Every design for Cava De' Tirreni

Cava de' Tirreni carries the Etruscans in its name: the town took it in the nineteenth century as a tribute to the Tyrrhenians, held to be the first people to settle these lands. It lies in a richly cultivated valley among wooded hills, a short way inland from the Amalfi Coast, and serves in practice as that coast's northern gateway.

What sets it apart is that it is a valley town that never quite turns towards the sea. The Lattari Mountains shut it off from the coast to the west, lower hills close it in to the east, and Monte Castello rises right in the middle of the town. Most people live not in the centre but in the frazioni scattered over the slopes around it, from Passiano to Santa Lucia. The Abbey of La Trinità della Cava, founded in the eleventh century, keeps a library of rare manuscripts, among them the La Cava Bible, and a Romanesque cloister.

Then there is the Collina di Sant'Adiutore, crowned by the Castello di Sant'Adiutore, which looks out over the whole valley. Climb up to it once and you understand why people from Cava want to carry the place with them: from up there the town, its hills and its many villages fit into a single view, much as they do on the map.