Antichi gesti e saper fare
The itinerary brings the visitor along local knowledge streets which have been hand down among different generations but they have been able to preserve the essence and sacredness of each gesture. Departing from Amalfi handmade paper, which derives by working of cotton cloths and by the clever use of water of Chiarito torrent, to objects in wrought iron whose production was quite spread in Costiera Amalfitana, linking together both coast and mountain villages, to the creation of daily used potteries from unrefined clay but also of floors which decorates churches and palaces, to the working of palm leaves which generate masterpieces not very known but which have great impact on the observer, to the clothes produced in taylor’s shops in Positano, to baskets created with young chestnut trees grown up on Tramonti mountains all this shows know how lernt and developed during centuries into the beauty of these objects.
Handmade paper became the elite product at Italian and foreign courts; hand-rails of balconies of the most important residences, but also big braziers which once were used to warm houses with bells which covered them and which were masterpieces, testify an artistic taste infecting also simple craftsmen.
Coloured potteries, which made Vietri famous all around the world, represent pictures coming from sea world (nice polypus on the bottom of plates) or from agricultural world (the donkey, which is the life fellow of the Costiera Amalfitana).
The so called “palmette” woven by women from Conca dei Marini represent one of the most important present to exchange on Palm Sunday after blessing them. Positano clothes with their loud colours propose again the use of natural fibres and poor material rolled into an interesting fashionable mix.
Baskets which once were used to carry agricultural products from fields to house or to the market and the bigger ones accommodated the last born baby that in this way immediately came into touch with smell of its territory, today represent objects for careful visitors to genius loci of the Coast.
The door of the itinerary in Positano introduces the visitor to a world, which connecting municipalities rich of different stories, allows to have a fast exchange of thematic readings of the territory.
The route is feasible by travel by own car along State Road 163, which from Vietri sul Mare reaches Positano, passing through the towns of Amalfi and Conca dei Marini and making a detour to Via Nuova Chiunzi, which leads from Maiori to Tramonti and Scala, or by using public services, with interchanges at the main resorts on the Coast. The route can also be used in an alternative way by using the sea link services, which are implemented in the spring and summer period, but do not allow to reach all the municipalities involved.