Ravello, Italy Walking Tour 🇮🇹 | Villa Cimbrone, Villa Rufolo & the Terrace of Infinity | 4K

Ravello, Italy Walking Tour 🇮🇹 | Villa Cimbrone, Villa Rufolo & the Terrace of Infinity | 4K

Welcome to Ravello, one of the most scenic towns on the Amalfi Coast. The Piazza Duomo is the heart of the little village, named after the duomo – meaning cathedral – ahead. Ravello is not directly on the coast. Most visitors arrive by bus, taxi, or hiking up from Amalfi or Atrani via scenic but steep stairways. Unlike its busier neighbors, Ravello offers a quieter, more romantic atmosphere, known for gardens and panoramic views. Construction began on the cathedral in 1086. The church was built using architectural material from the ruins of temples and other ancient buildings in the surrounding area. The fabulously ornate Pulpit of the Gospel dates from 1272. Between the 13th and 17th centuries, numerous family chapels were built in the naves and atrium. Opposite the Pulpit of the Gospel is the Pulpit of the Epistle dating from 1094. The church is dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta and San Pantaleone, the patron saint of Ravello. This tower is the entrance to Villa Rufolo, which we will visit shortly. Between the 12th and 13th centuries, the bell tower of the church was erected in Moorish style. Inside the Museo del Duomo, you can visit the crypt with various ancient artifacts. This road is so named for the visit to Ravello in 1880 by German composer Richard Wagner. Every year in the summer months, the “Ravello Festival” takes place. It began in 1953 in honour of Richard Wagner. The Ravello Festival is one of Italy’s most prestigious classical music events, attracting artists from around the world. One of the greatest attractions of visiting Ravello is the myriad breathtaking vantage points over the coastline. Ravello lies 728 steps above the seaside town of Atrani. In late 1932, the Ravello Tourist Board decided to purchase and open this garden to the public. The garden was originally owned by Duke Confalone from Piedmont. The gardens were inaugurated by Princess Maria José of Savoy, after whom they are now named. The ‘municipio’ is the town hall. Even the town hall has blooming, manicured gardens! Ravello is home to approximately 2,500 inhabitants. These gardens on the hillside above the church offer excellent views of Romanesque and Baroque architecture. The bell tower underwent restoration in 1901, along with the laying of a marble flooring in the nave. Souvenir and artisan shops along the Amalfi Coast are full of tiles and ceramic-themed products, a traditional craft of the nearby town Vietri sul Mare. Lemons are a common motif here, as they are a key crop along the Amalfi Coast. These hand-painted ceramics are a tradition from Vietri sul Mare, known for colorful patterns and marine themes. This plate features an iconic view of Ravello. Inside this ceramic workshop, you can see these dazzling plates being made. The workshop opened in 1980. Ravello is part of the Amalfi Coast UNESCO World Heritage Site, listed in 1997. From here you can see the church of a tiny hamlet called Scala. The town has 1,513 inhabitants and lies 400 m above sea level. Ravello is part of the UNESCO-listed Amalfi Coast for its cultural landscape, blending natural beauty with medieval urban planning. Ravello was founded in the 5th century as a refuge from barbarian invasions which marked the end of the Western Roman Empire. In the 9th century Ravello was an important town of the maritime Republic of Amalfi. From here you look down the coastline to the town of Minori. Despite the precipitous coastline, houses, churches, and towns have been built all the way up its steep slopes. If you’d rather not walk up hundreds of steps, you can catch the bus to Ravello from Amalfi. We enter Villa Rufolo through a Gothic entrance tower. Below the roof is a dome featuring umbrella ribbing and remnants of polychrome decoration. The Moorish Cloister with its interlaced arches and delicate columns is a highlight of the villa. Inside the main tower, you can watch videos about the history of Ravello and the Ravello Festival. Villa Rufolo was said to be at the height of its splendor in the 13th century. It was described as having ‘more rooms than the days in a year’. The 30-meter high main tower is one of the oldest remaining parts of the villa. The garden pavilion was originally linked to the main tower by walkways, which have since collapsed. The garden pavilion was built in the 19th century during