Show town in italy has had many landslips Land slips amalfi scene of recent disaster popular resort washington D C amalfa Anial fl has hai had slides before says a bulletin from the washington D C headquarters of the geographical society con tile the picturesque little italian town about which there have recently been disastrous landslips land slips the seu se U has been remorseless la in eating under the rea red rock cliff on which the town and its neighboring Nil villages lages perch continues the bulletin but more important lias has been Am alfis figurative slip from its position as the worlds first naval power to comparative ob scurley and unimportance the district just south of naples Is one of the most beautiful scenically of 0 italis beauty spots A collection ot of views showing quaint old world villages clinging to cliff sides ides could hardly escape including amalfi it seems the archetype of them all the rough red cliffs spring steeply from the sea along tills coast and it must have been a daring builder who first conceived the idea of planting ills his structure there but there they cave have clung for more than a thousand ae and when the sea at times has wallowed swallowed some of tile the buildings the people of the region have stubbornly built others farther up the precipitous slopes elopes city piled upon itself hans christian anderson who between fairy tales rales wrote charmingly of italis lovely scenery described amalfi in a phrase when he called it a city singularly upon itself its little streets run not among but through the houses and some of Us its dark tortuous passages must be lighted in midday its main street with its curious archways arch ways gives a touch of the orient behind the town in a deep ravine Is the picturesque glen of tile the mills where n rolling stream leaps toward the sea in cascade after ras code ade driving the machinery of dozens of clanking paper mills paper making Is one of the main industries of amalfi and in addition there are the inevitable macaroni factories and soap making plants it Is realize that little amalfi precariously stuck upon Us its cliffs with a population of 0 only about was once a wealthy independent city state whose might was recognized the near east in the middle ages before verlee and genoa and pisa rose to power was the great mercantile and naval power I 1 of 0 the mediterranean its traders started the order of 0 st john later the knights of malta its fleet was ans tile the scourge of the saracens saracena Sara cens in the trying lays days when their boats preyed on mediterranean commerce under the cites doges boges a maritime court was maintained whose cods code was the acknowledged maritime law of europe for centuries and as a further contribution trib ution to the nautical world an Amal flan citizen Is believed to have invented tile mars marineus mariners ma ners compass whose north seeking needle though known to the chinese aas not previously used for navigation long fight against sea ribbons nib bons of highway skirt the cluts cliffs in tile the amalfi district rising over ridges and falling into hollows turning sharp corners and dodging into and out of little tunnels always below lies iles the blue mediterranean and tied together by the highway are arc charming little villages it was among amon these villages and towns clustered about amalfa atrall mu ilni furore praiano that greatest damage was suffered in the recent landslide Am alfis decline from its high medieval state Is partly traceable to the inroads the sea has made upon it the die sea began to undermine the lower lover parts of the town in the twelfth century and about the same time came subjection front from the norman rulers of sicily and naples in 1313 1343 came a terrible inundation which destroyed most of the town and its harbor from then the decline was rapid and before long the city of inhabitants had shrunk to one tenth its former size hut but and beauty have clung to amalfi as tenaciously as amalfe ha haq clung to its ca cliffs I 1 effs nothing can shake these assets coat boat loads of tourists sall sail from naples between the peninsula and capri to enter what Is left of 0 Am alfis harbor and admire its beauties from the sea while other sightseers drive down along the shelving highways to enjoy the obverse of 0 the picture high over the climbing town hotels are perched in hollows of tile the cliffs to command incomparable views guests forewarned barely escaped from some of these aerl aeri ellke elike hostelries |