RAVELLO - AMALFI COAST
campania
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 metres 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 of his villa we cite: David Herbert Lawrence (author of the novel "Lady Chatterley's Lover") and Greta Garbo, during her elopement with Leopoldo 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 second 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 can't 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 XIII century, marble decorative fragments of the first ambo and ciborium of the cathedral, silver works and reliquaires. The cathedral, built in the XII century and renovated in the XIV century, has a beautiful bronze door done in 1179 and a wonderful "pergamo" (pulpit) by Niccolò di Bartolomeo da Foggia (XIII century).
At the town entrance we find the Romanic church of Santa Maria a Gradillo (XII century) where it was the noble parliament of Ravello. After the Arch of the Castle (a fortified palace from XIII 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 XIII century, with a beautiful courtyard with point arches; the Town Hall, in the former Palace Di Tolla of the XI 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 centro 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 St. Francis built in the XIII century with its cloister and seat of a library; "Piazza Fontana Moresca" (Saracen Fountain Square). Unique and extraordinary 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 European University Centre for the Arts and Culture.
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