Surroundings

The blue of the sea, the green of the Mediterranean bush and terraced lemon cultivations merge with the characteristic architecture to create one of Italy’s most beautiful landscapes: The Amalfi Coast.

The winding road creeps into deep valleys, coils around spurs of rock jutting out onto the sea, goes down towards the beach and comes back up again, in a breath-taking succession of picturesque views.

A unique landscape, a combination of bays, coves, sheer drops and boroughs perched on the mountains. Atrani, a picturesque pattern of alleys and stairways, overlooking a sea rich in spectacular colours, is the landscape that will leave you spellbound before you reach Amalfi, the town the whole coastline is named after. Dominated by the majestic cathedral dedicated to Sant’Andrea, it offers fascinating testimonies of its glorious past as a Marine Republic.

Furore, which lies just a few kilometres away, can indeed be defined an open-air contemporary art gallery, with its characteristic murals covering houses, public buildings and small squares.

There are many routes to explore, to reach the heart of this land, with its intense scent of agave, prickly pears, mastic tree and rosemary.

And yet Furore is known especially for its Fiord, a vision you wouldn’t expect, a spectacular display of nature’s force.

Positano, a real piece of heaven on earth, a crib-like town, built like a nativity scene soaring up vertically from the Spiaggia Grande in an intricate accumulation of roads, alleys and shops displaying colourful clothes in Positano Fashion, famous all over the world.

The great majolica clad cupola of the parish church of Santa Maria Assunta, with its many treasures and polychrome marble altars, stands out watching over the centre of the town. Facing it, far out in the the blue waters of the sea, the “Sirenuse”, four small islands, appear like eternal jewels on the horizon.

Another pearl of the Amalfi Coast is Ravello, an elegant and refined borough, immersed in greenery and characterised by its aristocratic villas. It is famous throughout the world for its Festival, held in the gardens of Villa Rufolo, where the picturesque setting blends with great music to give audiences an exceptionally intense experience. The heart of Ravello is Piazza Vescovado, framed by the architecture of Villa Rufolo and the Cathedral, with its magnificent portal, the first to be made with an innovative mould technique, and the 35 metre tall belfry.

The medieval borough of Atrani features narrow alleys, arches, courtyards, small piazzas and characteristic steps called “scalinatelle”. It is in a spectacular vantage position, with the monumental complex of Santa Maria Maddalena, with a baroque façade, lively majolica-clad cupola and elegant square-plan bell tower, having become the symbol of the town.

Minori is a pleasant sea resort that combines the charms of the landscape and sea with a cultural tourism offer that has its focus in the archaeological complex of the Roman Villa, where the constructive genius of the romans can be admired together with the Antiquarium Museum, featuring an exhibition of various finds of the time.

Praiano is an antique and quiet fisherman borough that offers visitors a landscape of great naturalistic beauty and richness in craftsmanship linked to the traditional production of silk and ancient trades passed on over the centuries, just like the artistic ceramics from Vietri Sul Mare, decorated with the beautiful colours of its local production.

Scala, Maiori, Cetara and Conca dei Marini shouldn’t be missed either, as they are like jewel boxes containing precious historical testimonies and natural beauty, and all of them deserve to be visited.