the heyday of Romanticism. When Wagner visited Villa Rufolo in 1880, he proclaimed that he was enchanted by this well. This Belvedere in the upper garden is used as a scenic location for events during the Ravello Festival. Much of the current architectural and arboreal delights of Villa Rufolo that you see now are the result of 19th century additions and modifications. Scottish industrialist Francis Neville Reid purchased the property in the 19th century and added features including the gardens and belvedere. The garden terrace is one of the villa’s most iconic features, with flowers that bloom most of the year. Remember the plate we saw earlier? Here is the view! The Amalfi Coast stretches for 34 miles. The towers seen in this iconic view belong to the Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie below. On this ground floor of the villa, this ‘theater’ is used for various purposes including events. It is mainly worth visiting to get a good view of the Moorish Courtyard above. The villa originally belonged to the powerful and wealthy Rufolo family, who excelled in commerce. Over the years, the villa belonged to various wealthy families, including the Confalone, Muscettola and d’Afflitto. Studies suggest that these Turkish baths predate the construction of the villa in the 13th century. When Wagner visited the villa, he was so overcome by the beauty of the location that he imagined the setting as the garden of Klingsor in the second act of his opera Parsifal. This is the reason why the Ravello Festival is dedicated to the German composer. These upper rooms were part of Francis Neville Reid’s 19th-century residence. Each room has a distinct floor decorated with tiles from Vietri sul Mare. The rooms are now used for exhibitions, meetings and seminars. Some ancient ovens were discovered during restoration in the 1990s, believed to be part of the original kitchens. Ravello produced wool from the surrounding countryside, which was dyed in the town and an important trading power in the Mediterranean between 839 and around 1200. Vietri sul Mare’s tradition for producing polychrome ceramic dates from at least the 15th century. In 1086 the Italo-Norman count Roger Borsa wished to create a counterweight to the powerful Duchy of Amalfi. Pope Victor III made Ravello the seat of a diocese immediately subject to the Holy See, with territory split off from that of the archdiocese of Amalfi. This church is dedicated to St Francis, who is said to have passed through Ravello in 1222 on his way to Amalfi. Construction on the church began in the 13th century. Early on, the bishops of Ravello all came from patrician families of the city, showing the church’s municipalized character. In the 12th century, Ravello had some 25,000 inhabitants. The walk from Ravello to Villa Cimbrone, our next stop, doesn’t look very long on a map but it is quite steep! Villa Cimbrone is a historic villa dating from at least the 11th century. While parts of Villa Cimbrone are open to the public, others belong to a luxury hotel located on the estate grounds. This avenue was created in the early 17th century and is famed for its incredible blooms. Villa Cimbrone stands on a rocky outcrop known as “Cimbronium”, and it is from this landscape feature that the villa takes its name. This pavilion marks the end of the avenue and the gateway to the villa’s most dramatic feature. Ceres is the goddess of harvests, from which our word ‘cereal’ is derived. The climax of the garden complex is the Terrace of Infinity, probably remodelled in the 20th century. From here, you can see all the way up and down the coastline and as far as the mountains of Cilento and the tip of Licosa. The terrace is decorated with elegant busts dating from the 18th century. The earliest references to this villa date back to the 11th century, when the villa belonged to the Accongiogioco, a noble family. In this little terrace, you find an 18th century bronze copy of the ancient statue of Mercury, the winged messenger of the Gods. This classical, Doric-columned temple is inscribed with a quote from Catullus. Inside is a statue of Bacchus, god of wine, festivity and fertility. This natural cave contains a marble statue of Eve by Bolognese sculptor Adamo Tadolini, pupil of Antonio Canova. The villa passed to the ownership of a wealthy and influential family, the Fusco, who are also recorded in 1291 as owning the local church of S. Angelo de Cimbrone. This statue was produced by Neapolitan sculptor Giacchino Varlese, and is a copy of