A POSTCARD PERFECT TOWN HIGH OVER THE AMALFI COAST

by YouShouldGoHere
April 19, 2012
in Go Here, Stay Here
1

[RAVELLO, ITALY] — A few thousand feet up the mountains over Positano and the sea is the town of Ravello. Often voted one of the prettiest villages in Italy, it shows it. They’ve done a great job at preserving this little mountaintop town. No modern stores or chains. Just a quant little piazza, with hotels and restaurants spanning out to the edges of the cliffs.

The views are stunning of the distant water thousands of feet below, the shimmer of the sun. Extremely relaxing place with just a few hotels and restaurants. A couple days is all you need unless you just want to unwind with a book by the pool and feel the breeze.

Ravello piazza cafe — Hidden on a hilltop 1000ft about the sea, Ravello is a perfectly preserved small village, seemingly free of ugly things. No modern shops or tacky tshirt stores, no garish fluorescent signs. Lightly populated with mostly private apartments and villas clinging to the edge, a perfect main piazza with a smattering of movie set cafes, and only a couple of fine hotels. It just sits there, smokin’ a cigarette, looking pretty.

Ravello Il Rufolo tree view — This is the real reason why we’re here in Ravello. This postcard-perfect town sits high above the sea. Perched on the steep cliffs, amazing views of all the Amalfi Coast, for kilometers in every direction.

Founded in the 5th Century, Ravello is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with under 2,500 residents, a 13th Century duomo, blah-blah-blah-blaaah….. The real reason we’re here is…the views.

Up here, in a post-Roman Empire town, looking out over the glorious Amalfi Coast, you feel… Imperious. Gore Vidal — who used to live here for a decades — called the views from the bell tower here the best in Italy. I concur.