Before Genoa and Venice there was Amalfi: between the ninth and eleventh centuries, Italy's oldest maritime republic laid down the law of the seas with its Tavole Amalfitane, the maritime code used across the Mediterranean for centuries. The cathedral of Sant'Andrea atop its monumental staircase, with Byzantine-flavoured façade and the Cloister of Paradise, enthrones that memory.
In the Valley of the Mills the famous bambagina paper was made: the paper museum tells the story in a medieval works. Terraced lemon groves, lanes beneath arches and the ferry pier for Positano and Capri: the Coast takes its name — and keeps its heart — here.
Near Amalfi
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
