Tourism and incoming services are the most important activities on the Amalfi Coast: there are elegant hotels and nice agritourisms. Accommodation on the Amalfi Coast is a real 'mission' for the owners of hotels and any other type of structure. Visitors coming to the Amalfi Coast can admire the architectural beauties while staying in well-cared hotels, in elegant resorts, in a comfortable residence or a tipycal bed & breakfast. Amalfi Coast offers many possibilities to arrange a customized holiday according different needs: there are many comfortable hotels for those looking for a thoughtless holiday, a choice of residences or bed & breakfasts for those who prefer to be more independent.

The actual industrial production tpical of the Amalfi Coast comes from the ancient handicraft. The main and better known products are handmade Amalfi paper, the ceramics of Vietri sul Mare, the baskets made from chestnut wood in Tramonti and Conca dei Marini, all produced following the ancient techniques and methods, Positano fashion, the worlwide known 'Moda Positano', and the local traditional hand broidering.

The most important Amalfi Coast products coming from nature and used in gastronomy are lemons, grapes, olives, tuna fish and anchovies.

The lemon of the Amalfi Coast is called “limone costa d’Amalfi” and “Sfusato Amalfitano”. Its peel is thick and tender and very odorous and you can even eat it witout sugar. Lemon is used to make the two most famous symbols of this Coast, the delicious liqueur “Limoncello” and the tasteful cake “delizia al limone”.

Vineyards are a very important resource too, and the wines produced on the Amalfi Coast have the DOC mark (denomination of controlled origin). The most known wines are: Ravello, Gran Caruso, Episcopio, Ariston, Malaga.

Olive oil is very tasteful and is a fundamental ingredient of the Mediterranean Diet based on pasta, bread and olive oil, the one promoted by Dr. Ancel Keys against heart diseases.

In particular, Cetara is a very important fishing town of the Amalfi Coast, known for tuna and anchovies production. Still traditional is the way of processing them and the recipes, such as the typical anchovy sauce 'colatura di alici'. It is a Roman traditional recipe once called "garum", very delicious with pasta.

AMALFI HANDMADE PAPER - The Manufacturing process - (www.museodellacarta.it)

The exact place where the first paper mills were built is not yet known. The first historical testimony of the use of paper in the Mediterranean area is a letter written on this paper by the countess of Sicily in the first years of the XII century. This is a certain evidence that paper was already diffused in the island at the time of the Norman conquest and that it was produced in workshops along the African cost and in Spain. The Amalfitan people, who were present in Sicily and in the main harbour and trade centres of the Arabic caliphates of Africa such as Alexandria, Cairo, Kairuan, El Medhia since the tenth century, were certainly the first to learn the manifacturing techniques of this paper.

In a decree dated 1231, Frederick II forbade to the curies of Naples, Sorrento and Amalfi the use of 'bambagina' paper for public documents and imposed the use of parchment paper, because it was more durable. Moreover, a paper mill must have been already functioning along the Amalfi river.

As there has been contact between the Amalfitans and the Arabs, it is sure that the first paper known was the "bambagina". The Arabian city El-Marubig had the monopoly of its production. Some years later, in 1289, a document of Ravello mentions this 'bambagina' or 'bombicina paper', which is made with cotton rags (bombax). This particular kind of cloth was one of the principal products of Amalfi sea trade, so much that the Platea Bambacariorum, that is the cloth merchants’ market place, was present in the coastal area of the sea town in  the Middle Ages.

Paper mills were built along ''Valle dei Mulini'' owing to the presence of abundant water. This and easy access to cloth, thanks to the flourishing commercial activity at the time, made Amalfi one of the most important paper manufacturers

The paper mill activity continued to flourish even after the political decline of the town, above all due to the high quality of the paper produced and local manufacturers were so rich and powerful that they founded the ''Congrega dei Cartari''. The decline in paper production in Amalfi came towards the end of the XVIII century. In fact it was probably during thse years that they began working with machinery rather than by hand, thanks to the use of the ''macchina continua'' or the ''continuant machine'' which led to the abandoning of traditional methods of production.

In the late eighteenth century there were sixteen active paper mills in Amalfi. Today only ten are still functioning. In the Valle dei Mulini in Amalfi, there is the 'Amalfi Handmade Paper Museum' (Museo della Carta). It consists of an old paper mill and contains library with about 3,000 texts about the origins of the paper.

Several stages were for the working paper.
The raw material was made from rags, cotton, flax and hemp which were put in stone vats called "pile" in Italian. There the rags were reduced to pulp by a series of wooden mallets, at the ends of which there were dozens of iron nails, produced by the iron foundry in Pogerola. The shape and size of these spikes determined the consistency of the pulp and, therefore, the thickness of the final paper. The hammers were moved by the force of water, that falling on a wheel counterweight (roton) actioned a shaft (spindle). When ready, the pulp was put in another vat and a special glue was added. This glue was obtained from animal hides (carnicciola).

The prepared slurry was collected in a large bowl covered with Maiolica tiles which had a wooden frame and a watermark in the middle. Each watermark contained the trademarks distinguishing the paper-makers and the particular type of paper and consisted of a network of wires of brass or bronze. The trademarks on the final paper were visible against the light and represented civic, religious and heraldic symbols. The oldest sheets of paper are from the XIII and XIV century with the coat of arms of the city or the eight-pointed cross represented on them, and of course the emblems of ancient families.

Once the slurry stucked to the mould it was drained from the water and then transferred on a special wool felt. The result was a pile of wet paper sheets alternating with wool felt sheets pressed with a wooden press to squeeze out the water. Later the paper sheets were detached from the felt and carried to the airing room to dry. The airing rooms, called 'spanditoi' were at the top of the building in order to have more ventilation

Then, the dry sheets were ironed and grouped in bundles in the room called 'allisciaturo', after having been accurately pressed.

Afterwards it was the time of the careful selection of the most valuable card. The second choice paper was smoothed with the palms of the hands of the working people and bent with a machine named “piegatore”. Finally the sheets were collated into parcels.

The main types of paper produced in the paper mills of Amalfi were ''carta strazza'', ''carta genovescha'', ''carta bambace'', ''carta di Napoli'', ''carta piccolo'' and ''carta bianchetta''.

To watch the production process of Amalfi paper, today it is still possible visiting the Amatruda paper mill.

The paper of Amalfi was a very fine and requested. The paper was used for written deeds and for official documents of the Duchy, the bishop and the parishes. It was used in at the court of the Angevins, Aragoneses, the Bourbons and of the Spanish viceroys.

Today it is mainly used for wedding announcements, for invitation cards to baptisms, first communions and, in some special occasions, to realize brochures or important written works, and the Vatican State uses the Amalfi paper for his correspondence.