The Maritime Republic

Carol and Roger finally made it to a town that was founded after the Roman Empire.  The town is Amalfi…in the heart of the Amalfi Coast.  It took Gail and Morris Rosenberg to drag us this far south.

The Amalfi Coast, that famous tourist destination, lies on the south side of the Sorrento peninsula, mid-way between Napoli and Salerno.

The day Gail, Morris, Carol and Roger set out to explore the 25 miles of coastline along SS163, it was foggy, rainy and wet.  Even then, the scenery was breathtaking.

The first recorded mention of the Amalfi Coast comes from Homer’s Odyssey.  Legend has it that these two islands were the place that Odysseus was tempted by the sirens and had to put wax in his ears to keep their singing from luring his ship onto the rocks.

Ancestors of boatmen like these have plied the rocky waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea for millennia.  

About the time of the fall of the Roman Empire, towns started to spring up along the rocky coast.  Some became thriving fishing villages.  By the year 839, the town of Amalfi became a duchy, extended its rule to the villages surrounding it, and then one of three Maritime Republics on the Italian peninsula…the other two being Genoa and Venice.

Up until the end of the first millennium, the Maritime Republic of Amalafi was the Italian center of trade with the Eastern Mediterranean.  As a prosperous trade center, it was the target of a series of invasions.  

The Turks were first in 848. This watch tower to the right was one of several built along the Amalfi Coast to keep an eye out for a repeat Turkish performance.  

However, it was not the Turks, but the Normans who invaded next…in 1073.  

After Pisa invaded in 1133, the Maritime Republic disintegrated and was overtaken by Venice are the hub of Italian trade.  The once-prosperous trade center reverted to a series of sleepy fishing villages.  The population moved away and is now one-quarter what it once was.

The terrain along the cost is so steep, agriculture was almost impossible.  Where they could farm, farmers grew lemons, and this area became the home of the aperitif Lemoncello.

The locals made their living from the sea and thought of this rock looked like Garabaldi and would protect them from the hazards of fishing and sea trade.

Starting in 1282, the King of Aragon established himself as the King of Naples.  For the next 600 years, Spain would contest the French and various local nobility for dominion over Sicily and southern Italy.  The Spanish influence is reflected in much of the local architecture.

The Amalfi Coast remained a picturesque secret until the early 20th century when the British well-to-do started to vacation here.  In 1953, John Steinbeck published story in Harper’s Bazaar praising the beauty of the coastline.  Things have never been the same since.

The Amalfi Coast has become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Now, hundreds of tourist busses  clog the narrow roads between Amalfi and Revello daily.







 Celebrities, some even more famous than the Bergsons or Rosenbergs, flock here to vacation.

The coast has become home to Italy’s most rich and famous…like this villa where Sophia Loren comes to enjoy the sea.