Ravello Italy - The Most Beautiful, Motivating Location This Side of Heaven...

Ravello Italy is a town situated above the Amalfi Coast in the province of Salerno, Campania, Italy and has approximately 2500 inhabitants. It is a popular tourist destination and the most romantic town along the Costiera, frequented by intellectuals and artists from Gore Vidal (ask anyone to point out his villa "La Rondinaia") to Tennessee Williams.

It was an important town of the Maritime Republic of Amalfi, an important trading power in the Mediterranean between 839 and around 1200.

It also was a diocesan town from 1086 to 1603; after that the bishop's see was moved to Scala.

The town has served historically as a destination for artists, musicians, and writers, including Richard Wagner, M.C. Escher, Giovanni Boccaccio, Virginia Woolf, and Sara Teasdale who mentioned it in her prefatory dedication in Love Songs, one of her many books of poems.

Ravello's reigning celebrity at the moment is Gore Vidal, who purchased a villa here as a writing retreat. William Styron set his novel Set This House on Fire here. Boccaccio dedicated part of the Decameron to Ravello, and John Huston used it as a location for his film Beat the Devil, with Bogie.

The sleepy village seems to hang 335m (1,100 ft.) up, between the Tyrrhenian Sea and some celestial orbit. You approach from Amalfi, 6km (3 3/4 miles) southwest, by a wickedly curving road cutting through the villa- and vine-draped hills that hem in the Valley of the Dragon.

There are many historical and enchanting villas and cathedrals. Villa Rufolo, for one, is that sublime blend of antique buildings and gardens which inspired D.H. Lawrence in his masterpiece "Lady Chatterley's Lover", and provided Richard Wagner, in 1880, with the setting for "Parsifal".

Another must-see is the Villa Cimbrone, which was rendered a haven for intellectuals under Lord Beckett, who enjoyed the enchanting panoramic view from the Belvedere (lookout).

There are many wonderful, romantic hotels here! Click here to see a sampling!

And...while you are there...you might like to take in a cooking school - or tour the Duomo - click here to see my list of things to do in Ravello Italy!

Restaurants! Hmmmm, food my favorite thing besides love! You will surely leave with a passion for italian food when you leave this town!

"A day without love is a day without life!" George Van Valkenburg