaugural flight will depart New York on June 3, flying into Puglia's capital, Bari. The flights will be seasonal, operating twice weekly until October 2025, and this new route is presenting opportunities anew for tour operators and accommodation specialists. 'Over the last few years, Puglia has been one of the fastest growing tourist destinations in Europe,' says Livia Angelini of luxury operator Scott Dunn. 'We've had a steady increase of approximately 16 per cent year-on-year in enquiries for the region.' In 2024, more than 10 million passengers flew in and out of Puglia's three airports – Bari, Brindisi and Foggia – an increase of 10 per cent compared to the year before, and, as a result, easyJet and Ryanair have increased their flight offering to the region for 2025 to meet demand. 'Puglia is a fast-growing market for us,' confirms Oliver Bell, co-founder of UK-based Oliver's Travels. 'Historically, Tuscany, Umbria and Sicily have been popular with the UK market, while for the US market it's The Lakes and the Amalfi Coast. While these destinations still hold their ground, Puglia has climbed to the second most-booked region for 2025, tying with the Italian Lakes – a remarkable leap from fifth last year, thanks to growing awareness and better air connectivity.' When I visited in 2017, Puglia still felt quite unknown. There were only a handful of luxury hotels that catered to an international crowd, one of the first of which was Masseria Trapana, run by Australian hotelier Rob Trapana. 'I'd been going to Tuscany for years and had been hoping to open a hotel there,' he told me. 'But I kept hearing my Italian friends mumbling about Puglia – the food, the beaches, the wide-open space, the history. I just had to go see it for myself. 'I bought the masseria (farm buildings) in 2014 and opened it to the public in 2016. At the time things here weren't geared up for tourism but that has changed in the last few years. Shop owners, for example, have learned English because they know they need to cater to tourists – particularly Americans – who ask a lot of questions and expect the answers to be in English. 'I don't think we have an overtourism problem here in the same way as the Amalfi Coast does, but in the peak summer months, towns like Lecce – which used to be off the beaten path – can get extremely busy.' A few things have contributed to Puglia's strong growth as a tourist destination. Firstly, a tourism campaign during the pandemic, whereby the region's remoteness and foodie excellence were celebrated by posters on the London Underground network. Secondly, in 2024, the G7 summit was held at Borgo Egnazia, a purpose-built mega hotel just outside Bari. The hotel is family owned and operated by Aldo Melpignano, founder and CEO of Egnazia Ospitalità Italiana. It is a sprawling, gorgeous paean to Puglian rural life, albeit built from scratch to cater to international tastes. 'Almost 20 years ago, the region was still largely unknown to international travellers,' says Melpignano. 'When we began working on Borgo Egnazia, we didn't want to replicate anything that already existed. The idea was to create something truly original, a place deeply connected to the land, where we could tell the story of this unique corner of Italy. We believed in Puglia's potential.' Marcelo Martinez, co-owner of architecture and design firm Studio Trotter, who built the gorgeously rustic Masseria Moroseta and Casa Soleto, both in southern Puglia, believes that the region will not become another Amalfi Coast. 'Amalfi is unique in that it is tiny and the roads are not designed for so many people. There is still so much of Puglia – especially in the south where we are located – that feels untouched. Of course Polignano a Mare, Ostuni, Monopoli and Alberobello – where the famous trulli houses are located – have lost a bit of their charm because of tourism, but when friends visit us we like to take them to places that are off the beaten track.' However, speaking about her hometown of Monopoli, just 10 minute's drive from Bari, where the new flight from JFK will fly into, Alessandra Tasca believes that the effects of overtourism are already being felt. 'I am here in Puglia now and I am telling you that people are concerned. Monopoly and Polignano a Mare are like ghost towns in the winter because families are pushed out in favour of accommodation for tourists – just like what's happened in Venice. 'The identity of the town is not alive anymore. Business owners here were surprised by the explosion in tourist numbers. They saw opportunities for short-term gain and things weren't managed well. I know lots of people who are concerned. 'At the moment it's too early to say what the effect of more tourists will bring to our region but in places like Rome, Tuscany, Venice and Amalfi it has become unbearable.'
