Ravello italy Amalfi Coast Hotels, bed & breakfast Amalfi Coast Positano

One of the gems of the Amalfi Coast is Ravello, 350 meters above sea level, where the light effects and magical architecture create a vision of rare intensity. Its name is immortalized in Boccaccio’s Decameron.

Famous for its tranquil and serene atmosphere, Ravello offers architectural gems of rare elegance. The 11th

century Duomo, dedicated to San Pantaleone, is rich with artistic treasures like the grand bronze central door

adorned with 54 panels. To the right of the Cathedral a square tower marks the entrance to Villa Rufolo.

Immersed in a verdant park of exotic and mediterranean flora, the original structure dates back to the 13th century; and even today some of its arab-sicilian architecture is evident. The polychromatic arabesque colonnade is splendid. The garden is one of the most beautiful in Campania.

Nature and men’s touch compete to create a highly evocative atmosphere: villas lined by limes trees and cypresses, cascades of flowers. From the belvedere the sea seems infinite. Each summer, in the gardens of the villa, the concerts of the Ravello Festival are held. Wagner’s inspiration for the Klingsor Garden , in his opera Parsifal, came from the gardens of Villa Rufolo.

Villa Cimbrone was, originally, a simple hut. It was bought in 1904 by Ernest William Beckett who transformed into an exceptionally fascinating Villa. It has hosted many celebrated personalities, from Winston Churchill to Greta Garbo.

There is a very special feeling in the cloister of the villa, still showing elements of the ancient arab-sicilian style it was built in.

The belvedere is a terrace that gives on to infinity, and has no equal in this world.

San Giovanni del Toro and Santa Maria a Gradillo churches, both built in the 12th century, also merit a visit. The San Giovanni del Toro church has a pulpit rich in mosaic decorations.

The Coral Museum, which exhibits coral, cameos, decorated mother-of-pearl and shells from Roman times to the 1900’s, is also interesting. Scala is close to Ravello, one of the most picturesque site of the coast. Its Cathedral has a wooden Deposition from the Cross dating back to the 1200’s.

A charming seaside village, Minori, with its little pink houses over the beach, also offers splendid scenery. For its lovely position along the coast, it was where the ancient Romans dedicated themselves to relax, as witnessed by the many ruins, amongst which the Villa Romana, from the 1st century BC, a 2,500 sq mt archaeological complex containing a viridarium (garden), a nymphaeum-triclinium, and the splendid mosaics. At the Antiquarium Museum there are relics dating back to the 1st century BC.

In the centre of the village, near to the little port, is the Basilica di Santa Trofimena, patron of the city, built in the 12th century. Many others little churches and towers dot the area.

With its long beach and lovely shoreline, Maiori boasts the best hotels of the area. Ruins of castles and towers give testimony to its medieval splendour, when it was encircled and defended by walls and fortifications. The church of Santa Maria a Mare dominates the town and every year on August 15 festivities commemorate an event dating to 1204, when fishermen pulled a statue of the Virgin from the water after it had been dumped by a boat from Costantinople that was in trouble and had sought refuge in the Maiori bay during a tempest.

On the main altar there is a wooden sculpture of the Madonna and Child and a collection of art is cared for in the Sacristy Museum and the crypt below it.

The popular sanctuary dedicated to the Madonna delle Grazie has medieval origins, but was restructured in the 1700’s.

The unusual stone complex of Santa Maria Olearia, a benedictan abbey built around the year 1000 is worth a visit. In the buildings that hug the rock cliff, in one of the natural grottoes of the area, there are halls, chapels and small frescoed porticos.

A boat trip will take you for a visit to the Grotta Sulfurea and the Grotta Pandora. The first one is rich in sulfuric-magnesic water with therapeutic properties; in the second one the emerald-green scene, the stalactites and stalagmites create an unforgettable scenario.

Also around Minori one can find many signs of the past, a lovely seaside resort as well as a grand Roman villa.

