Salerno Travel Guide: The Gateway to the Amalfi Coast

Salerno is the most underrated city in the Campania region. While tourists flood Amalfi and Positano, Salerno — larger, cheaper, better-connected, and equally beautiful in its own way — remains a working Italian city with excellent food, a magnificent Norman cathedral, and a historic medical school that was the most important in medieval Europe. It is also the best base for exploring the Amalfi Coast (ferries from the port, less traffic than driving from Naples) and the Cilento coast to the south.

The city

The Duomo di Salerno (Cathedral of San Matteo) was founded by Robert Guiscard in 1076 and contains the tomb of St. Matthew. The Atrium (with ancient Roman columns) and the 12th-century bronze doors cast in Constantinople are the key features. The underground archaeological area beneath the cathedral is accessible and contains Roman remains.

The Lungomare Trieste — the palm-lined seafront promenade — is one of the most pleasant in southern Italy. The evening passeggiata here is a genuine local institution.

The Historic Centre (Centro Storico) is a compact medieval maze. The Via dei Mercanti is the main market street, with ceramics, food shops, and small restaurants in its porticoed lane.

The medical school legacy

The Scuola Medica Salernitana was the first and for several centuries the most important medical university in Europe (9th–13th centuries). The Trotula (a treatise on women’s medicine) and Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum (health advice in verse) were produced here and influenced European medicine for centuries.

Base for the Amalfi Coast

Salerno has ferries to Positano, Amalfi, and Minori from April to October. Accommodation is significantly cheaper than on the coast itself, and the journey to the main Amalfi towns takes 30–60 minutes by ferry.