Amalfi Net hotels

HISTORY ABOUT AMALFI

The origin of the town is not a certain one. The name comes from Latina (from Melfi, a Lucan sea village abandoned by Roman people in IV century a.C. or maybe from Roman gens Amarfia, that lived in I century a.C.). A legend tells that the name comes from Amalfi, a nymph loved by Hercules. She was buried there as a desire of the gods. Amalfi was surely inhabited by Romans, escaped on Lattari mounts to hide from Germanic and Longobard invasions. It was a castrum in defence of Byzantine ducat of Naples. The town had a privileged relation to Byzantium thanks to its ability in the commerce. Amalfi people invented the compass and spread its use in the Mediterranean sea in the first half of XIII century.The famous “mythic” inventor Flavio Gioia never existed even if a monument in the main square of Amalfi was dedicated to him by an artist from Cava de’ Tirreni, Alfonso Balzico. An ancient Amalfi tradition tells that a man, Giovanni Gioia, was the person who invented the compass. Sailors from Amalfi were able to manage commercial relations to all the towns of Mediterranean Sea, also to Saracens. Read more