The upper road viewpoint

Coming into Positano from the coast road, the tarmac turns a corner high above the town and the whole postcard appears at once: the pastel houses stacked from the ridge down to the water, the dome of Santa Maria Assunta, and the islets of Li Galli out at sea. It is the arrival shot, and it exists because the road is higher than everything else — from inside the town this view is impossible.

There is no single official belvedere; the frame is the sequence of bends on the Via Pasitea and the coast road above it, with a handful of wide spots where a car can pull in. The best ones look south-west, so late afternoon rakes the low sun across the stacked facades and separates the layers of the town; at midday the whole hillside flattens into one bright mass.

Treat it as a five-minute stop rather than a session. This is a working road with buses, scooters and blind bends, and the verges are narrow enough that a group standing on the tarmac is a genuine hazard. Pick the spot first, keep everyone behind the barrier, shoot fast and move on.