one by Verrocchio in Florence. Later, the villa became part of the nearby monastery of Santa Chiara. Between May and October, this terrace flourishes with dozens of varieties of French and English roses. It contains four ornamental statues of Flora, Leda and the Swan, and wrestlers Damosseno and Greucante. From the 17th century, the villa’s history is vague and it is unclear who owned the property. By the latter half of the 19th century it had passed to the Amici family of Atrani. In 1861, historian Ferdinand Gregorovius described the villa as ‘incomparable’. This historian described the Terrace of Infinity as ‘commanding an enchanting view’. However, he added that ‘it was surrounded by horrible marble statues which, however, from afar, had a sort of appeal! English traveller Ernest William Beckett (Lord Grimthorpe) visited the villa during his travels in Italy and fell in love with it. Beckett bought the villa from the Amici family in 1904. The cloister was restored to its original Arab-Norman Sicilian style during the modifications made by Beckett. Beckett enlisted the help of Nicola Mansi, a tailor-barber-builder from Ravello whom he had met in England, to help with the restoration and enlargement of the villa and gardens. At the villa, Beckett embarked on an ambitious programme of works, including the construction of battlements, terraces and cloister in a mixture of mock-Gothic, Moorish, and Venetian architectural styles. Beckett was reputed to be the father of Violet Trefusis; the connection with Violet brought Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson as visitors. Beckett died in London in 1917 and his body was brought to Villa Cimbrone to be buried at the base of the Temple of Bacchus we saw earlier. After Beckett’s death, the villa passed to his son. Beckett’s daughter Lucy (Lucille Catherine Beckett, 1884–1979) also lived at the villa, where she was a keen gardener and breeder of roses, including the “Rose of Ravello” in the 1930s. Many famous visitors came to the villa during the Beckett family’s ownership. It was a favourite haunt of the Bloomsbury Group, including Virginia Woolf, Leonard Woolf, E. M. Forster, John Maynard Keynes, and Lytton Strachey. Other visitors to the villa included D. H. Lawrence, Edward James, Diana Mosley, Henry Moore, T. S. Eliot, Jean Piaget, Winston Churchill and the Duke and Duchess of Kent. The villa was sold in the 1970s to the Vuilleumier family, who used it first as a private family home, and for the past few years as a hotel. Ravello has also seen its fair share of famous artists, musicians, and writers visiting for inspiration. These include Giovanni Boccaccio, Richard Wagner, Edvard Grieg, M. C. Escher,[9] Virginia Woolf, Greta Garbo, Gore Vidal, André Gide, Joan Miró, Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, Graham Greene, Jacqueline Kennedy, Leonard Bernstein and Sara Teasdale (who mentioned it in her prefatory dedication in Love Songs). Ravello still retains a number of palazzi of the mercantile nobility of the 12th century, including the Rufolo, d’Aflitto, Confalone, and Della Marra. In the latter part of the 12th century, a demographic and economic decline set in, and much of Ravello’s population moved to Naples and its surroundings in the Kingdom of Naples. In 1944 during WW2, the king of Italy lived in Ravello—at the “Palazzo Priscopio”—while waiting to go back to Rome. Now, Ravello is considered one of the highlights of the Amalfi Coast and is home to several luxury hotels and renowned restaurants.

Take a peaceful walking tour through Ravello, Italy, one of the most scenic and elegant hill towns on the Amalfi Coast. This immersive 4K video explores cobblestone streets, medieval villas, flower-filled gardens, and breathtaking viewpoints high above the sea.

📅 *Filmed on* Monday, June 9th, 2025
🌞 *Weather* 31°C | 87°F 🌡

🗺️ *Map of the Walk* https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1rZmjJMIv1HNKKYU7fMXyNl6lDOIlsvw&usp=sharing 🗺️

🔻𝗩𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀🔻
0:00 Intro and Map
0:50 Entry Arch
*2:20 Piazza Duomo & Cathedral*
13:39 Via Richard Wagner
15:15 Via San Giovanni del Toro
*16:06 Giardini Principessa di Piemonte*
21:22 Comune di Ravello
25:33 Bishop’s Garden
29:15 Via Roma
32:55 Ceramic Shop
36:48 Church of Saint Mary ‘a Gradillo
43:33 Scenic Lookout
*48:03 Villa Rufolo*
1:29:02 Via San Francesco
*1:38:28 Villa Cimbrone*
*1:45:04 Terrace of Infinity*
2:24:19 Walk back to town

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