The story of this place
Clinging to near-vertical cliffs where the Lattari mountains plunge into the Tyrrhenian Sea, Amalfi was, from around 839, one of Italy's four powerful maritime republics, its merchants trading across the Byzantine and Arab Mediterranean. Tradition credits an Amalfitan, Flavio Gioia, with perfecting the maritime compass, and the town's 'Tavole Amalfitane' were among the earliest codes of maritime law, used across the Mediterranean for centuries. Its striped Arab-Norman cathedral of St Andrew, reached by a dramatic staircase, holds relics said to be the apostle's. A catastrophic sea-storm and earthquake in 1343 sank much of the medieval port beneath the waves, ending its power. The coast's terraced lemon groves and pastel villages are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.