My Favorite Airbnb: The Positano Villa I Booked for a Nine-Person “Friends-Moon”

When my now-husband and I started planning our wedding, we agreed on three things right off the bat: We wanted to get married in Italy, have a small guest list, and keep the celebrations going as long as possible. If our nearest and dearest were traveling halfway across the world to see us get married, it only made sense to spend a few extra days together in one of the most beautiful countries in the world. It was soon decided—our wedding would take place over four days at a farmhouse in Tuscany, and then a few of us would continue onto what we affectionately began to call our “friends-moon”.

A seaside destination felt like the right way to wind down after a non-stop wedding weekend, and the dramatic views and sparkling water of the Amalfi Coast immediately rose to the top of our list. We needed a villa that could fit nine of us comfortably, with common areas to hang out in together and that picture-perfect backdrop that is synonymous with Positano. Villa Petite Syrene by Elite Villas checked all of those boxes and more (so much so that at first, I didn’t believe it could be real).

Spoiler: It was very much real. We arrived in Positano after a long travel day and were greeted by the house manager, Valerio, who marched us through the winding, crowded streets to our villa, which is tucked away off the main street. Villa Petite Syrene is nestled quite literally in the middle of Le Sirenuse, with the hotel’s private balconies visible from the villa’s spacious, yellow-and-blue tiled terrace below.

The view from the terrace immediately took our breath away (that, or the dozens of stairs we just climbed to reach it). To the right, the dome of Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta looked close enough to touch; the cliffside behind it is covered in colorful buildings that seemed to rise out of the sea. To the left, the black sand beach and bustling port open up to the Tyrrhenian Sea, which was just beginning to glisten as the sun sank behind the craggly coastline.

We reluctantly followed Valerio inside for a tour of the house, and the sight of the plush white couches beckoned me to sit down. I resisted, but made a mental note to sink in with a glass of wine there later. The kitchen was lined with shelves of locally crafted ceramics—we picked up the colorful espresso cups one by one, giddy over the hand-painted sea creatures on every dish. Upstairs there were four bedrooms, each with a private bathroom and one with a pull out couch to fit up to 10 guests. My husband and I claimed the room with the private balcony (we are the newlyweds, after all), and our friends took over the other three rooms, two of which share another adjoining terrace.

Shortly after settling in, we reconvened downstairs to head to dinner, a reservation we didn’t realize was a 15-minute ascent to the near-top of the cliff, but the meal at da Gabrisa was well worth the effort (and the way back down was much easier to navigate, even after sharing several bottles of wine). Luckily, we only did that climb one other time—on our last night, for an extremely memorable private dinner at Posides—otherwise, many bars, restaurants, and shops on the beach level were effortlessly accessible from the villa.

One of the best parts about staying with Elite Villas was the concierge service. I am a planner through and through, but trying to coordinate our friends-moon on top of the wedding was too much, even for me. The team coordinated our transportation to and from Naples, a courier to bring our bags to the villa (a must with all the stairs!), and activities each day that balanced exploration and relaxation.

When the forecast threatened rain on the day of our boat excursion, the concierge quickly and easily shifted our itinerary around so we could have the warm, sunny day on the water we’d been dreaming of. They hired a chef to host a private cooking class right on our terrace, booked a private car tour for my husband and I to explore some of the other towns along the coast, and even reserved a table for us at the infamous night club Music on the Rocks.

On our last night we sat on those plush white couches sipping wine and laughing about the week’s events, our cheeks pink from a day out in the sun. The question that came up again and again (and still comes up daily in our group chat), “So, when are we going back?”

Other villas in Positano I considered: