S. Egidio del Monte Albino – Myths and legends

The Amalfi Coast has a rich heritage of myths and legends that represent the link between material and immaterial heritage. A rock with a particular shape, a hole in the mountain, a name or a dish have seen the intervention of the supernatural or the heroic. And where mystery envelops everything, indeed every house, that is the home of the janare, women with extraordinary powers capable of flying over the sea in boats stolen from fishermen. The sea, then, is the place where these myths find their setting: the islets of Li Galli become the home of the mythical sirens, the meteorological phenomena of the waterspouts are suitably calmed by the intervention of fishermen who know the formulas for altering the course of events, the sea as a holiday resort that only becomes practicable for bathers after the descent of a piece of fire on the night of St. John, 24 June. All this heritage offers visitors a profound reading of the territory in its anthropological and social components.