The Amalfi Coast is followed by the street that reaches out on the whole of the
Gulf of Amalfi and that reaches from the peninsula of Sorrent to Salerno. It is,
maybe, the part of the coast in the whole of Campania where the settlements
perfectly harmonise mit the beauty of the landscape: the range of the Monti
Lattari (Lattari mountains) lies directly on the sea and forms an indented coast
line with many outreaching cliffs and coves. In this part of the world the
gardens of the villages cohabit with a natural and typical vegetation of the
Mediterranean area, a huge part of which is still untouched.
Sorrento
Sorrento Peninsula has a landscape unique in the world, where low and high
hills, deep valleys and majestic mountains alternate, where the Man’s work - who
levelled even the most impervious areas, transforming them in the famous
terraces degrading towards the sea, on which he cultivated orange and lemon
trees, olive groves and vineyards - has been grandiose. These are the delight’s
gardens that in springtime exhale a stirring scent of orange - blossom. The mild
and dry climate for most part of the year makes Sorrento Peninsula the ideal
destination in every season.
The Spanish sovereigns, who ruled during the
modern age loved very much this land, for its abundance of fruit, fish, birds,
meat and cheese. Afterwards, in the eighteenth century, Sorrento Peninsula was
rediscovered by the Grand tour. The intellectuals of all Europe, such as
Nietzsche and Ibsen, found there spiritual and cultural spurs, inaugurating the
taste of living in villa which made Sorrento Peninsula a longed for goal of an
exclusive tourism.
Nowadays, besides the aristocratic villas, there are
prestigious hotels, campings and farm holidays that are part of a wider network
of tourist services and offer a top-level comfort. In a tidy and safe
atmosphere, everybody will spend his ideal holiday, having the opportunity to
choose from nature and silence, health and culture, swims, thermal treatments in
Scrajo’s waters, boat excursions, naturalistic walks, excursions in the
archaeological areas of the necropolises of Aequa and Deserto and visits to
museums (Mineralogy Museum, Museo Correale, Museum-workshop of wooden tarsia,
Museum of Villa Fondi), to the old city centres rich in monasteries and
cloisters, like that of San Francesco in Sorrento, and to the ancient hamlets
with frescoed churches, like the Chapel of Santa Lucia in Vico Equense; but also
sport and musical and cinema events of international echo, theatre performances,
night clubs and bars.
Here is a party all the year long, with thousands
of local cultural traditions on a very tight schedule: from the Carnival, the
famous Easter processions that cross all Peninsula and the thousands of summer
and autumn feasts of typical products cheered up by the typical Sorrento
"tarantella", an ancient folkloristic dance, to the rich Christmas events.
Top-level restaurants invite you to taste the local cooking, famous all over the
world, which combines fish and meat menus
And then handicraft, whose most
renowned expression is the wooden tarsia, but that boasts also a shipbuilding
production of boats contended in all markets. Finally the many liqueurs
distilled from local products: lemon, tangerine, orange, nut.
Moreover
Sorrento Peninsula is also the starting point for numberless excursions: Pompei,
Paestum, Naples and Vesuvius, Capri and Ischia, Positano, Amalfi and Ravello,
and for any other destination, thanks to a thick network of aerial, road,
railway and maritime links. Then, do not escape the Sirens’ singing: come, they
are waiting for you!
Positano
Protected from the Northern winds by the Lattari Mountains, Positano has a
mild and dry climate. The structure of the town is very original; its buildings
cling, in tiers to the rock face. The small houses, all huddling on top of each
other, so characteristic of Positano, form the subject of endless photos. The
vibrant colors; the white of the buildings, forming a perfect canvas for the
bright flowers which decorate the houses, and the small artisans', shops with
their multihued cloths, present the visitor with a vista which is almost
difficult to believe. Then there is the smell of the leather used for making
sandals, and the restaurants specialised in fish dishes, and the bustle of every
day life...
Ravello
Founded probably in the 4th century a.C. by Roman
populations escaping from barbarians, Ravello is situated in a splendid
position, on a rocky spur astride the Dragon's and Reginna's Valleys. It is
situated in a more elevated position than the other pearls of the Amalfi Coast
and it can boast exceptional landscapes that have earned Villa Cimbrone's
terrace the name of "Terrace of Infinity". The writer Andre Gide has given us a
splendid and synthetic description: "Ravello is nearer to the sky than it is to
the shore". It already enjoyed a good economic development when it was part of
the Amalfi Republic, but Ravello rebelled against the Republic when the Amalfi
people betrayed the Norman king.
Roberta il Guiscardo in 1081, electing their own Doge.
Ravello refused to follow the Amalfi people towards betrayal and deserved the
appellation of Rebello, from which today its name still derives, by the Amalfi
population. However, in that occasion, it had the support of Pope Vittore III
who firstly redeemed it from subordination to Amalfi, making it a bishop's
palace and subsequently (1086) making it an Episcopal seat.
Amalfi
Amalfi is first mentioned in the 6th
century, and soon acquired importance as a maritime power, trading its grain,
salt and slaves from the interior, and even timber, for the gold dinars minted
in Egypt and Syria, in order to buy the silks of the Byzantine empire that it
resold in the West. Merchants of Amalfi were using gold coins to purchase land
in the 9th century, while most of Italy worked in a barter economy. In the 8th
and 9th century, when Mediterranean trade revived it shared with Gaeta the
Italian trade with the East, while Venice was in its infancy, and in 848 its
fleet went to the assistance of Pope Leo IV against the Saracens.
Amalfi occupied a high position in medieval architecture;
its cathedral of Sant' Andrea, of the eleventh century, the campanile, the convent of the
Capuccini, founded by, richly represent the artistic movement prevailing in Southern
Italy at the time of the Normans, with its tendency to blend the Byzantine style
with the forms and sharp lines of the northern architecture.
Texts in english of the website: www.amalficoast.com
To lodge in the Amalfi Coast
