THE PROCESSION: A PHOTO ESSAY
29.08.2025 BEST OF THE COAST
It’s a remarkable sight: a saint swaying above the shingle beach, on a platform borne aloft by four muscular fishermen. In front, men and women dressed in the bright blue or blushing scarlet robes of two local lay confraternities walk solemnly past stacked rows of deckchairs and sunloungers that have been cleared away for the occasion.
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Leading the procession is the ‘Città di Sorrento’ marching band. Sun glints off the slide of a trombone. Dogs bark wildly. A couple of bikinied bathers, unsure about the dress code, play it safe by watching, like seals, from the sea.
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The Festa di Sant’Antonio on 13 June celebrates a saint much venerated south of Naples, Anthony of Padua. He is the patron saint of more than one Amalfi Coast community – including Marina di Cantone, a small fishing settlement below the town of Nerano.
Here, since time immemorial, the ceremony has played out in the same way. Four fishermen from the local cooperative are chosen to bear the statue of the saint on their shoulders all around the small village. He enters restaurants like Lo Scoglio, blessing all that cook, serve and eat in them.
After the procession on the beach, he is carried onto a boat, which puts out to sea, accompanied by another boat for the marching band, still tooting at the tops of their lungs.
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The boats cover the length and breadth of the fishing fleet’s home waters, sailing a little way towards Positano, then turning back in the direction of Capri. They stop beneath the headland of Punta Penna, where the fleet of leisure boats that have been sailing alongside queue up, one by one, to pay homage to the saint and be blessed by the local priest.
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A longtime friend and collaborator of Le Sirenuse, Roberto Salomone has been attending this little-known village festivity, with its mix of joyous exuberance, civic pride and humble sacrality, for the last four years, winning the confidence of locals.
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We love the human warmth, honesty and sensitivity with which he is able to reveal the soul of a community that still breathes the pure, simple air of the Amalfi Coast as it always was, and we hope always will be. The Spa seemed the perfect location for this delightful photographic elixir.
Photos © Roberto Salomone
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