A few kilometres from Maiori is Erchie, with a tower on a boulder which separates the two beaches. The benedictine monastery Santa Maria di Erchie, founded in 980 and destroyed in 1451, gave this place its name. This small village with the characteristically white houses, the delightful beaches and the crystaline sea is ideal for a moment of relax in contact with nature.

Just before Vietri is Cetara. This has always been a fisherman’s village and its name comes from the latin word “cetaria” or tuna fishing net. This village with its picturesque white architecture and its intimate beach is one of the jewels of the coast. In between the little square houses the church of San Pietro stands out with its majolica cupola and its bell tower from the 13th century.

At the base of the Amalfi Coast, on the side facing the Gulf of Salerno, Vietri sul Mare dominates from the small Valle di Bonea above, erected on the bastions of limestone and sloping down to the coast. With its small churches , their majolica-covered domes, and the small tile-covered houses, Vietri seems suspended between heaven and earth. In ancient times the town was Etruscan, but it was later dominated by the Samnites, the Lucanians and finally by the Romans. The church of San Giovanni Battista (St John the Baptist), dating to the 17th century, with its majestic dome and high bell tower, is located at the highest point of the old centre of town. The ceramics industry, for which Vietri is world famous, was already a booming business in the Middle Ages. Over the centuries artisans and artists have created prized works, a part of which can be admired in the Ceramics Museum , which is located in the belvedere-tower of the Villa Guariglia in Raito.

Ravello is located on the ridge projecting from the mountain that divides the Valle del Dragone (Dragon's Valley) and del Regina. Based at 350 meters on the sea level, Ravello overhangs the underlying towns of Minori and Maiori. This enchanted place is among the most beautiful in the whole Amalfi Coast, with an intense and unique landscape. Ravello is renowned for its peacefulness and the deep fascination it emanates from each corner and its image is mostly connected with villas with breathtaking views seen all around the world by pictures.

Villa Cimbrone is renowned for its exciting lookout terrace: Gore Vidal, the famous American writer and honorary citizen of Ravello, says it is the most beautiful panorama in the world. This villa had been bought in 1904 by Ernest William Beckett who in 15 years, with the help of local authorities, transformed it into a museum with both ancient and modern pieces of art. Among the most famous guests if his villa we cite: David Herbert Lawrence (author of the novel "Lady Chatterley's Lover") and Greta Garbo, during her elopement with Leopold Stokowski, as remembered by a marble inscription at the beginning of the path. In the garden, near the lookout terrace there are: a bronze statue of Mercury, the tea pavillon, several marbles and statues. Going on, there are the Eve's Grotto and the Baccus' Temple, where are the mortal remains of Lord Beckett.

Villa Rufolo was initially owned by some local noble family: the Rufolo, the Confalone, the Muscettola and The D'Afflitto. Finally it was bought by the Scottish Francis Neville Reid, who called to restructure it Michele Ruggiero, who after became the director of Pompeii Ruins. In 1975 it has passed under the control of the Provincial Office for Tourism of Salerno. Since 1953 in the garden of Villa Rufolo, which inspired Wagner for the magic garden of Klingsor in the 2nd act of the music drama Parsifal, is hosted a prestigious music festival, held each year in the first half of July. For the occasion it is active a service of buses joining all hotels on the Amalfi Coast.

Beyond the two famous villas, we cannot forget the other magnificient monuments in Ravello. Very remarkable is the cathedral, which keeps on its interiors an extraordinary museum in the crypt, where you can see some Roman marbles (among which a sarcophagus from the age of Gallienus), the bust of Sigilgaida Rufolo from the 13th century, marble decorative fragments of the first ambo and ciborium of the cathedral, silver works and reliquaries. The cathedral, built in the 12th century and renovated in the 14th, has a beautiful bronze door done in 1179 and a wonderful "pergamo" (pulpit) by Niccolò di Bartolomeo da Foggia (13th century).

