Amalfi Coast

The territory

Amalfi Coast is situated on the Sorrento peninsula. We find the "Lattari mountain", which rocks are "calcareous-dolomitic". The ground of the coast is very fertile, thanks to the Vesuvio's eructions that has always been covert by pyroclastic materials. The highest crew of the Peninsula of Sorrento are "monte S. Angelo a tre pizzi", 1443 mts high, above Positano, "monte Cerreto", 1316 mts high, near Ravello. Following the Lattari Mountain we meet other crews, "monte Rotondo","monte Candelotto" and "monte Finestra". This last crew throw itself in the Tirreno Sea, from Cape "d'Orso". The coast has many valley, born throught the water erosion of little river, as Canneto, Dragonea, Sambuco and where the people built our towns. The clima of the coast is typically mediterranian, but we can find some micro-clima as in the "Valle delle Ferriere", between Amalfi and Scala, rich of water, where leave some rare ferns, like the "woodwardia radicans".   people and activities trade During the XVIII century, Amalfi Coast knew the first form of tourism. But only in the last 50 years of the XX century, the coast had ore attention thanks to its panorama, its nature, its places, discovered by VIPS and appreciated by all tourists that come here. The tourism became the first activity on the coast, while some types of trade are disappointed. Neverthless, some artisans still works leather, silk or produce hand paper, hand pasta. On the coast there are less of 40.000 inhabitants. The biggest town is Vietri sul Mare, while Conca dei Marini is the smallest. Different is the area of the towns, where the biggest isTramonti (about 25 Kmq), while Atrani the smallest, it's also one of the smaller in Italy, with its 0,10 kmq. Atrani has another record too, it has the biggest density of inhabitants on the coast.     undersea photos photos made by Addabbo G. all rights reserved the grotta dello Smeraldo  The Amalfi's coast il rich of Caves, built through the water erosion on the calcareous rocks. Between these caves, there is one, called "Grotta dello Smeraldo", that has typical karst and marine caves element.  In the beginning the cave was above the sea and, during this age,  stalactites and stalagmites took shape. Slowly, when the sea level rised on the coast, the cave was partially flooted up by the sea. Today, the cave is connected to the sea through an tunnel 12 mts long and at 4 mts deep. the fiordo di Furore   When we leave Amalfi to go to Positano, we meet, after atunnel a wonderful panorama. We aren't in Norvey, but we discover a little fjord  built by the water erosion of the "Schiato" river, on the calcareous rocks of the coast. The fjord is 300 mts high, in the maximum point. Between pre-history and history The pre-history of the coast began in the "Stone age"; It was discovered some signes of human activities  in the "Grotta di S.Andrea" in Amalfi, when the cave was far to the sea, how it's showed to another cave called "grotta dello Smeraldo". This cave, today on the seaside, shows many stalagmites and stalactites built more than 32000 years ago, that couldn't shaped in the sea. Other signs of human  presences on the coast, was discovered in Positano, in the cave called "la Porta", where they found deers and steinbock remains. When the clima changed, about 6000 years ago, and began warmer, the sea flooded wide areas of the coast. We can tell that,  about 3000 years ago, began the historic age of the coast (it's the Bronze age) and in Tramonti there was human places. But the history began when Roma, with its aristocracy, discovered the coast and built wonderful villas everywhere.