Chiesa di San Gennaro, Vettica Maggiore
Praiano's most photogenic landmark is not a beach or a belvedere but a church: the 16th-century Chiesa di San Gennaro in Vettica Maggiore, whose vivid yellow-and-green majolica-tiled dome blazes against the blue Tyrrhenian sky like a piece of jewellery placed on a cliff. It is the defining image of the village and one of the finest examples of Vietri-style ceramic architecture on the coast.
The Architecture
The dome's geometric tile pattern — interlocking diamonds in cadmium yellow and forest green — follows the Neapolitan baroque tradition of using Vietri sul Mare ceramics as exterior cladding, a technique that was both decorative and practical since the glazed tiles shed rainwater perfectly.
Inside, the single-nave interior is modest but moving: a painted wooden ceiling, a marble altar brought up from the sea road by mule, and 17th-century canvases depicting scenes from the life of San Gennaro, Naples' patron saint.
The Surrounding Piazza
The small piazza in front of the church is the social heart of Vettica Maggiore. On summer evenings locals gather here on stone benches while children chase pigeons around the bell tower — a scene of unhurried village life that feels a world away from the tourist crowds of Positano.
The piazza also frames the best photograph of the dome: position yourself at the low wall on the seaward side and you get the tiled dome, the bell tower and an infinite wedge of blue sea in a single shot.
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