Positano is often remembered for the presence of many elegant villas, also because they were residence of several very important people. The Villa dei Sette Santi (of Seven Saints), around 1940, hosted the painter Irene Kowaliska, whose paintings on cloth are still nowadays a symbol of Positano. Another example is the villa Stella Romana (Roman Star), now property of baroness Uzbeck, which has hosted the Pope Johannes Paulus II and probably the piano of Chopin. Around 1750, upon the remains of a benedictine convent, it was built a noble palace, then named Palazzo Murat because here lived Joachim Murat during the first decade of 19th century. Nowadays it is a luxury hotel where it was organized the Positano Award of Dance, which had a lot of famous guests: De Sica, Zeffirelli, De Filippo and the American writer Tennesse Williams.

Positano is also the seat of the Greek myth of Sirens: several antique sources spoke about, but the most important testimony comes from Strabo, geographer from the 1st century before Christ. The archipelago of Sirenuse (nowadays Li Galli) in front of Positano, consisting of three rocky islets, was considered the seat of the Sirens, mythological figures half women and half birds who attracted sailors with their singing and provoked their death on the rocks. The myth maybe had a practical aim: those islets were probably a reference point for sailors, but when the boats came too close, the current took them on the rocks. On the islet of Gallo Lungo (Long Cock) the greatest of Li Galli, the Russian dancer Leonide Massine built his villa in the summer of 1924 (restructured in 1927 by the great architect Le Corbusier) which was bought many years later by his chief heir in ballet: Rudolph Nureyev. In memory of the great choreographer and dancer Leonide Massine, each year is held in Positano the International Award for the Art of Dance.