What is Vietri sul Mare known for?

Polychrome pottery documented since the ninth century, industrially scaled in the 1920s and 1930s by German émigrés; Vietri is Città della Ceramica. The Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista green-and-yellow tiled dome, the town's signature image and the postcard of the Amalfi Coast's eastern gate. Frazione above the centro, also a Borgo più bello d'Italia, with stone lanes and views across the Gulf of Salerno toward Cetara and Capo d'Orso.

Where is Vietri sul Mare?

Vietri sul Mare is a comune in the province of Salerno, Campania region of Italy, about 10 kilometers from Salerno.

Campania · Salerno

Vietri sul Mare

The eastern end of the Amalfi Coast, the ceramics town since the fifteenth century, the gateway between Salerno and the cliff road.

10 km / 6 mi

Nearest hub (Salerno)

7,180

Population

May–Sep

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Vietri sul Mare sitsat the eastern end of the Costiera Amalfitana, the most populous commune of the UNESCO-listed coastline, separated from the port of Salerno by a single harbour wall. The polychrome ceramics tradition is documented from the ninth century, with a generally agreed start around the fifteenth, and the industrial scale-up came in the 1920s and 1930s when a small group of German émigré artists settled in the workshops and brought the bestiary-and-floral pottery the town still produces. The Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista, sixteenth century, has a green-and-yellow majolica dome that has become the town's signature image. Vietri is the only Amalfi Coast commune that holds Borghi più belli d'Italia and UNESCO together, and is a member of the Città della Ceramica network. The marina at Marina di Vietri and the cliffside frazione of Raito and Albori sit below and above the centro on the same slope.

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Gallery

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Known for

Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista
Sixteenth-century parish church with a green-and-yellow majolica dome and a bell tower of polychrome tiles, the most photographed image of the town.
Museo Provinciale della Ceramica
Ceramic museum in Villa Guariglia at Raito, with Vietri pieces from the seventeenth century through the German-period 1920s and after.
Albori
Cliffside frazione above the centro, also a Borgo più bello d'Italia, with stone houses, lanes, and views over the Gulf of Salerno.
Marina di Vietri
Pebble beach below the centro between the Crapolla and Salerno harbour walls, a working marina and one of the easier coast beaches to reach by train.
Botteghe della ceramica
Workshops along the Corso Umberto and the Via Cristoforo Costa, the active core of the Vietri ceramics industry since the early twentieth century.

When to visit

Best months · May–Sep

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

May, June, September and early October are the strongest months. The water along the Marina di Vietri climbs past twenty degrees, the SS163 west to Cetara and Maiori runs without the gridlock of high summer, and the ceramic workshops keep their full hours. July and August are full: day-trippers arrive from Salerno on the local train and the Marina parking fills before mid-morning. November through March is quieter on the coast though the train link keeps the town accessible. Many seasonal restaurants close, but the ceramic workshops keep firing for the winter trade fairs in Sorrento and Naples.