Who knows the area between Naples and Salerno better than Dieter Richter? For decades, he has researched it through books and on-site exploration, traveling to every corner. He has spoken with the locals, tasted their cuisine, and extensively studied the history of this region. He loves the local authors as much as the sights and customs found there.

With passion, he tells the story of the Amalfi Coast as one of Italy's great wonders. Despite the inhospitable cliffs, the first settlers established themselves there as early as ancient times. The caves provided hiding places for pirates. Later, the ships of Amalfi, the oldest maritime republic in Italy, dominated trade with the East.

The wild beauty of the Costiera – shaped by the labor of many generations who artfully terraced the steep slopes and transformed them into hanging gardens – has attracted artists and writers since the Romantic era, including Karl Friedrich Schinkel, William Turner, Carl Blechen, Fanny Mendelssohn, Leo von Klenze, Richard Wagner, Mary Shelley, André Gide, Siegfried Kracauer, Max Pechstein, and Walter Benjamin. No region has been painted and written about more frequently. In the mid-20th century, a refuge for those persecuted by the Nazis, the Amalfi Coast was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.