Thursday, March 17, 2011

Positano Treasure




We walked on the beach just about every day in Positano, and we made a discovery there. A discovery that set into motion an impractical obsession. See what Clementine has in her hand? A rock. The beaches here are pretty rocky.




There's the main beach, Spiaggia Grande:




And then there's the more remote one, Fornillo, that is accessed by a path, and was pretty deserted this time of year:




This is sooo different from how it is in the summer! In summer Positano is crammed with tourists, and the beaches are turned into lidos with colored umbrellas and striped beach chairs, and it's kinda standing room only. Being able to swim and kayak around the ancient watch towers is nice though, and take the ferry to Capri for the day, that's pretty sweet, and then there's having spaghetti with clams at the open-air restaurant on the Fornillo path . . . So yeah, summer in Positano is great. But this emptiness is its own thing.

Well, at a certain point in all this beach-combing, I happened to spy a spot of color in the sand, and looked a little closer. It was a shard of tide-smoothed ceramic, a neat thing. I picked it up, and spotted another. And another. And so on. Turns out, the beaches are rife with them, as if smashed plates are routinely dumped in the surf to add color to the beaches.

We started to gather them.




A new mania possessed us. We might have gotten a little carried away.




After that, we couldn't set foot on the beach without scanning around our feet for pottery shards. We stuffed our pockets. Our collection grew. The walk back up the steps to the house, already a challenge, became a feat with our pockets full of ceramics!




This here is merely the beginning of our collection. Our heavy-to-carry-it-home-with-us collection. Ha!

It was cool finding matching pieces scattered all over.




And glass too.




It's all so beautiful all together, and I am looking forward to placing it in the fun receptacle I found at the antiques mall -- a big industrial baking pan with a lovely patina. Waiting till we get moved in to the new house, but I am sure I will show it then!




Can't wait!

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh, the pottery shards! So, so lovely. That made my heart leap a little bit.

Myrna Foster said...

Those are so beautiful.

andalucy said...

Don't you love those little discoveries?!
Love that photo of Clementine. Gorgeous girl, gorgeous colors!

Alexandra Saperstein said...

Such beautiful photos! I dont think I'd really understood before what you meant about this but seeing all the photos, wow! I can't wait to see the finished result.

Unknown said...

I'm not sure where to post all this- so forgive me if this isn't the best place. (The rocks are fascinating and your baby girl looks like she should have fairy wings and sit on top of flowers) I am reading Lips Touch Three Times and I love it. You've got such new eyes for an old world. The writing flows so smoothly, I'm in awe. Thanks for the experience!

Katie Anderson said...

Weird! And so cool! You could tile those around a mirror or something. Wow.

Katie Anderson said...

P.S. How many pics did you take on this trip? And what kind of camera do you use?

Kate Robertson said...

Oh those pottery chards are just gorgeous. I love all those colors.

Rosa said...

Actually those tiles are the result of years of dumping building material from renovations into a ravine in Positano. They get washed out to sea with the torrential rain, smoothed and sent back again by the currents. Positano recycling at its best.

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