Ravello sits about 350 metres above the sea, and you feel it the moment you step off the bus: the air is a little cooler, the noise drops and the coast shrinks to a blue strip between cypress trees. Many visitors treat it as a two-hour stop. We think it deserves a whole day, and a quiet evening if you can manage one.
Morning: Villa Rufolo and the cathedral
Begin at Piazza Vescovado, the small square where the buses stop and the cathedral stands. The cathedral’s bronze doors, cast in the twelfth century, and the carved pulpit inside are worth ten minutes. Beside the square is Villa Rufolo, a thirteenth-century complex whose tower and gardens look over the sea. Richard Wagner visited in 1880 and found there the model for the magic garden in Parsifal. Today the terrace is the stage for Ravello’s summer concerts, with the orchestra apparently floating over the bay. Arrive at opening time, bring a hat and allow about an hour.
Midday: Villa Cimbrone and the Terrace of Infinity
Walk ten minutes along Via San Francesco, a lane of small shops and ceramics, to Villa Cimbrone. The gardens, laid out in the early 1900s by an English lord, end at the Terrace of Infinity, a belvedere lined with marble busts above a drop of more than 300 metres to the sea. It is the best view in Ravello and also the one with the most photographers, so go at midday while the tour groups are eating. Take water: the paths are long.
Lunch
Lunch in Ravello is a slow affair, so book a table if you are going on a Sunday. Order what the hills produce: pasta with local beans, grilled lamb or rabbit, ricotta ravioli and a glass of the white wine of the Costa d’Amalfi, made mostly from Falanghina and Biancolella grapes. Eat on a terrace if you can, and do not plan anything for the following hour.
Afternoon: walk down
If your knees are good, walk down instead of taking the bus. Stepped lanes drop through lemon terraces towards Atrani in roughly an hour, with the sea growing larger on every landing. Wear shoes with grip, carry water and enjoy the fact that gravity is on your side. Many people stay in Atrani for dinner and take the bus back up only if they have to. A second option is the old path through the lemon groves to Minori, about the same effort, with a gelato at the bottom.
Evening: why stay
By seven the day-trippers have gone and Ravello belongs to the few people who sleep there. In summer there are concerts at Villa Rufolo and at the Auditorium Oscar Niemeyer, a white curved concrete bowl that opened in 2010 and looks out over the coast like a sculpture. In the off-season the square is nearly empty, and the cafés stay open for the people who live here.
Practical notes
- From Amalfi, the bus to Ravello takes about 25 minutes and runs several times an hour in season.
- Both villas charge a modest entrance fee. Check opening hours on the day, as they change with the season and with events.
- The centre is largely closed to cars, and the walk from the bus stop to most stays is flat.
- Spring is wisteria season, and September is the gentlest time for walking the stairs.
If you would like to sleep above the coast rather than on it, browse stays in Ravello. Rooms with a terrace usually cost less than their equivalents in Positano, and the evenings are far quieter.
