The Retreat of Ravello

A travel guide to the Amalfi Coast town of Ravello

Hilltop Ravello, 6km (3.6 miles) from Amalfi town and 1,155 feet up in the hills, is a sweet-scented landscape bursting with color. It's a tiny town of profusely flowering vines and shrubs where discreet hotels share space with everyday houses, tumbled-down buildings planted with vegetable gardens, and crumbling villas whose grounds and lush pleasure gardens have become public parks.

Almost every bend in the stony alleys and stairs opens upon a new eye-popping vista to the distant eastern stretch of the Amalfi Coast, or down into the Valle del Dragone (Valley of the Dragon) dropping below the western edge of town, a deep vale of green terraced with gardens and strewn with white houses and small hamlets.

Ravello and its excellent restaurants make a marvelous escape from the tourist crush of the sun-worshipping towns down on the coast, and has long been a favorite with writers and musicians looking for a quiet retreat. Gore Vidal long maintained a villa up here, and D. H. Lawrence and Greta Garbo both spent time unwinding in Ravello, a lofty Garden of Eden along the already enchanting Amalfi Coast.

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