How to to end the year with a bang Sara Manuelli prepares for an explosive celebration in Positano, where they flash their knickers for good luck FINAL Edition

• Published in: Independent (London, England : 1986)
• Main Author: Manuelli, Sara
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: London (UK) Independent Digital News & Media 31.12.2000
• ISSN: 0951-9467

On New Year's Eve the real Positano is revealed. Best known as a hugely popular summer destination, its chattering tourists spill from the tortuous alleyways and pay through the nose in its seafront restaurants. But on New Year's Eve the tourist machine is switched off and the other Positano emerges - a small fishing village on the Amalfi Coast with a taste for celebration. Positano was a poor fishing village until the early 1900s. The first pioneering foreigners who arrived in their carriages were an unusual mix of White Russian aristocracy fleeing the revolution, enlightened Swiss searching for a romanticised, simple way of life and the British passing through on the Grand Tour. Since then, many more have stumbled across Positano and settled, falling prey to its charms. As a result, quite a few Positano families are of cosmopolitan stock and master several languages. Over the years, Positano has been through a number of reincarnations. The subject of John Steinbeck's story Positano in 1953, it became a favourite hideaway for homosexual artists and intellectuals when Rudolf Nureyev made the nearby Li Galli islands his home. Eventually, it graduated during the 1960s into a full- blown jet-set destination graced by Hollywood and British royalty. Even today, Princess Margaret is a regular, often spotted at the opulent Sirenuse Hotel.