1787 – Goethe refers to the area in several works:

“do you know the land where lemons blossom & where everything competes to distinguish itself from the splendours of sea and sky”

1819 – JM William Turner produced over 180 sketches of the Coast.

1833 – Edward Lear (Artist).

1834 – Hans Christian Anderson.

1875 – HW Longfellow:

“sweet the memory of a land beyond the sea where the waves and mountains meet”

1879 – Henrik Ibsen wrote his play The Doll’s House while staying at Hotel Luna.

Renato Fucini (20th Century Author):

“The Day of Judgement for those Amalfitans that go to Heaven will be a day like any other”

1930s – Russian Impresario Diaghilev whose ballet troupe included Picasso, Cocteau and Stravinsky came to Positano.

1950 – Leonide Massine (Russian Choreographer/Ballet Dancer) bought Li Galli (Positano), which in turn were bought by Rudolf Nureyev.

1953 – John Steinbeck (Writer/1962 Nobel Prize for Literature) stayed in Positano where he wrote:

“Positano bites deep, it is a dream place not quite real when you are there and becomes beckoningly real after you have gone”

1946 – Roberto Rossellini (Film Director) and Anna Magnani (Italian Actress) shot ‘Il Miracolo’ the first film on the Coast (in Furore). Many others followed in various towns.

From the 1960’s many coastal villas became holiday homes for high-profile figures and politicians such as Carlo Ponti, Sophia Loren, Giovanni Agnelli (Head of Fiat), Franco Zeffirelli (Film Director).