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Sorrento
Tourist information - Sorrento
The Duomo, at the top of a steep flight of steps, dominates the town's main piazza.
It's decorated, almost gaudy facade topped by a glazed tiled cupola that's typical of the region. Inside, it's a mixture of Saracen and Romanesque styles, though now heavily restored, with a major relic in the body of St Andrew buried in its crypt. The most appealing part of the building is the cloister oddly Arabic in feel, with its whitewashed arches and palms.
It was built in the eleventh century, rebuilt in the Arab-Norman style in the twelfth and further altered in the eighteenth. The bell tower was built between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The thirteenth century Paradise cloisters, surrounded by an elegant portico with pointed, interwoven arches and supporting columns, was built by Archbishop Filippo Augustariccio as a sepulchre for illustrious people of the town. You can also visit the arsenal of the Republic which is a grandiose Gothic construction, the Cappuccini Hotel which was a thirteenth century convent with cloisters and a loggia, the Civic Museum containing the Tabula Amalphitana which is the oldest navigational manual in the world, and the map museum.
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