Salerno and its surrounding

The Amalfitan Coast

It is believed that the Marina from Reggio to Gaeta is the most delightful part of Italy. Here the coast way up above sea level, and very very near to Salerno, has a coastline (which the inhabitants call the Coast of Amalfi), full of little towns, gardens and fountains and the residence of wealthy men far cleverer than others in the field of commerce.

Amongst these little towns there is one called Ravello which once numbered amongst its inhabitants, just as today it numbers many righ men, an ex ceedingly wealthy man, called Landolfo Rufolo-‘This person then as was the custom among merchants, spread the news, bought a very large wooden vessel and with all his money, loaded it with various goods and set sail for Cyprus’.
Thus wrote Giovanni Boccaccio in 1349-1351 in his ‘Decameron’, The day 4th Novella.

The Amalfitan Coast already described in her glory and magnificence by the great Tuscan, father of modern narrative writing; a glory and magnificence that were to accompany Amalfi over the centuries up to the present time, in which, with the maturity of her past, she nestles with her green landscapes, her succulent lemons, her juniper-covered rocks, her beautiful sprawling villas and her perfumes, overlooking a sea of emerald green, in contemplation of her Saracen treasures.