Prestigious buildings
This itinerary introduces the visitor to a little-known aspect of the Coast.
The housing structures that make up the historic building, spread throughout the territory, show characters that have their own reason only in relation to the climate or the economy of the area.
The use of the extrados vault above all in the context of the farmhouses, i.e. built when the terraces were so far from the urban center that it became uneconomical to go to the plot of land every day and return to the center in the evening, reveals a close relationship with the need to facilitate the collection of rainwater, which was stored in cisterns dug under the houses, with the desire to have a healthy climate by making little use of heating by fireplace (usually it was the one in the kitchen located on the lower floor) and ensuring the ventilation of the exposed part of the attic through the construction of a pergola above the vault, used for the cultivation of vines (the vine having more leaves in summer constituted a cover under which a current of air was generated).
Another important element of vernacular architecture is the plan structure of many houses: a central courtyard which was accessed from a sometimes decorated door.
Numerous rooms opened onto the courtyard which served for the storage of goods and from this one accessed the upper floors which were intended for the owner.
The door of the path in Amalfi allows you to easily reach these testimonies, to see which you need to use the stairs that connect the terraces.
In order to better grasp this interpretation of the territory, it is necessary to use the terraced streets, which serve the agricultural terraces and which therefore form part of this same system of landscape construction. For Amalfi, Via Maestra dei Villaggi is interesting, which leads from Lone and Pastena to the center of Amalfi; for Ravello both the pedestrian road that leads to Minori, and the one that from the area adjacent to Villa Cimbrone arrives in the locality of S. Cosma, allow you to cross lemon groves with very suggestive landscape views. In Scala, the road that leads from Minuta to the hamlet of Pontone has the same characteristics. The terraces of Tramonti, less steep, are best enjoyed walking through the numerous hamlets that make up the municipality.