Campania · Salerno
Vietri sul Mare
The eastern end of the Amalfi Coast, the ceramics town since the fifteenth century, the gateway between Salerno and the cliff road.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Vietri sul Mare is on our list
It holds Borghi più belli d'Italia, UNESCO and Città della Ceramica.
Subscribe and you get Vietri sul Mare's letter the day it comes out.
Visiting
- Best time
- May–Sep
- By car
- 16 min from Salerno
- By train
- Station in the comune
- Population
- 6,962
- J13°
- F14°
- M15°
- A18°
- M22°
- J27°
- J31°
- A31°
- S27°
- O22°
- N18°
- D14°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. The sea is warmest in August at 29° and coldest in February at 15°. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Going to the sea? How to find the free beaches in Italy.
Why come
Vietri sul Mare sits at the eastern end of the Costiera Amalfitana, the most populous commune of the UNESCO-listed coastline, separated from the port of Salerno by a single harbor wall. The polychrome ceramics tradition is documented from the ninth century, with a generally agreed start around the fifteenth, and the industrial scale-up came in the 1920s and 1930s when a small group of German émigré artists settled in the workshops and brought the bestiary-and-floral pottery the town still produces. The Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista, rebuilt in the seventeenth century, has a green-and-yellow majolica dome that has become the town's signature image.
Vietri's frazione of Albori is one of the Borghi più belli d'Italia inside the UNESCO coastline, and the town is a member of the Città della Ceramica network. The marina at Marina di Vietri and the cliffside frazione of Raito and Albori sit below and above the centro on the same slope.
How to get there
From Naples (NAP), about 57 min by car.
Rome Fiumicino (FCO) is about 3 h 5 min away.
By car from the center of Salerno 16 min or Naples 51 min.
There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive without a car.
Coming from Naples?
Coming by train into Salerno? Vietri sul Mare is about 19 min away by road.
Every town within reach of Naples airport.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista
Seventeenth-century parish church with a green-and-yellow majolica dome and a bell tower crowned by a tiled cupola, the most photographed image of the town.
Museo Provinciale della Ceramica
Ceramic museum in Villa Guariglia at Raito, with Vietri pieces from the seventeenth century through the German-period 1920s and after.
Albori
Cliffside frazione above the centro, also a Borgo più bello d'Italia, with stone houses, lanes, and views over the Gulf of Salerno.
Marina di Vietri
Pebble beach below the centro between the Crapolla and Salerno harbor walls, a working marina and one of the easier coast beaches to reach by train.
Botteghe della ceramica
Workshops along the Corso Umberto and the Via Cristoforo Costa, the active core of the Vietri ceramics industry since the early twentieth century.
From the guides
Where to eat
Not our picks, but places the guides put their name to: a Michelin star, a Gambero Rosso fork, a Slow Food snail, a Michelin Key for the hotels. Worth a table, a counter, or a night when you pass through.
Volta del Fuenti by Michele De BlasioRistorante
Volta del Fuenti by Michele De Blasio carries one Michelin star, plus two Gambero Rosso forks (82/100).
PascalòTrattoria
Pascalò has two Gambero Rosso prawns to its name.
Before you sit down: how to order at a restaurant, how to spot a tourist trap, what aperitivo is and how the Italian bar works.
Living here
Could you live here?
Vietri sul Mare meets both of our rules for a small town.
- 6,962 people, inside our sweet spot of 5,000 to 20,000: a real town, still one community.
- Salerno, a city of 126,000, is 16 min by car. Closer than our 30 to 60 minutes: handy for everything, so check the town still keeps a life of its own.
- A station of its own. Trains are the overlooked way to get around Italy: no parking, straight into the center.
The rules come from our series Where to Move in Italy, written from the places we have lived: Part 1, The End of the Road · Part 2, The Small Town · Part 3, The City · Part 4, The Postcard · Part 5, The Other Half. The towns we would pick are in Part 6, The Best Towns.
- Population 6,962, down 12.3% since 2015 (Italy's emptying towns)
- Nearest city Salerno, 16 min drive
- Train station in the comune
- Nearest national health service hospital Cava de' Tirreni, 5 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €2,600 to €3,700 per m² to buy, €6.50 to €9.40 per m² a month to rent
Weighing a move here? See the moving year.
All the numbers Common questions, designations, lists and sources.
More about living here
- Commuter belt
- Pharmacy in town
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Full fibre reaches 82% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 3, low hazard
- Naples airport (NAP), 57 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Naples, 51 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
2% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Ukraine, Romania and Sri Lanka, against 9% across Italy. 18 of them come from English-speaking countries or western and northern Europe. There are 294 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 33% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Salerno province ranks 90th of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Cava de' Tirreni, 5 km as the crow flies. It has a children's emergency room too. The nearest major one is in Salerno, 7 km away. The nearest IB school is St. Stephen's School, 231 km as the crow flies. The nearest school listed as international is École Francaise de Naples Alexandre-Dumas, 46 km away.
Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.
Taxes
A home that is not your main one pays 1.06% a year in property tax, charged on the cadastral value rather than the price. A main home pays none unless it is in a luxury category. The town adds 0.8% to your income tax. 7% pensioner tax: this town qualifies, for someone with a foreign pension who has lived abroad for five years: 7% on foreign income, for ten years.
Information, not tax advice. Confirm with a professional.
What it costs
The average household in Campania spends about €1,800 a month, €650 of it on food, against about €2,170 across Italy. A family of three pays about €328 a year for water, on the Campania average.
Climate and risk
It is in climate zone C, on a scale from A, the warmest, to F, the coldest, and heating may run from November 15 to March 31, up to 10 hours a day, unless the mayor changes it. 6% of residents live in a zone the national maps rate high for floods. 39% live in a zone rated high or very high for landslides.
These shares cover the whole comune, not any one street. Check an address on IdroGEO.
Moving from abroad? Which visa you need. Sources: ISTAT, the Ministry of Health, ISPRA, the Finance Ministry, the Ministry of Enterprise, Poste Italiane, the comuni, the IB, International Schools Database, Il Sole 24 Ore, Cittadinanzattiva.
Known for
CERAMICS
Polychrome pottery documented since the ninth century, industrially scaled in the 1920s and 1930s by German émigrés; Vietri is Città della Ceramica.
MAJOLICA DOME
The Chiesa di San Giovanni Battista green-and-yellow tiled dome, the town's signature image and the postcard of the Amalfi Coast's eastern gate.
ALBORI
Frazione above the centro, also a Borgo più bello d'Italia, with stone lanes and views across the Gulf of Salerno toward Cetara and Capo d'Orso.
Common questions
- What is Vietri sul Mare known for?
- Vietri sul Mare is the eastern end of the Amalfi Coast at 80 meters, the ceramics town since the fifteenth century, the gateway between Salerno and the cliff road.
- Where is Vietri sul Mare?
- Vietri sul Mare is a comune in the province of Salerno, in Campania.
- What is the nearest airport to Vietri sul Mare?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Naples (NAP), about 57 min by car.
- Can you get to Vietri sul Mare without a car?
- Yes. There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive by train.
- How long is the drive from Salerno to Vietri sul Mare?
- About 16 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Vietri sul Mare?
- Best in May–Sep. July is the warmest month, averaging 31 degrees, and November the wettest, with about 15 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Vietri sul Mare?
- Pizzo, Scilla and Sperlonga.
- How many people live in Vietri sul Mare?
- 6,962 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Vietri sul Mare a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Vietri sul Mare is a small town that meets both of our rules. The nearest city, Salerno, is 16 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Cava de' Tirreni, 5 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 82% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 80 m
- Population: 6,962
- Surface area: 9.52 km²
These figures were compiled from public directories: ISTAT, OpenStreetMap and Wikidata, and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.
The ranked lists
Lists Vietri sul Mare appears in
- The best towns you can reach by train in the province of SalernoSalerno provinceby train6 towns · smallest 2,410 residents
- The prettiest villages inside a nature park within 90 minutes of SalernoNear Salernoinside a parkwithin 90 minprettiest villages6 towns · smallest 644 residents · closest 16 min away
- The prettiest villages that eat well in CampaniaCampaniaeats wellprettiest villages6 towns · smallest 644 residents
- The best towns with a World Heritage site that you can reach by train in CampaniaCampaniaby trainWorld Heritage8 towns · smallest 5,832 residents
- The 10 best towns inside a nature park that have a serious restaurant in the province of SalernoSalerno provinceinside a parkserious restaurant10 towns · smallest 644 residents
- The best coastal towns within an hour of NaplesNear Naplescoastalwithin 60 min10 towns · smallest 644 residents · closest 22 min away
Featured on
Vietri sul Mare appears on this themed pick from our Collections:
Similar
Towns like Vietri sul Mare
What all six share with Vietri sul Mare: on the Tyrrhenian coast · between 3,000 and 10,000 people · near sea level
Pizzo
Province: Vibo Valentia
both have a railway station in the comune
Scilla
Province: Reggio Calabria
both have a railway station in the comune
Sperlonga
Province: Latina
Tropea
Province: Vibo Valentia
both have a railway station in the comune
Praia a Mare
Province: Cosenza
both have a railway station in the comune
Bagnara Calabra
Province: Reggio Calabria
both have a railway station in the comune
The letter
Vietri sul Mare is on our list. Its letter is still to come.
We are writing about all 1,000 of these towns, one at a time, in a free letter: the photo, what is worth eating, and when to turn up. That is our mission. Sign up and you will be there when Vietri sul Mare comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Turin.
The nearest town we have written up is Cerveteri, 264 km away. Read its letter →
Paid plans, the moving year and the books are on the membership page.