Nerano & Li Galli

The beach of Nerano is one of the favorite destinations of the inhabitants of the area.
Next to the main beach there are also Recommone beach and Ieranto Bay.

Marina del Cantone is the bay of Nerano, a wide beach, with free areas, bathing lidos and restaurants built on stilts overlooking the sea.
The southern exposure and the mountains that shelter it from the wind mean that here it is possible to enjoy, until late afternoon, the beautiful sunny days from late March to late October. In fact, on the left side of the beach the sun sets about an hour later than on the right side.

The water of this coast is always very clean and pleasantly fresh.

After a morning spent on the boat, for lunch we will taste the typical dish of this place: Spaghetti alla Nerano, made with zucchini and cheese.

Continuing we will admire Recommone Bay, a suggestive corner of the Amalfi Coast, well sheltered from the winds, where there is only one bathing establishment, with its restaurant (also open in the evening). In its inlet, you enter two caves: Recommone Cave and the Fishermen’s Cave, which are particularly pleasant for getting a little cool on summer and heavily sunny days.

Finally, we find the Bay of Ieranto which is located at the end of the long path that leads from Nerano to the extreme tip of the Amalfi Coast, where it joins the Sorrentino Peninsula. We are on the eastern side of Punta Campanella, a territory sacred first to the Greeks, who erected a temple to the Sirens here, and then to the Romans, which was converted to the cult of the Goddess Minerva. The beach is located in a cove exactly in front of the Faraglioni rocks of Capri.

Li Galli, on the other hand, is an archipelago a few kilometers south of the Sorrento Peninsula, consisting of three islands: Gallo Lungo, the largest of the three islets and the only one to have been inhabited since Roman times, then there is Gallo dei Briganti and La Rotonda.
Strabo, 1st century BC Greek geographer he described the three islands for the first time by identifying them as places where mermaids lived and giving them the name of Sirenai or Sirenussai.

Li Galli’s juxtaposition with the Sirens is no coincidence: the islets represent obstacles and dangers to navigation in Greek mythology and it is precisely in that stretch of sea that the currents often led boats to crash into them, sinking.

The name Li Galli is said to derive from the iconography of the Sirens in archaic Greek figurative art, in which half a woman and half a bird are imagined. The most immediate combination that can be made with “feathered” mermaids is therefore that of the hen or rooster: hence the name Li Galli still used today.

Li Galli has always exercised a great fascination, so much so that it is coveted by many famous people. In 1924, the Russian choreographer and dancer Leonide Massine bought the archipelago, having a magnificent villa built on those ruins.

The property then passed to another famous Russian dancer, Rudolf Nureyev, who bought it in 1989: shortly after his death in 1993, the archipelago passed into the hands of other private individuals.
The archipelago is part of the Marine Protected Area of ​​Punta Campanella.