Marina di Vietri – Benincasa – Dragonea – Iaconti -Albori – Marina di Vietri
Duration: 5,0 km
Travel time: 4h 00 ‘
Route – Walk to discover the type of settlements present in the area. Succession of small inhabited centers, typical crops of the Coast and local craft activities. Remarkable places – The very pretty village of Albori with its labyrinths of stairs. Possible detour from Raito to the Ceramics Museum in the tower annexed to Villa Guariglia. Logistics – Departure and arrival coincide. Wide availability of parking spaces in Marina di Vietri. Possible use of the CSTP bus lines to Vietri and from Vietri to the Marina hamlet. Refreshment points – Bars in the various hamlets touched by the route. Restaurants and small gastronomy both in Vietri and in the Marina hamlet. Souvenirs and purchases – The ceramics of Vietri (before deciding visit them all!) If the wide choice doesn’t confuse your ideas, it’s worth it.
The first walk, more than an excursion into nature, is a contact with the human settlement in the territory of the Amalfi Coast. In about four hours you cross a real sample of housing solutions (from the old building with vaulted or domed floors to the “modern” disfiguring terraced houses), crops (from the minimal vegetable garden, almost inevitable at the back of every house , to the terraces for citrus or olive trees) and small economic activities (first of all the production of ceramics). The walk starts from the central stretch of the Marina promenade, near the Aragonese tower, one of the many built along the coast during the Angevin domination and perfected by the Aragonese to counteract the activity of pirate ships coming from the ports of the Muslim world. With your back to the sea, to the left of the tower, you can find a passage that crosses the curtain of buildings and, along a flight of steps, leads to the church of San Francesco di Paola. Here you turn first to the right and then to the left, following the flight of stairs. After a small bridge, continue to the left, always uphill, until you cross the road near a pottery shop. After crossing the road, the stairway continues up to the road to Raito where, a few meters on the right, another ramp leads to the hamlet of Benincasa. At the end of the ramp, take the road for a few meters downhill, to resume the staircase that climbs on the right between the ancient houses of the hamlet, up to the church of the Madonna delle Grazie.
Continue towards the hamlet of Dragonea, after crossing which, take the first climb on the left (via laconti) heading towards the hamlet of laconti. At the first intersection, continue straight while at the second, turn left. Leaving the church on the right, leave the road and, having crossed the underpass of a building, continue along the pedestrian path which, near an arch-gate, turns into a mule track. After about fifteen minutes you pass a chapel visible on the right side of the street and the most panoramic part of the route begins. The view sweeps over the Gulf of Salerno and, on days with greater visibility, the panorama offers a beautiful glance up to Punta Licosa, the southernmost point of the inlet. After about two hundred meters you will find an old manor house that precedes a crossroads by a few tens of meters. Before turning left, it is advisable to continue for a visit to the hamlet of Albori, which can be reached in about ten minutes. The village is perched around the church of Santa Margherita d’Antiochia. Back at the crossroads, turn right and take a road bordered by walls on both sides, which leads to the town of Raito. Here, a ten-minute detour allows you to reach the Ceramics Museum in the tower of the park of Villa Guariglia. Returning to the hamlet you reach the Church of the Madonna delle Grazie. Inside: a sixteenth-century altarpiece depicting the Madonna delle Grazie, a wooden statue of the Madonna by Verzillo, and the Monte dei Marinai, a chapel frescoed by Solimena. Cross the churchyard to go down other stairs. At the end of the ramp, turn left to the point where several streets meet. The staircase descends to the coastal road. Cross the road and take the small road on the other side of the road which, passing in front of the charming church of the Madonna dell’Arco, leads back to Marina.
