Durata: 6,9 km
Walking time: 5h 30 ‘
Route – 550 meters of ascent along an ancient and easy mule track, 300 meters of descent along a path that is sometimes reduced to a simple track. Another 150 meters of total ascent on the path and about 350 meters of descent on a path in the woods at the foot of Capo d’Acqua. Long walk that requires a minimum of physical preparation. If followed carefully, in the more complicated parts of the Pozzo Valley, it is accessible even to the less prepared. The use of footwear with good grip even on sloping ground is essential.
Approach – Departure and arrival from the coast road near the junction for Montepertuso (shortly after Positano, in the direction of Naples). Reachable by car or public transport both from the province of Naples (via Costiera Sorrentina) and from Salerno (via Positano). For those who want to come by sea, another 170 meters in altitude have to be taken into account. A possible mixed solution should not be overlooked: going by sea and back by land (or vice versa). It is also possible to change the starting and ending point of the route if, coming from Naples, you want to avoid arriving by car as far as Positano. From Vico Equense, following via Raffaele Bosco for about ten kilometers, passing through Massaquano and Moiano, you can reach Santa Maria del Castello by car.
Refreshment points – In Positano, 450 meters from the junction for Montepertuso. In the locality of Santa Maria del Castello, a small bar-restaurant between the church and the entrance to the Pozzo Valley.
In the past, before the construction of the current road, the traffic between Positano and the towns overlooking the Gulf of Naples traveled along the “Tese” a wide mule track which, with infinite hairpin bends, climbed a steep slope up to the locality of Santa Maria del Castello. . This walk entirely retraces the old street.
From the crossroads that leads to the town of Positano, after about 550 meters in the direction of Sorrento, you reach the crossroads for Montepertuso, to be taken and followed for about 300 meters. On the left, the staircase, marked by a ceramic table, begins a long series of hairpin bends with large steps that from an altitude of 200 to the 650 meters of Santa Maria del Castello. The route is easy to follow: there are only two detours, to be ignored during the climb. The first, in the middle of the route, is identifiable thanks to the red and white markings of the CAI, and indicates a deviation that we will take on the return; the second is a confluence coming from the left. Along the climb, there are views of the Gulf of Salerno from Capo di Praiano to Punta Licosa. The path ends at the edge of a meadow and reaches an asphalted road. After a hundred meters, at the intersection, turn right, and you will arrive at the church of the Madonna del Castello. It may be useful to know that, after another hundred meters, there is a small restaurant with a bar where it is possible to stop.
Just beyond the bar (about 350 meters), at the next block, on the right you take a path just mentioned which, zigzagging, goes into the valley below until the impluvium of Valle Pozzo. From here on, the path, not always easy to identify and not easy to walk, leads downwards more or less along the stream that runs through the valley. Further down, at the end of a flight of steps, you arrive at a crossroads: take the branch on the right which gradually leads upwards towards the Tese. You pass under a steep wall at the foot of which you can see tanks for the collection of rainwater. After a stretch with a rocky bottom, the path crosses patches of dense grass. Here the view of Positano is practically sheer and it is worth stopping every now and then to enjoy the view. Then the path begins to widen in an easily passable beaten which, a little further on, flows into the “Tese”. Resume the climb previously traveled up to the confluence coming from the left. This time we go left. After about 600 meters there is a crossroads which on the right leads back to the plateau above. Continue on the left branch until you pass the impluvium of the valley. After a while the path goes into the thick of the woods and begins the descent towards the valley. Arriving at an isolated house, continue to go down to the left, ignoring the detour that goes up to the right. At the bottom, a stone staircase leads back to the road of the Amalfi Coast, right at the starting point, the junction for Montepertuso.
