14 Facts About Amalfi

Amalfi is a town and comune in the province of Salerno, in the region of Campania, Italy, on the Gulf of Salerno.

The town of Amalfi was the capital of the maritime republic known as the Duchy of Amalfi, an important trading power in the Mediterranean between 839 and around 1200.

Patron saint of Amalfi is Saint Andrew, the Apostle, whose relics are kept here at Amalfi Cathedral .

Amalfi held importance as a maritime power, trading grain from its neighbours, salt from Sardinia and slaves from the interior, and even timber, in exchange for the gold dinars minted in Egypt and Syria, in order to buy the Byzantine silks that it resold in the West.

Grain-bearing Amalfi traders enjoyed privileged positions in the Islamic ports, Fernand Braudel notes.

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The Amalfi tables provided a maritime code that was widely used by the Christian port cities.

Merchants of Amalfi were using gold coins to purchase land in the 9th century, while most of Italy worked in a barter economy.

An independent republic from the 7th century until 1073, Amalfi extracted itself from Byzantine vassalage in 839 and first elected a duke in 958; it rivalled Pisa and Genoa in its domestic prosperity and maritime importance before the rise of the Republic of Venice.

In medieval culture Amalfi was famous for its flourishing schools of law and mathematics.

Amalfi has a long history of catering for visitors, with two former monasteries being converted to hotels at a relatively early date, the Luna Convento in the second decade of the 19th century and the Cappuccini Convento in the 1880s.

Amalfi coast is famed for its production of Limoncello liqueur and the area is a known cultivator of lemons.

Amalfi is a known maker of a hand-made thick paper which is called "bambagina".

The paper has a high quality and has been used by artists such as Giuseppe Leone, who described it: "There is a whole world that the Amalfi paper evokes and an artist who is sensitive to the suggestion of these places is aware that it is unique and exciting".

Port of Amalfi has passenger connections to Capri, Positano, Maiori, Minori, Cetara and Salerno.