Amalfi coast
Amalfi was founded by the Romans,it was a trading centre in the sixth century, and in 839 AD, became the first Italian maritime republic. It waged war with Genoa and Pisa for centuries for mastery of the Tyrrhenian Sea and was at the peak of tis splendour around 1000. Its was sacked and destroyed by the Pisans in 1135 and this marked then beginning of its decline. After the fall of the Roman Empire, it was the first city to re-establish relationships between East and West by transporting and introducing into Italy exotic merchandise such as carpets, coffee and paper. Amalfi is full of steps and every street hides a square, where in the past people used to sell his merchandise.You can visit the Cathedral "Il Duomo" which was built in the eleventh century, rebuilt in the Arab-Norman style in the twelfth and further altered in the eighteenth. The bell tower was built between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. You can also visit the arsenal of the Republic which is a Gothic construction, the Civic Museum containing the Tabula Amalphitana which is the oldest navigational manual in the world, the Cloister of Paradise built on the 13th century in Arabian style and the Ancient Armouries of the Amalfi Republic, dating back to the 9th century.
