Monte Orlando looms high above the shoreline and features a natural split of the mountain, crowned by the first century mausoleum of a Roman general and featuring a split mountain - La Montagna Spaccata - which local legend says was created as the earth violently shook when Christ died.

From the top of the mountain split, there is a steep view straight down to a sea level grotto and the sprawling beach.

The warm season lasts from April through October, and the city's numbers swell with visitors, much as they have for the past 2,000 years, making the 75-mile journey south from Rome, and 60 miles north from Naples.

This seaside town - named after a character in Virgil's 'Aeneid' and showcasing the coastal line visited by Homer's Ulysses - has endured hundreds of factions attempting to conquer it, from the advancing armies of Amalfi to battles for the Kingdom of Naples, from the French and the Austrian invaders of the middle ages to the German occupation during World War II.

With each successive warring generation, the massive walls that fortified the city have broken away section by section.

Today, just the walled city still stands in the historic quarter of town, in the medieval part of the village. The Gaetani have endured.