What is Ravello known for?

Concerts on the Villa Rufolo terrace since 1953, founded to commemorate Wagner's 1880 visit; runs roughly July through August each year. Marble belvedere at Villa Cimbrone, classical busts lined along the parapet, hanging out over the Gulf of Salerno 365 meters below. Cast by Barisano da Trani in 1179 for the Duomo, with 54 panels of saints and Christ in glory, signed and dated by the maker.

Ravello is a comune in the province of Salerno, Campania region of Italy, about 31 kilometers from Salerno.

Campania · Salerno

Ravello

A ridge town 365 meters above the sea, where Wagner found Klingsor's garden in 1880 and the Ravello Festival has played his music since 1953.

31 km / 19 mi

Nearest hub (Salerno)

2,390

Population

May–Sep

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Ravello sits on a spur 365 meters above the Amalfi Coast, between the valleys of the Dragone and the Reginna Minor, 782 stairs up from Atrani at sea level. The village grew rich in the 12th and 13th centuries as a satellite of the Amalfi maritime republic, when patrician families like the Rufolo, Confalone and d'Afflitto built their houses on the ridge to escape the coastal raids. Villa Rufolo, built in 1270, has the gardens that Richard Wagner saw in 1880 and identified with Klingsor's enchanted garden in his opera Parsifal, then wrote the opera's second act here. Villa Cimbrone, restored after 1904 by Lord Grimthorpe, ends in the Terrazza dell'Infinito, a marble belvedere lined with classical busts, hanging out over the Gulf of Salerno. The Ravello Festival has played orchestral concerts on the Villa Rufolo terrace since 1953, the year the council decided to use Wagner's visit to rebuild a postwar economy. The Duomo on Piazza Vescovado holds a bronze portal of 1179 and a marble pulpit signed by Niccolò di Bartolomeo da Foggia in 1272.

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Gallery

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Known for

Villa Rufolo
Patrician residence built 1270 with Moorish cloister and terraced gardens; setting for the Ravello Festival concerts and the second act of Wagner's Parsifal.
Villa Cimbrone
Cliff-edge villa restored after 1904 by Lord Grimthorpe, ending in the Terrazza dell'Infinito, a marble belvedere over the Gulf of Salerno.
Duomo di Ravello
Cathedral on Piazza Vescovado, founded 1086, with the bronze portal cast by Barisano da Trani in 1179 and the marble pulpit signed by Niccolò di Bartolomeo da Foggia in 1272.
Chiesa di San Giovanni del Toro
Eleventh-century church in the upper village, with a polychrome marble pulpit of 1230 and three apses decorated with Persian and Egyptian ceramics.
Piazza Vescovado
Triangular square in front of the Duomo, the social center of the village, on the ridge between Villa Rufolo and the upper churches.

When to visit

Best months · May–Sep

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

May, June, September and early October are the months Ravello reads best. The temperature on the ridge runs three to five degrees cooler than on the coast below, the festival concerts on the Villa Rufolo belvedere run from late June through August, and the gardens are full without the day-tripper bus queues of high summer. July and August fill the SITA bus from Amalfi and the road up the Dragone valley, and the festival's evening concerts under the stars are the reason most overnight visitors come. November through March is closed light: many hotels shut, several restaurants on the piazza take their winter break, but the Duomo and the villas stay open. The Festa di San Pantaleone, the patron, falls on 27 July.