What to see on the Amalfi Coast, itinerary including the main places of interest, including the characteristic towns of Amalfi and Positano.
Tourist information
Overlooking the splendid sea, in Positano the houses with their gardens cling to the foot of a rocky ridge, while endless stairs slide on the slope, to connect the high town to the beaches.
For the extraordinary beauty of the landscape and the mild climate, Positano has been a holiday resort since the time of the Roman Empire.
During the restoration of the crypt, built inside the Church of Santa Maria Assunta, the main monument of the place, a Roman villa was brought to light, which dates back to the Julio-Claudian era.
The original owner of the Villa should have been the freedman Posides Claudi Caesaris, from whose name the toponym Positano would also derive.
This ancient residence was covered by a blanket of lapilli caused by the Vesuvian eruption of 79 BC, with subsequent hardening due to the violent rains that occurred shortly after the eruptive process.
In the villa of Positano, an abbey of Benedictine monks grew up in the early Middle Ages, who, through their travels, most likely brought the Byzantine icon of the Madonna to Positano, still venerated in the church today.
Today Positano, in addition to being an international tourist destination, is also known for Positano Fashion, a style famous all over the world.
What see
The town of Amalfi, another enchanting place, is located in the stretch of the Campania coast located south of the Sorrento peninsula and overlooking the Gulf of Salerno.
Along the high and rocky coast, there are places that boast works of considerable architectural and artistic significance, inserted in a landscape of extraordinary beauty, characterized by cultivated terraces that descend from above to the sea, illuminated by the splendid colors of the Mediterranean.
The current urban center of Amalfi coincides with that of the medieval city, where the architectural and urbanistic evidence of its past can be identified through the stratification of the centuries.
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Amalfi, the oldest of the Maritime Republics, in the eleventh century, by virtue of its maritime and mercantile power, benefited from considerable economic prosperity.
Its most famous monument is the Duomo, which rises majestically at the top of a superb staircase.
The building is an architectural complex formed by two basilicas placed side by side and communicating.
The primitive early Christian cathedral was transformed in the ninth century into a Romanesque building with several naves, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin.
Subsequently in the year 987 with the elevation of the Amalfi diocese to the archbishopric and metropolitan seat, a new cathedral was built next to the old one, dedicated to Saint Andrew the Apostle.
After expansion works carried out in the first decades of the thirteenth century, the two places of worship were transformed into one with five naves.
Further work was carried out between the sixteenth century and the eighteenth century.
In fact, the baroque guise of the cathedral, including the facade, which was redone in the mid-nineteenth century, according to the original style of the church, dates back to the first twenty years of the eighteenth century.
The complex today has a neo-Gothic facade preceded by a corridor that connects the bell tower, the cloister of Paradise and the church-chapel of the Crucifix.
The towns of the Amalfi Coast, besides Amalfi, are Vietri sul Mare, Cetara, Maiori, Minori, Tramonti, Ravello, Scala, Atrani, Agerola, Conca dei Marini, Furore, Praiano and Positano.
