Salerno: the medical school and Arechi Castle

Built in the eleventh century under the Normans, Salerno Cathedral preserves in its crypt reliquaries attributed to the evangelist Matthew and bronze doors cast in Constantinople.

A few steps away, the Garden of Minerva, terraced on the hillside, preserves the same medicinal plants once studied by the Salerno School of Medicine, among Europe's first medical institutions.

Walking down toward the sea you stroll along the Trieste Promenade, lined with palm trees and overlooking the gulf, an ideal starting point for looking toward the Amalfi Coast in the distance.

Toward evening, climbing up the hill, Arechi Castle, a fortress of Longobard origin enlarged in the eighth century by the prince it is named after, dominates the entire Gulf of Salerno.

The Schola Medica Salernitana taught women as well, a rare openness for the medieval era: among its most notable figures is remembered Trotula, author of texts on women's health and medicine.

From the Castello di Arechi, at sunset, the line of the coast leading toward Amalfi and Positano is distinctly visible, the same line that many visitors will only reach the day after.