The Italian poet Boccaccio described the Amalfi coast as the most delightful place in Italy. Since the country might have more delightful places than anywhere else, that was a bold claim even 700 years ago. Happily, you can still see where the great man was coming from, and why he reserved particular praise for Ravello. It’s stunning.
Ravello may feel as if it is the overlooked relative of its bigger, flashier cousins, Amalfi and Positano. Yes, it is smaller and sleepier, but it’s also prettier and has the feel of a real town, where real people live; washing hangs on lines, women walk home with bags of shopping from the market and children play football in the park. It’s also blessed with glorious food, history and no shortage of wonderful places to stay in, including the beautiful Monastero Santa Rosa hotel, perched on top of a cliff 15 minutes’ drive away. The town should be on anyone’s bucket list, with one proviso: prepare for steps. Lots of them.
Any weekend should start in the main piazza. Shaded by umbrellas and surrounded by pine trees, the Caffe Duomo is the place for a cappuccino before an exploration of the 11th-century Duomo, with its unusual sloping aisle. Supposedly that was to focus attention on the altar, but I suspect it was an 11th-century builder opting for an easy life. Building on a cliff that plunges almost vertically into the sea must be a nightmare. The bronze doors of the church are worth a look too. True, they might not give Ghiberti’s bronze doors on the Babtistry in Florence a run for their money, but few things do. The Ravello ones were commissioned by an aristocratic local family, the Rufolos.
Their name features large in the town; the gardens of the Villa Rufolo, the remains of the family’s medieval home next to the Duomo, are one of the town’s must-see sights, the other being the gardens of the Villa Cimbrone. Many of the trees and shrubs are labelled, which I imagine would thrill keen gardeners. Everyone else can marvel at the breathtaking views from the terraces covered in flowering shrubs, roses, jasmine and pots overflowing with pansies.
The terrace also offers the best vantage point to see the coast: houses tumbling down cliffs, tortuous roads and terrace after terrace of lemon trees, blanketing the rock faces and scenting the air. They flavour some of the region’s signature dishes: pastiera napoletana — a lemon-ricotta dessert — and sfogliatelle, a sweet, flaky pastry filled with soft Italian cheese and citrus. Bar Klingsor on the main square has delicious lemon ice cream and the bakery down the alley leading off the other side of the square stocks delizia al limone, a sponge cake filled with lemon custard and topped with candied peel. There’s no shortage of shops offering free samples of the local liqueur, limoncello, to wash it down.
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Head to Via Trinita, where you’ll find a shady snack bar with outside tables. Your route will also, happily, take you past several shops selling gorgeous ceramic tableware for a fraction of the price you would pay at home. Only a rare burst of sanity stopped me from trying to bring home a serving dish that measured 3ft across. Follow the path back down and you will go past an art gallery selling watercolours of Ravello and a shop with a nice line in stripy espadrilles.
If you want arts more than espadrilles, you’re in the right place. EM Forster and Virginia Woolf loved it here, as did the artist JMW Turner. DH Lawrence wrote Lady Chatterley’s Lover in the Hotel Rufolo and Wagner found inspiration for his opera Parsifal. In summer there are regular concerts of his music, as well as performances of other classical, jazz and contemporary musicians. Some are held in a historic palazzo, others at Oscar Niemeyer’s astonishing, sinuous auditorium just below the town. This was built in 2011, a year before the architect’s death, and it is worth a visit.
All of which is hungry work. In Ravello you’re spoilt for choice; the restaurant at the Villa Cimbrone has a Michelin star, but the Ristorante Sigilgaida has a spectacular terrace. Cumpa’ Cosimo is popular with locals and serves simple cuisine. Nearly every menu features world-class spaghetti vongole and delicious caprese salads.
A final word of advice: if you want to explore farther afield, do not hire a car. Get a taxi, or try one of the open-top tourist coaches. Driving and parking round here is best left to the clinically insane.
Hilary Rose
Need to know
Hilary Rose was a guest of Elegant Resorts, which has seven nights’ B&B in a sea-view double bedroom in the Monastero Santa Rosa Hotel & Spa, near Ravello, from £2,345pp until October 6, including flights and transfers (01244 897516, elegantresorts.co.uk).
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Budget hotel: Hotel Toro, Via Roma 16
The three-star Hotel Toro has a great location on a narrow, characterful alley in the centre of town, just off the main square and close to the Duomo and Villa Rufolo. The air-conditioned bedrooms are simple but practical, clean and furnished in neutral tones. Room 1 has a little balcony looking over the hotel’s bijou garden, which is furnished with tables and chairs for when it’s time for a glass of limoncello. B&B doubles cost from €125 (£106) a night (hoteltoro.it).
Luxury hotel: Monastero Santa Rosa, Conca dei Marini
A short drive from Ravello, this is an exquisite converted monastery perched high up on the edge of a cliff. The 20 rooms are beautifully decorated, with magnificent views, the infinity pool has to be swum in to be believed, and the whole place smells incredible, thanks to gardens filled with roses, jasmine and lemons. Rooms cost from €400 (£340) a night, B&B (monasterosantarosa.com).
