Cava de' Tirreni is a few kilometres inland from Vietri, on the Gulf of Salerno. The river Canneto, punctuated with watermills, runs through it in a gorge. Hackert based the lower part of this hitherto unpublished painting, including the waterfalls and the bridge beyond, on a drawing signed and dated 1795 and inscribed 'a Vietri de la Cava' (fig. 1). This is one of a series of drawings that Hackert made on a journey between Castallammare and Auletta and then back to Naples in 1795, retracing his steps twenty years after he had first visited the area. Hackert may have based himself on the coast at nearby Vietri, since all the drawings and the present painting are inscribed a Vietri. In this painting made a further eleven years later, the upper parts including the landscape beyond differ completely from the drawing, with the massed rock of the hillside seen in the drawing replaced with a more sympathetic view opening up through a rising valley.