Gragnano

Gragnano, a hill town located between a mountain crest and the Amalfi Coast, is a comune (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Naples in southern Italy's Campania region, located about 30 km southeast of Naples city.

Gragnano borders the following municipalities: Agerola, Casola di Napoli, Castellammare di Stabia, Lettere, Pimonte, Ravello, Sant'Antonio Abate, Santa Maria la Carità, Scala.

In 1169 its name was added to the title of the bishopric of nearby Lettere, which was thus renamed Roman Catholic Diocese of Lettere-Gragnano, but Gragnano never had a co-cathedral and its title was dropped when the suppressed see was nominally restored as titular bishopric of Lettere.

Pasta
Gragnano is home of some of the best dried pasta in Italy. In 2013, Gragnano pasta was designated a Protected Geographical Indication by the European Union.

Gragnano's "main street was laid out expressly to capture the mountain breeze mixed with sea air back when pasta makers hung spaghetti on drying rods like laundry," according to a Forbes Life write up. More recently heaters have been used to dry the pasta at low temperatures (approximately 50 C) for two days and it is shaped with bronze to give it a rough texture, producing a pasta with a "nuttier aroma and chewier mouth feel."

Notable locals

 * Margherita Sarrocchi (ca. 1560 – 1617), an Italian poet and a supporter of the theories of Galileo Galilei
 * Tito Vuolo (1893–1962), actor, was born there.
 * Giuseppe Beotti (1912–1944), an Italian Catholic priest murdered by Nazi soldiers
 * Antonio Buscè (born 1975), an Italian former footballer with 547 club caps
 * Gennaro Scognamiglio (born 1987), an Italian footballer with over 400 club caps

Sources and external links

 * Official website