Every design for Salerno

Salerno sits on its own gulf of the Tyrrhenian Sea, with the Amalfi Coast running off to the west and the Sele plain opening to the south-east, exactly where the Irno valley reaches the water. It is the second city of Campania after Naples, and for a few months in 1944 it was the seat of the Italian government, when the Badoglio and Bonomi cabinets met in the Salone dei Marmi and Victor Emmanuel III settled here after leaving Rome. Long before that, its Schola Medica Salernitana was one of the first medical schools in Europe.

That position shapes everything. The town stretches along the shore and climbs into the hills behind, and the commune rises from sea level to the summit of Monte Stella. The Irno once marked its eastern edge, the Picentino separates it from Pontecagnano Faiano, and the mountains of the Lattari range catch the winds from the south and funnel them back through the valley, so Salerno is rarely still.

Stand in Piazza della Libertà, open to the gulf, with the Castello di Arechi and the medieval aqueduct somewhere behind you, and feel that wind arrive down the Irno valley: that is Salerno in a single moment.