Salerno in 2 days, on foot

This 2-day self-guided walking plan for Salerno covers 17 narrated sights in an easy day-by-day order. Each day is split into a morning and an afternoon loop, and every stop has a two to three minute audio story in the Gingerguide app.

You set the pace: this is a suggested order, not a schedule. Walk it in 2 days, or stretch it out. Reorder freely; Salerno rewards a detour.

Day 1

Morning

1. Salerno Cathedral (Duomo): A magnificent Norman cathedral built in the 11th century by Robert Guiscard, containing the tomb of Pope Gregory VII and, most remarkably, the crypt and tomb of Saint Matthew the Apostle, whose relics were brought to Salerno in 954 AD.
2. Lungomare di Salerno: A 2km award-winning promenade redesigned by architect Ricardo Bofill, running along the seafront from the old town to the new marina, one of the finest urban waterfronts in southern Italy, with palm trees, public art, and views of the Gulf of Salerno.
3. Arechi Castle: A Lombard hilltop castle perched at 263 metres above the city, built in the 8th century by Arechi II, Prince of Benevento, it offers panoramic views of the entire Gulf of Salerno, the Amalfi Coast, and the Cilento hills.
4. Salerno Medical School (Schola Medica Salernitana): The Schola Medica Salernitana was the world's first secular medical school and the leading centre of European medical knowledge from the 9th to the 13th centuries, its legacy is commemorated throughout the historic centre with a dedicated museum and interpretive trail.
5. Giardino della Minerva: A medieval medicinal herb garden terraced into the hillside above Salerno's historic centre, linked to the ancient Medical School, one of the oldest botanical gardens in Europe, it cultivates the same medicinal plants used by Salernitan physicians a thousand years ago.

Afternoon

1. Via Mercanti: Medieval Centre: The main street of Salerno's medieval centre, a long, narrow pedestrian lane running east-west through the heart of the historic district, lined with medieval arches, ceramic shops, cafes, and churches that preserve the urban fabric of the Lombard and Norman city.
2. Salerno: Gateway to the Amalfi Coast: Salerno serves as the main eastern gateway to the Amalfi Coast, with ferries to Positano and Amalfi from the Molo Manfredi terminal, buses via the SS163 coastal road, and connections to Paestum, Cilento, and the broader region of Campania.
3. Paestum: Greek Temples: A UNESCO World Heritage Site 40km south of Salerno, containing three of the best-preserved ancient Greek temples in the world, better preserved than anything in Athens itself, built by Greek colonists between 600 and 450 BC in what they called Poseidonia.
4. Longobard Temple of Minerva: A 1st-century Roman temple dedicated to Minerva, later incorporated into the 8th-century Lombard palatine chapel of San Pietro a Corte, one of southern Italy's most striking architectural palimpsests, where Roman, Lombard, and Christian layers are literally visible in the same walls.

Day 2

Morning

1. Museo Diocesano di Salerno: The diocesan museum of Salerno houses one of the most important collections of medieval sacred art in southern Italy, centred on the extraordinary 11th-century ivory altar panels commissioned by Bishop Alfano, 54 carved ivory plaques depicting scenes from the Old and New Testaments, among the finest medieval ivory work anywhere in Europe.
2. Piazza Flavio Gioia: Salerno's principal seafront piazza, named after the Amalfitan sailor Flavio Gioia who is traditionally, if debatably, credited with perfecting the magnetic compass in the early 14th century. The square marks the meeting point of the historic centre, the lungomare, and the sea.
3. Luci d'Artista: Salerno Lights Festival: Italy's largest public light art festival, held annually from November to January along Salerno's lungomare and historic centre, commissioning monumental illuminated artworks from world-class artists since 1998, drawing over one million visitors each year and transforming the city into an open-air gallery.
4. Gulf of Salerno: Operation Avalanche 1943: On 9 September 1943, Allied forces landed on the beaches of the Gulf of Salerno in Operation Avalanche, one of the largest amphibious operations in the Italian campaign, and the beginning of the Allied push northward through Italy that would last nearly two years and cost hundreds of thousands of lives.

Afternoon

1. Operation Avalanche: D-Day at Salerno (1943): On September 9, 1943, Allied forces launched Operation Avalanche, the main Allied invasion of Italy, landing on the beaches around Salerno in the face of fierce German resistance, a battle that lasted nine days and nearly ended in defeat before the Allies secured their bridgehead.
2. Ravello: Villa Rufolo and Wagner: Perched at 350 metres above the Amalfi Coast, Ravello is one of the most beautifully situated towns in Italy, Richard Wagner composed part of Parsifal here, inspired by the gardens of Villa Rufolo, and Villa Cimbrone offers views that Gore Vidal called "the most beautiful in the world."
3. Cilento National Park and Certosa di Padula: A vast UNESCO World Heritage landscape south of Salerno, the Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park covers 181,000 hectares of Mediterranean wilderness, mountains, and ancient Greek sites, with the Certosa di Padula (the largest Carthusian monastery in Italy) as its most spectacular monument.
4. Vietri sul Mare: Ceramics Capital: The first town on the Amalfi Coast as approached from Salerno, Vietri sul Mare has been Italy's most famous ceramics production centre for five centuries, its distinctive hand-painted tiles (bright yellows, blues, and greens with fish and sun motifs) decorate buildings throughout the Amalfi Coast and can be found in museums worldwide.

Full Salerno guide and all stops →