Amalfi is a health and seaside resort laid out at different levels at the top of a cliff on the Amalfi coast, at the end if the Mulini valley. It was founded by the Romans, was a trading centre in the sixth century, and in 839 AD, became the first Italian maritime republic. It waged war with Genoa and Pisa for centuries for mastery of the Tyrrhenian Sea and was at the peak of its splendour around 1000. Iit was sacked and destroyed by the Pisans in 1135 and this marked the beginning of its decline. It passed thereafter into the power of various feudal lordships and eventually became part of the kingdom of Naples whose fate it followed.
You can visit the Cathedral which was built in the eleventh century, rebuilt in the Arab-Norman style in the twelfth and further altered in the eighteenth. The bell tower was built between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The thirteenth century “Paradise” cloisters, surrounded by an elegant portico with pointed, interwoven arches and supporting columns, was built by Archbishop Filippo Augustariccio as a sepulchre for illustrious people of the town. You can also visit the arsenal of the Republic which is a grandiose Gothic construction, the Cappuccini Hotel which was a thirteenth century convent with cloisters and a loggia, the Civic Museum containing the Tabula Amalphitana which is the oldest navigational manual in the world, and the map museum.
Getting there
By train: Vietri sul Mare Station, 19 km
By car: A 3 motorway, exit at Vietri toll booths (20 km)
By ferry: from Camerota, Capri, Ischia, Naples and Salerno