Route
Hotel Residence San Pietro > Castello di San Nicola > Villaggio Vecite/Chiesa di San Martino > Villaggio Ponteprimario > Corso del Fiume > Villaggio Santa Maria > Chiesa di San Pietro Apostolo > Hotel Residence San Pietro
Description
Leave the hotel and walk along the road to the left. At Casa dell’Acqua, take the staircase of Via Accola to reach the gates of the Castello di San Nicola. Just a ring of the bell and “trasite, trasite” (“please come in”), Master Crescenzo, the owner of the ancient structure, will welcome you with a smile. He is the last castellan of the glorious Castello di San Nicola de Thoro Plano.
Erected in the 9th century, it occupies an area of about 7500 sqm, surrounded by a wall of about 550 meters, equipped with ramparts and buttresses, and interspersed with nine turrets. Inside are farmhouses, warehouses, cisterns, and the ruins of the ancient church of San Nicola, from which the entire complex derives its name. The view from up here is magnificent: the gulf, Mount Avvocata, Ravello, Monte Sant’Angelo a Tre Pizzi…
After leaving the castle, at the end of the first flight of stairs, take the road that goes downhill. Once on the provincial road Via Nuova Chiunzi, continue walking uphill to the Chiesa di San Martino Vescovo, which houses a small painting on metal depicting the Madonna del Carmine…
After seven to eight hundred meters, you reach the Villaggio Ponteprimario. Cross the bridge that leads to the houses and, past the small square, on the right is the Chiesa della Madonna del Principio, which houses a wooden statue of the Madonna, carved by a shepherd in the 13th century, lost, and then miraculously found by a farmer while plowing. The stairs on the left side of the church lead into the heart of the small village and to the ancient washhouses. Retrace your steps and, from the square, continue right, onto the old road that runs along the river from the opposite side from which you arrived. Through the beautiful valley, you reach the Chiesa di Santa Maria, at the center of the village of the same name. Inside: a fifteenth-century “Visitation” and “The Crucifixion,” from the workshop of Sabatini…
Continue walking downhill and, at the next bridge, head towards the Chiesa di San Pietro Apostolo. You are now in the place where the Etruscans founded the core of what would become Maiori in the 7th century. Here stood the temple of the god Vertumno, razed to the ground by Christian fervor around the 4th century, and replaced by the current basilica, which houses a beautiful statue of the Apostle.
Passing to the right of the church, you return to the paved road. Turn right and, a few meters later, you return to the hotel.