At the town entrance we find the Romanic church of Santa Maria a Gradillo (12th century) where it was the noble parliament of Ravello. After the Arch of the Castle (a fortified palace form 13th century) we arrive in the large Piazza Vescovado (Bishop's Square) with its imposing pinewood. At the end of the square there is the wonderful cathedral of San Pantaleone built in 1087 by the noble family Rufolo. And also: the Confalone Palace of the 13th century, with a beautiful courtyard with point arches; the Town Hall, in the former Palace Di Tolla of the 11th century; the lookout terrace of the Princess of Piedmont, which overhangs the coast between Minori and Capo d'Orso.

Among the suggestive entanglement of narrow streets in the centre of Ravello we find also: the church of San Giovanni del Toro (St.John of the Taurus) with its pulpit covered with mosaic by Alfano da Termoli; the convent of San Francesco (St.Francis) built in the 13th century with its cloister and seat of a library; Piazza Fontana Moresca (Saracen Fountain Square). Unique and extraordianary is the Museum of the Coral: it has been founded in 1986 and collects coral manufats from the Roman Age up to the last century: and also cameos, inlaid pearl works, shells, all done in the centuries by the local craftsmen.

Other than Boccaccio (who in the Decameron spoke about the natural and artistic beauties of Ravello, giving evidence of the magic of this place) and Wagner, many artists have been inspired by this extraordinary atmosphere, especially during Romanticism. For example in 1819 the great English painter William Turner came here during his journey to Italy and his drawings of places in the Amalfi Coast are exhibited in the Tate Gallery in London. Today Ravello is also seat of the Europen University Centre for the Arts and Culture.

Villa Rufolo

Villa Rufolo is very ancient, it was built approximately in 1280 by the ho-monymous family, one of the richest and most important families in Ravello. Even though it has been rearranged, the building still completely expresses an interesting Arabian-Norman style. Through a luxuriant garden, which is steeper and wilder than the well-arranged and elegant gardens of Villa Cimbrone, we arrive at roof-gardens hanging over the sea. Here, every year Wagner's concerts are celebrated as a memento of Richard Wagner's stay.

Apart from the musical quality, that is exceptional, the audience is enchanted to see the orchestra that plays as if it were suspended half-way up on a uniformly blue setting, represented by sky and sea.

This is the so-called Klingsor's Tower, traditionally named this way as memento of Richard Wagner's visit to Ravello. In fact it was Villa Rufolo's splendid gardens that inspired the very famous Klingsor's garden which

played a great role in the German culture and imagination in the twentieth century. As matter of fact, subsequently Mann, Hess and other writers will refer to it.

The architectonic pattern of arches is very much present on the Coast and above all in Ravello. We have both lancet arches with three-lobed columns in the Arabian tradition, or arches with a short curve, of Byzantine or going further back, of Roman origin.

However, there are elements that are present in almost all the monuments of Ravello's glorious and rich past. On the other hand even in nature, due to wind and sea erosion, this architectonic element is present: along the entire Coast there are, in fact, many natural arches both along coasts and inside steep gorges.

Villa Cimbrone

We cannot but visit the already-quoted Villa Cimbrone. It was built in the twentieth century and was commissioned by the English nobleman William Bechett. This villa imitates classicized and medieval styles and forms. Its celebrity is due to the already-quoted "Terrace of infinity", that is really one of the most charming places on the Coast. But the beauty of the Villa consists in its gardens, decorated by statues, busts and marble groups, among them we have to remember the temple in Doric style with the marble statue of Cerere; Bacchus's temple, with a bronze sculptural group and a reproduction of David by Vernocchio. In the cloister, just on the left of the entrance, there is a bas-relief reproducing the seven deadly sins.

Scala

Founded in the 6" century, its history is strictly linked to that of the Sea Republic of Amalfi. It is the birthplace of the blessed Gerardo de Saxo, who founded the order of the Knights Hospitallers, the present Sovereign Military Order of the Knights of Malta.