Amalfi

The town of Amalfi occupies a narrow ravine where a mountain torrent meets the sea, with the 9th-century Cathedral of Sant'Andrea and its striped Arab-Norman facade dominating the central piazza at the head of the port. Once the capital of a powerful medieval maritime republic, Amalfi retains fragmentary walls, an ancient paper mill museum, and a cloister built in the Moorish style. The surrounding valley, cut by the Valle delle Ferriere trail, contains one of the last ancient plane-tree forests of the Mediterranean.