Vietri sul mare

Set along the rocky coast-line,  which leads to the opposite side of Sorrento,  spreading like a terrace overlooking the sea,  Vietri is 3 kilometres from Sorrento at the foot of Mount S.Liberatore.  The little town guests every year thousands of people even because is endowed with several attractions and especially thanks to the ancient ceramic craft that,  beginning from the middle ages,  spread widely in the area: unique objects that already in the IX century were traded in all the ports of the Mediterranean sea.
Founded by the Etruscans, Vietri was articulated between the hinterland and the Gulf of Salerno. Evidence has been found of the existence of a village in the roman time  called Marcina,  later destroyed by Genserico in the middle of the 5th  century.
The inhabitants who survived the slaughter,  took refuge on the nearby mountains,  returning along the coast only in the VIII century.  They built a new centre,  over the ruins of the demolished village which they called "Vetere".
For a long time the inhabitants of Vietri had continually to undergo to the Turk's raids who had settled in the nearby harbour of Fuenti.
Worth seeing is:  the parish church of S. Giovanni Battista,  dating back to the 18th century,  with the bell tower which ends in an octagonal shape and the cupola entirely covered with majolica's dating back to the year 700; the churches of "S.Margherita ad Albori" and "S.Maria delle Grazie" in the nearby Raito, both of the 16th century, the sanctuary of "S.Vincenzo a Dragonea" of the IX-X century.
Inside the Villa Guariglia there is the "Museum of the Ceramics"of Vietri, which allows us to reconstruct the long story of this handicraft tradition.
The museum hosts also the Vietri school of ceramics which encourages projects and researches in order to preserve its artistic and cultural legacy.