Hello dear travel lovers. During our visit to the Amalfi Coast, after Salerno and Maiori, we went down to Minori. The heat was terrible. Our first thought was to find a supermarket and buy some water. But it was siesta time in Italy. Nothing was open until 4:30 pm. Even the chain supermarkets were closed. In the entire town, only a small grocery store far from the beach was open. Minori means smaller and it really lives up to its name. It is a tiny, very charming village by the sea. Staying here for a few nights is actually a very sensible option. At least the prices are not extremely high and there is a fairly wide area for swimming. Another big plus is that the legendary pastry shop and restaurant Sal de Riso is located here. Let me warn you in advance: both the quantity and the quality of the desserts here are dangerously good. If you plan to visit Minori, be careful.
I noticed something interesting. Locals usually do not swim, they just stand in the water. Minori has a huge designated swimming area. This space is not for boats, it is reserved for swimmers. Yet all the vacationers gathered along that very narrow strip by the shore. In Italian there is a wonderful verb that sounds very pleasant: bagnarsi. It means to get into the water, to play around in it. Of course, there is a separate verb for swimming, but all the vacationers here clearly preferred bagnarsi. Almost no one had swimming goggles and certainly no swim caps. Nobody was really swimming, yet there was this massive area available. This was not unique to Minori, it was the same in all the coastal villages.
We returned to our hotel in Maiori by the regular road along the water. The walk took no more than 15 minutes. The evening passed with dinner at the same restaurant again and some time to relax by the seaside. The next day, our schedule was very busy. We left early in the morning and went to the town of Amalfi. We got there by bus. The ride takes about 15 to 20 minutes and costs 1.5 euros.
There is one problem though: tickets. You cannot pay with a bank card or Apple Pay. On top of that, there is no ticket machine at the stop. You need to find a local Antonio, meaning a newsstand or a tobacconist that sells tickets. We did not know this, so we barely caught the bus. Keep this in mind. You also have to validate your tickets. Yes, you heard that right. To buy a bus ticket, you do not go to the bus or even necessarily to the stop. Sometimes you do not even go to a tobacconist, but to a souvenir shop that also sells newspapers and tickets. These places are not open 24 hours a day, so if you are leaving your hotel early, it is very important to buy your ticket in advance.
You might be wondering why this entire coastline is named after such a small village, even if it is beautiful. The reason is that Amalfi, unlike its neighboring settlements, was once a very large and important city. At its peak, from the fall of the Roman Empire until the 10th century, its population reached around 50,000. Amalfi was a port large enough to be compared with Genoa, Pisa and even Venice. It was competing with them for the title of the main port of the Italian peninsula. Because of this, wealth, cultural heritage and trade were at their highest level here.
In addition to this, Amalfi has a very important intangible heritage. The foundations of modern maritime law were laid here. Since the republic was heavily involved in trade and very wealthy, it wanted to establish its own rules, which led to the creation of the Amalfi Maritime Law. Some of these rules were quite advanced. First they concerned the rescue of crew and cargo. If a ship was damaged in a storm, the crew and cargo had to be saved before the ship itself. Compensation for workers was also defined. If a sailor was injured while working on a ship, he had the right to receive payment from the shipowner. Another important rule required merchants to carry accompanying documents at every stage of transporting their cargo. It is generally accepted that Amalfi maritime law influenced not only commercial relations on the Italian peninsula but also the development of French maritime trade law.
In terms of historical importance Amalfi is very different from the neighboring villages and is culturally much closer to Salerno. The clearest proof of this is the most important sanctuary on the Amalfi Coast, the Cathedral of Saint Andrew, built in the 10th century. It was originally constructed in the Arab Norman style, but later expanded many times with Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque elements. One of the most important relics of the church is its bronze doors, forged in Constantinople, present day Istanbul, in the 10th century. These are among the oldest doors on the entire peninsula. The cathedral complex also includes the Cloister of Paradise, the Basilica of the Crucifix, which is now a museum and the crypt that contains the remains of the Apostle Saint Andrew.
We spent a little over an hour in Amalfi in the morning and decided to stop by again on our way back. After that, the most distant and most anticipated village of the coast was waiting for us: Positano. I will talk about it in my next posts. See you again very soon, friends.