Without tourism, the glamorous Amalfi coast is slipping into poverty

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “It’s been an economic tragedy,” says the Reverend Francesco Della Monica, whose chapter of the Catholic charity Caritas had never until this year received requests for help from residents of the coast. Among 30 restaurants and hotels, Nicola Vollaro received an offer at only one, where the monthly pay was 700 Euros “And now my wife’s birthday is coming up in two days,” he says quietly. “It’s a crisis, and this is the best I can offer,” Vollaro remembered the restaurant owner saying One afternoon, he buys a two euro bus ticket to Positano, known among workers as the Amalfi coast town with the wealthiest tourists and best wages. “Enough with this place,” Vollaro says, and he thinks about whether the next step might be to search elsewhere, to move away from the coast, to give up on tourism, at least temporarily.