Located : Around the Bay of Naples Campania Region

The town was founded around the 6th century BC by the Osci or Oscans, a people of central Italy, on a hill near the mouth of the Sarno River or Sarnus River, already in use as a safe port by Greek and Phoenician sailors. When the Etruscans threatened an attack, Pompeii allied with the Greeks, who then dominated the Gulf of Naples. In the 5th century BC, the Samnites conquered it (and all the other towns of Campania); the new rulers imposed their architecture and enlarged the town. It has been supposed that during the Samnites' domination, Rome conquered Pompeii for a while, but these theories have not been verified.

Pompeii took part in the war that the towns of Campania initiated against Rome, but in 89 BC it was besieged by Sulla. Although the troops of the Social League, headed by Lucius Cluentius, helped in resisting the Romans, in 80 BC Pompeii was forced to surrender after the conquest of Nola. It became a Roman colony with the name of Colonia Cornelia Veneria Pompeianorum. The town became an important passage for goods that arrived by sea and had to be sent toward Rome or Southern Italy along the nearby Appian Way.

In 62 a violent earthquake severely damaged Pompeii and many other towns of Campania. In the time between 62 and 79 (the eruption), it was rebuilt, perhaps richer than before in houses and artworks.

The town offers a snapshot of Roman life in the 1st century. This moment in time shows that Pompeii was a lively place before the eruption, and evidence abounds of literally the smallest details of everyday life. For example, on the floor of one of the houses (Sirico's), a famous inscription Salve, lucru (Welcome, money), perhaps humorously intended, shows us a trading company owned by two partners, Sirico and Nummianus (but this could be a nickname, since nummus means coin, money). In other houses, details abound concerning professions and categories, such as for the "laundry" workers (Fullones). Wine jars have been found bearing what is apparently the world's earliest known marketing pun, Vesuvinum. Graffiti carved on the walls shows us real street Latin.

At the time of the eruption, the town could have had some 20,000 inhabitants, and was located in an area in which Romans had their vacation villas. Many services were found: the Macellum (great food market), the Pistrinum (mill), the Thermopolia (sort of bar that served cold and hot beverages), the cauporioe (small restaurants), and an amphitheater.

Sorrento is famous for the production of limoncello, an alcoholic digestif made from lemon rinds, alcohol, water and sugar. Ferry boats and hydrofoils provide services to Naples, Amalfi, Positano, Capri and Ischia. Sorrento's sea cliffs are impressive and its luxury hotels have attracted famous personalities, including Enrico Caruso and Luciano Pavarotti.

Many civilizations have passed through here: the Etruscans, the Greeks (who gave the city its urban layout that is still clearly visible today in the historical centre), the Oscans, the Romans. Later the subjugation to Byzantium, the sack by the Longobards, the conquest by the Normans, the good influence of the Aragonese. After a long period of stagnation, the beginning of the 1700s saw a period of cultural, economic and social rebirth for the whole Sorrentine peninsula, which reached its climax during the 1800s. This was the period when the tourist vocation of this arca was born and was established with its inclusion in the so-called "Grand Tour", a journey through the most important Italian sights that every noble European son of the time had to make to complete his cultural, historical and literary formation. Thus distinguished guests such as Byron, Keats, Scott, Dickens, Goethe, Wagner, lbsen and Nitzsche, to just mention the most famous, came to stay in Sorrento in search of sun and inspiration.

Sorrento is home to the famous restaurant Don Alfonso that holds 3 Michelin stars, located in the nearby village of Sant’Agata.

Positano was a prosperous port of the Amalfi Republic in the 16th and 17th centuries. But by the mid-19th century, the town had fallen on hard times. More than half the population emigrated, mostly to the United States of America. Positano was a relatively poor fishing village during the first half of the 20th century. It began to attract large numbers of tourists in the 1950s, especially after John Steinbeck published his essay about Positano in Harper's Bazaar in May, 1953: "Positano bites deep", Steinbeck wrote. "It is a dream place that isn't quite real when you are there and becomes beckoningly real after you have gone."

Protected from the Northern winds by the Lattari Mountains, Positano has a mild and dry climate. Its small white houses cling, in tiers to the rock face all huddled on top of each other forming a perfect canvas for the bright flowers which decorate them.