Amalfi was once the capital of a maritime republic that traded across the Mediterranean, and it is hard to believe, looking at the small, crowded town squeezed into a ravine at the water's edge. For a few centuries around the year 1000, it rivalled Pisa and Venice, with a fleet that sailed to Constantinople, Egypt and Syria, and a population many times larger than it has now. Its maritime laws, the Tabula Amalphitana, were respected in ports across the sea. A great earthquake and storm in the fourteenth century swept much of the old town into the sea, and Amalfi never regained its power.
Its cathedral, dedicated to Saint Andrew, still dominates the main square, with a striped facade of black and white and gold mosaic, approached by a broad flight of steps, and a bronze door cast in Constantinople in the eleventh century. Next to it, the Cloister of Paradise is a quiet courtyard with slender columns and palms. The town was also famous for paper-making, and a museum in an old paper mill in the Valley of the Mills explains how it was done, with water-powered hammers and handmade sheets, and shops still sell the paper.
Lemons are the local pride, big, fragrant and sweet, grown on terraces carved into the cliffs and shaded by wooden pergolas. They go into limoncello, in pastry, in granita and in the food at every restaurant, and a glass of fresh lemon juice on a hot day is a small miracle. The small town of Atrani, a few hundred metres away, is a tiny, whitewashed village and quieter than Amalfi, and a short walk away.
The coast road to and from Amalfi is spectacular and demanding, with hairpins and tunnels and a great deal of traffic, particularly buses, so patience is needed. The harbour area has parking, but spaces fill quickly, and motorcycles are usually easier to place than cars. Amalfi has about five thousand people, with a few stations nearby, and Maiori, about four kilometres along the coast, is another source of fuel and supplies. Visit in spring or autumn if you can, when the crowds are smaller and the light is soft.