At the mouth of Valle dei Mulini (Mills' Valley), Amalfi overlooks the sea with its characteristic set of white houses on the rocks, narrow streets among arches, ancient towers to guard the town. Amalfi is a very picturesque town, characterized by enchanting panoramic views and cliffs rising sheer from the sea: a real Eden with a gentle climate, delightful beaches, buildings clinging to the rocky slope. The architectural value of its monuments, the beauty of the landscape and of the seaside, its traditions and food have made it an incomparable place, so that Renato Fucini said: "when people from Amalfi will go to Paradise, it will be for them an ordinary day".

The most reliable legend about the origins of Amalfi tells the epic adventure of a group of Roman families who, under the empire of Constantine, decided to leave from Ravenna and move to Constantinople (the actual Istambul) but they were caught in a storm and obliged to take refuge on the Dalmatia coast. They interpreted what happened as an ill omen, so they changed their course and steered towards the Tyrrhenian Sea, where they founded a small village near the actual Palinuro, named Melphe. From there they continued to explore the nearest places and found a sheltered location with plenty of fresh water, where they decide to settle a colony: the village of people who came from Melphe, "a Melphe" in latin, the future Amalfi.

After the fall of Roman Empire, Amalfi was the first town to establish commecial relations with the Eastern Roman Empire, carrying and selling in the whole Southern Italy many exotic and luxury goods as carpets, silk, spices, paper. So Amalfi was the first among the Four Maritime Republics and reached its top during the 10th and 11th centuries, with merchant colonies in the main harbours of the Mediterannean Sea: Byzantium, Alexandria, Beirut, Cyprus. The Maritime Laws of the city, explaned in the famous "Tabula Amalphitana" (Amalfi's Board), were for centuries the international mercantile code accepted and taken as model.

In the 12th century, after the Norman conquest, Amalfi lost its importance in the Mediterranean commerce and had to be content with a modest local role. The new dynasties ruling over Naples and the Southern Italy will have been supported in their conquests by other Maritime Republics (first Pisa and then Genoa) that will receive in exchange the monopoly of the international commerce. After a long period of decadance, in the 19th century Amalfi was rediscovered as a touristic and cultural destination by many foreign travellers, thanks to the new Romantic sensibility: so its landscapes, monuments, scenes of daily life, became cause of inspiration for painters, architect, writers coming from all parts of Europe.  [ More...]