I Go to POSITANO The AMALFI COAST

Made it. Home in Positano once again, the town of my dreams, discovered long ago. I was just a young man of early 20s back in the Summer of 1985. The lure of Positano was pulling me to it. Yes, I was a young man living in New York’s East Village, at the time an edgy, yet very cool neighborhood. Everyone wanted to live their. Well, all the young artist, students, recent college grads looking to make it in the big city, New York, and the East Village was a neighborhood where the rents, though going up, were the most affordable in downtown Manhattan, where anyone who had the Cool Factor running through their veins wanted to be. Madonna lived and started her tremendous career in the East Village, as did artist Keith Haring and Jean-Michele Baquiat, tow of America’s all-time most famous artists of all.

I got an apartment on Avenue A at Saint Marks Place, the epicenter of it all. My good buddy Jay Fahy was my roommate, but just for a year, before moving out to New Jersey which was better for his up and coming career as a US Attorney in Jersey City NJ. We had quite a great time living there, working hard and playing even harder, and me working two jobs, it gave me the means and money to live here and after a hard years work each and every year, I rewarded myself with a trip to Europe. This year 1985, being my first of many trips, I went for a month, and went to Spain, the South of France, and of course Italy, to Venice, Rome Florence, and finally down to Napoli, Positano and the Amalfi Coast.

Yes Positano was calling. My ex- boss Valentina kept going on about it, making it sound quite alluring. Others did as well. I was all hopped up and I just had to go there. A few days before leaving I ran into my Alma on 2nd Avenue who was with poet ‘ art critic Rene Ricard ( the guy who made Keith Haring & Basquiat famous). Alma asked me what I was up to and I told her I was flying to Rome on Saturday. When Rene hear that I was also going to Venice and Positano, he got all exciteed and wanted to tell me the best places to go, as he was with his mother in Italy the previous Summer, and stayed for quite a while in Positano. Rene told me to stay at the Hotel Locarno near the Piazza di Popolo in Roma, and he told me I had to have Spaghetti Vongole at Da Vincenzo in Positano, and have drinks at Bar DeMartino. He told me to stay at the very affordable Villa Maria Antoinette, and he even wrote me a “Letter of Introduction” to the owner, Signora Carmen.

And so I was off. I had the greatest time ever in Rome, then up to meet my high school friend JoAnn in Florence before heading to Barcelona to meet up with friends Ifram and Cristina. After Spain, I headed to the French Riviera to Nice where I had a nice little romance with a gorgeous French Girl, before picking up and making my way to Venice, the most Serene Republic of them all.

I did Venice and now it was off to Positano and the Amalfi Coast of Italy.

to be Continued ….

Daniel Bellino Zwicke