Salerno, the main town of one of the largest Italian provinces, lies in the middle of the Gulf with the same name. It has very ancient origins, probably dating back to the Greeks (with the name of Posidonia).

The city was to take the name of Salerno only many centuries later. According to some historians "Salerno" is named after "salum Irni", the salty mouth of the Irno river.

Excavations in Fratte area have brought to light a necropolis of the vi sec. a.C., that shows the exsistence of an etruscan settlement of Campania, the place of which was taken by a Greek city, become Roman colony in 197 a.C.

During the Middleage, Salerno had a busy life and it was the seat of the most ancient and famous european institution for the study and the spread of medicine: the Medical School of Salerno. Roberto il Guiscardo raised it to the Capital of his Duchy in 1077 and it has a primary role also after the transfer of the capital in Palermo.

After this period of splendour Salerno declined under the Swabians and the Angevins, then it belonged to several feudal families and took part of the Reign of Naples, to which remained until the 1860.

During the Second World War, the city was the Theatre of the first landings of the Allies in the peninsula.