Telegraph
05-04-2025
- Telegraph
Avoid the Amalfi Coast crowds this summer and head for the hills
There was a slight chill in the air as my guide and I descended a forested path to the valley floor. The air smelled of wet moss and, curiously, like pepper spice. To our right was a stone wall with small wooden platforms, each holding a round gourd ripening in the early winter sunshine. On our left, a beautiful green valley spilled out before us, the hillsides carpeted with oak trees that tumbled down towards the shimmering Mediterranean Sea. A church bell rang out in the distance, but my hiking guide Gianluca Paolillo and I were otherwise alone with our thoughts. As we rounded the corner and turned into woodland, I heard the thunder of a waterfall before I saw it; a skyscraper of foliage towering up in front of us as water cascaded down mossy tendrils, like upended candles dripping their wax into the deep pool below. I'd arrived on the Amalfi Coast the previous evening, and had spent the morning walking away from the famous coastal towns and into the Ferriere Valley, which stretches almost four miles from the hilltop town of Scala to the town of Amalfi below. It is one of just 41 biogenetic reserves in Italy. Each year, around 20,000 tourists hike the coast's most popular route, Path of the Gods, and, in summer, the trail becomes so crowded that it can take more than one hour to walk just one mile. To avoid this, Paolillo, along with a number of volunteers, has been quietly rediscovering old pathways that weave into the interior of the peninsula, excavating old trading routes that once linked the towns of Amalfi, Positano, Ravello, Atrani, Minori and Maiori. Once completed, the trails will offer visitors a new way to discover the region, away from the tourist throngs. The latest is Fontana Carosa, a five-mile trail that Paolillo worked to resurrect during the pandemic. The one we had been hiking that morning, however, was Paolillo's favourite secret route. My base for the weekend was the remarkably beautiful hilltop town of Ravello, home to Villa Cimbrone with its enchanting gardens and Terrazza dell'Infinito lookout platform (providing spectacular views of the entire coastline), 11th-century Villa Rufolo, home to stunning Moorish mosaics and beautiful gardens, and Ravello's Baroque and Romanesque duomo. I stayed at Palazzo Avino, a plaster-pink palace built in the 12th century as a residence and restored to glory by its current owners, sisters Mariella and Attilia Avino, who have filled it with an astounding collection of antiques and artworks. With tiered gardens, pools and a club house with sea access (taking in the views which tumble away below), staying here made for a delightful way to immerse myself in the town. The morning's hike had begun in Scala, another pretty town not far from Ravello. As we walked, Paolillo pointed out the ruins of paper mills and an ironworks (ferreira), from which the valley takes its name. These Middle Age relics reveal Amalfi's important past as a paper-manufacturing hub, made using cotton shipped over from Egypt; the Paper Museum in Amalfi tells the story in wonderful, vivid detail. After poking our heads into several of these ghostly, pepper-scented chambers, Paolillo pointed to a giant fern, called woodwardia radican, with fronds three-metres wide – rare, prehistoric species that are classed as living fossils. They were discovered in 1710 by the botanist Pier Antonio Micheli, along with a black-and-yellow spotted lizard that hides amongst the vegetation. Ducking under a fallen chestnut tree, we emerged into golden sunshine. A stepped path flanked with heady lemon and fig trees led down to Amalfi town, with its beautiful St Andrew Cathedral and sparkling seascape. We stopped for an espresso, and Paolillo – who had packed a thermos and lemon biscuits for the break – suggested I try my coffee the 'Amalfi way', laced with candied lemon peel. 'When people visit this coastline, they come for the famous towns – Amalfi, Positano, Sorrento – but then they miss out on the gems in the hills,' he said. 'For me, Ravello and the hills surrounding it are the real Amalfi.' As the afternoon wore on, we headed further into the lush Lattari Mountains (from the Italian word for milky; a nod to the dairy cows and goats that graze there), an area known for its vineyards, pizza and fior di latte mozzarella. Gradually, we made our way to Tramonti, one of 13 hamlets in the area, founded most likely in the 5th or 6th century by Picentine refugees, who came here to escape Roman occupation of the towns along the Reghinna coast (now known as Minori and Maiori). There, we visited Tenuta San Francesco vineyard, where 300-year-old pre-phylloxera vines are still producing exceptional wines. It is one of four wineries that form a collective in the valley, mostly producing easy-drinking whites and rosés, served in the region's best restaurants, but also award-winning DOC and DOCG white and red wines, made with local grapes such as peachy falanghina and smooth, earthy tintore. Turning back along the path to Ravello, we called in at cheese factory Caseificio Staiano Ravello, where we were shown how to stretch mozzarella by owner Biagio and his wife Karolina, then tasted the delicious fresh fior di latte, with its salty undertones. That evening, after martinis at Palazzo Avino's courtyard bar, I returned to Scala for the evening, stopping for dinner at superlative seafood restaurant Da Lorenzo, then strolling through the town. To my delight, a chestnut festival was in full swing, with row upon row of stalls selling freshly barbecued chestnuts, chestnut cake, chestnut spread and bread, while a folk band performed and preparations for a bareback donkey race were made. This was a far cry from the endless harp music and restaurant speakers blaring out That's Amore in the popular tourist towns down by the water – and all the better for it. This part of the Amalfi Coast is about to become even easier to reach, thanks to easyJet's new twice-weekly flights from London to Salerno, launching in July. But my advice? Don't hurry – wait for shoulder season, when this gloriously offbeat part of the region offers warm days dappled in sunshine and excellent deals on accommodation. And, above all, don't be tempted to stay on the crowded coast: instead, do as the locals do, and head for the hills. Essentials Emilee Tombs was a guest of Palazzo Avino, which has rooms from £1,255 per night, including breakfast, and can arrange guided hikes, winery visits, pottery workshops and cheese-making classes. Arrange your hike independently with Gianluca Paolillo through Trekking Ravello. EasyJet will fly direct from London to Campania from July 2025, from £23 one-way. Alternatively, Ryanair flies to Naples from £24.99 one-way.
