Ravello

Situated at 350m above sea level, where the sea meets the chestnut woods of Scala and Tramonti, Ravello was a favourite destination for the vacations of the wealthy merchants and the nobility of Amalfi, along with heads of state, churchmen, intellectuals, artists, poets, writers, and painters seeking inspiration. Ravello was also the inspiration for the painting Klingsor’s Magic Garden: Richard Wagner, on vacation on the coast, saw in a beautiful glimpse of the town a scene from his Parsifal, and asked his friend painter Paul von Joukowsky to depict it.
The meeting of an English lord and a Ravello tailor led to the creation of one of the marvels of the entire coast, the cliff-top Villa Cimbrone, with its terrace overlooking the sea. On Ravello’s piazza you can find the San Pantaleone cathedral, home to the relics of the Saint as well as artistic treasures, such as the bronze doors by Barisano Da Trani, the first to be cast in Italy by an Italian artist.
Villa Rufolo, built in 1280 by the Rufolos, a family of bankers for King Charles of Anjou, hosts summer concerts as part of the Ravello Festival.