Day Tour to Positano, Amalfi & Ravello from Sorrento
Two hours in Amalfi is enough for the Duomo, the cloister and the paper museum.
From $109 per person
Check AvailabilityThe History of the Amalfi Coast
For four hundred years this coast was a state. It wrote the maritime code the Mediterranean used until 1570, lost its harbour to a wave in 1343, and did not get a road until a Bourbon king ordered one in 1832. Almost everything you see from the water is a consequence of one of those three facts.
A republic on a cliff, 839 to 1073
Amalfi broke away from the Duchy of Naples in 839 and governed itself from then until 1073. It elected its first duke in 958. Between 839 and around 1200 it was one of the important trading powers of the Mediterranean, with agents in Constantinople, Egypt and North Africa, and it grew rich on carrying goods rather than on producing them.
The geography that makes the coast difficult now is what made it defensible then. There was no road along it, the valleys behind were mountain, and the only practical approach was by sea — which suited a state whose entire business was ships.
The Tavole amalfitane and the law of the sea
Amalfi's lasting export was not cloth or spice but law. The Tavole amalfitane, the Amalfi Tables, set out how a ship, a cargo and a crew were to be treated, and the code was recognised across the Mediterranean until 1570. Five hundred years is a long life for any legal instrument, and it is the reason a town of a few thousand people appears in maritime histories at all.
Pisa, 1137, and the end of the trade
The republic's independence ended in 1073, and the trading position went with the Pisan sack of 1137. Pisa and Genoa were rising, Amalfi's fleet was not, and the money moved north. What survived was the population, the terraces and the churches the money had already paid for.
The wave of 1343
On a November night in 1343 a tsunami destroyed Amalfi's port and lower town. The harbour works never came back, and the town has never since been more than locally important. Stand on the seafront today and the flat ground you are on is the part that was rebuilt; the medieval town went straight up the valley behind, which is why the Duomo's steps climb from the piazza rather than facing it.
Paper, from an Arab technique to an Amalfi mill
Amalfi was among the first paper-making centres in Europe, and it learned the craft from the Arab world it traded with. The mills stood in the Valle dei Mulini, the valley behind the town where the water came down fast enough to drive them. One mill still works as a museum, and the heavy cotton-rag sheet it makes is the same product that once went out by ship.
The Bourbon road, 1832 to 1850
Until the nineteenth century the towns of this coast were reached on foot, by mule path or by boat. In 1832 Ferdinand II of Bourbon, King of Naples, ordered a road built along the peninsula, and it was widened, bridged and buttressed through to about 1850. That road is the modern SS163, and it is still the only way along the coast by land.
Everything the coast has become since — the hotels, the day trips, the traffic — dates from it. The Amalfi Drive covers what it is like to travel on now.
From the Grand Tour to the World Heritage List, 1997
The road brought carriages, then cars, then the twentieth century. Writers and painters came first, hotels followed, and by the 1950s the coast had a reputation that has not shifted since. On 7 December 1997 UNESCO inscribed the Costiera Amalfitana on the World Heritage List under three cultural criteria, describing it as an outstanding example of a Mediterranean landscape produced by its topography and its history. The inscribed area covers 11,231 hectares.
What is protected is not one building. It is the relationship between the cliffs, the terraces cut into them, the towns wedged into the valleys and the sea in front — which is why the lemon pergolas on the food and wine page are part of the listing as much as the churches are.
The coast in dates
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 596 | Atrani is documented as a settlement |
| 839 | Amalfi breaks from the Duchy of Naples and governs itself |
| 958 | The first duke of Amalfi is elected |
| 1073 | Independence ends |
| 11th century | The cathedral of Sant'Andrea is built at Amalfi |
| 1137 | Pisa sacks Amalfi; the trading position is lost for good |
| 1206 | The relics of Saint Andrew arrive from Constantinople |
| 1270 | Villa Rufolo is built at Ravello |
| 1343 | A tsunami destroys Amalfi's port and lower town |
| until 1570 | The Tavole amalfitane remain in force across the Mediterranean |
| 1832–1850 | Ferdinand II's coast road is ordered, built and opened |
| 1880 | Wagner visits Villa Rufolo and finds Klingsor's garden there |
| 1953 | The Ravello Festival begins, in Wagner's honour |
| 1995 | Costa d'Amalfi becomes a DOC, with Ravello, Furore and Tramonti as subzones |
| 1997 | The Costiera Amalfitana is inscribed on the World Heritage List |
| 2020 | Colatura di Alici di Cetara becomes Italy's first DOP fishery product |
Almost all of it is still visible from the water, which is the argument for seeing the coast by boat at least once. Compare guided Amalfi Coast tours if you would rather have somebody point it out as you pass.
Days that take in the history
Pompeii and Herculaneum Small Group Tour with an Archaeologist
The Roman layer, an hour up the coast, with somebody who has excavated.
From $75 per person
Check AvailabilityPrivate Tour Amalfi Coast from Sorrento
Nine hours and a driver-guide, which is how you get to Scala and Atrani as well.
From $331 per person
Check AvailabilityMore on what each town holds is on the towns of the coast, and the full tour list is on Amalfi Coast Italy Tours.