Ravello is among the most precious gems of the Amalfitan Coast, it represents a context where atmospheric light and luminous and spacial effects determine an intense and unique vision. Giovanni Boccaccio warned the arcane magic of it and immortalized the memory of it in his “Decamerone.” The great English painter William Turner sojourned in Italy, visiting Ravello. The sketches that he did of the Amalfitan Coast are on show at the Tate Gallery (London). Famous for its atmosphere of great calm and from a depth of charm that every angle of this town emanates, its image is tied up also to its villas the images of which are famous of the world wide. To the right of the Cathedral (situated in the center) a square tower signals the entry to the Villa RUFOLO, constructions dating from 1200 century, built by the richest family in the town, that of the merchant Landolfo Rufolo. The story of the Villa Rufolo is tied up trough the centuries to its owners: the “Gonfalone” that bought it from the “Rufolo”, the “Muscettola” and the “D’Afflitto”, and then in 1851 the Scottish “Francis Neville Reid”. The other panoramic villa of Ravello is Villa CIMBRONE which belonged to the ancient one and noble family of Ravello “Fusco”, was purchased in 1904 by Ernest William Beckett who in fifteen years, with local maestranze transformed it into a villa. Through a path it is possible to reache the belvedere, where a bronze statue of Mercury can be admired, and then to the cave of Eva and the temple of Bacchus in which the ashes of Lord Beckett are guarded. From the Belvedere you can enjoy one of the most suggestive panoramas of the world. “The most beautiful!” said the famous writer Gore Vidal, for years resident in Ravello.
To visit :
The Cathedral of the IX century
The church of Santa maria a Gradillo of the XII secolo.
The museum of the coral founded in 1986 that picks up manifactured articles in coral, cameos from the Roman period to our days.
