Maiori

Maiori is a small comune (municipality) in the Salerno region, set in the deepest creek of the Amalfi Coast, at the entrance of the Valle di Tramonti (Sunset Valley). The city, with less than 6,000 inhabitants, has a purely tourist-based economy, favoured by the splendid panorama and the picturesque colours that the place offers to travellers and visitors. The origins of Maiori remain somewhat uncertain. Nevertheless, its foundation is commonly attributed to a group of Etruscans from the city of Marcinna (today Vietri sul Mare). The toponymy seems to confirm such hypothesis: up to last century, the main square in the city was known as Piazza Vertunno, named after the Etruscan god Vertumno. The name of the city derives from its particular geographical positioning, exactly at the mouth of the Reginna Maior stream. Surely, Maiori strong points are its clear Tyrrhenian waters, the warmth of its inhabitants and, above all, its suggestive beach, the longest of the whole Amalfi Coast, which attract tourists from all over the world every year. However, the artistic and architectural attractions which can be admired in the enchanting landscape are not to be underestimated: for example, the Mezzacapo Palace, once a residence of the city marquis, the S.Nicola de Thoro-Plano Castle, built in the 15th century, or the Collegiata di S. Maria a Mare, an ancient church today turned to a museum. Among the events of greater importance that fill the life of the Maiori lands, we can count the amusing Grand Carnival, the prestigious Rossellini Film Festival, the Madonna Avvocata Festival and the Sagra della melanzana (Eggplant festival).