italian beauty in one town

Another charming town along the Amalfi Coast is Ravello praised by André Gide and many other distinguished thinkers for its therapeutic properties, for the right distance from the sea (the country is in a mountainous and is not destination tourism resort ) and the air mild. Nestling on a spurs that divides the Valle del Dragone to the Queen. It 'an open terrace overlooking the sea where there is a scene of beauty and a work of art unique in the world. The tendency to turn in Ravello object of consumption for the mass tourism has diminished the location and conformation of the same place, not suitable for long stays if not for the few fans of things that can only Ravello. Ravello defends its exclusive right this feature through the ancient and wise art of hosting and taken in by intelligent and promotion activities that constantly reiterates that image of intellectual and place of relaxation. It indicates an injection of foreign tourists significantly higher than other towns of the Amalfi Coast. The reasons are due to the fame of which has traditionally Ravello abroad for the unique cultural attractions, the rest also attested in the history of art, music and literature, which distinguishes it from other places along the Amalfi Coast.
Ravello is a village of 2,800 inhabitants situated at 600 meters high on the Amalfi Coast. For a number of successful combinations, and with the historic vision of its citizens, the country has not only to exploit the tourist extraordinary beauty of its landscape, but it has increased its appeal by adding the organization of concerts and cultural events.
The spectacle of this unique corner of tranquility and beauty is enriched by the presence of two luxurious villas: Villa and Villa Rufolo Cimbrone. Villa Rufolo, a complex of buildings dating to the second half of the thirteenth century, is a real jewel of art, with its two towers Arabic - siculo - Norman, with its cloister, with its tower of Klingsor overlooking the garden. A true masterpiece that gave rise to Giovanni Boccaccio for one of the novels of his Decameron. In 1851 the complex passed to the Scottish Francis Neville Reid, who had the merit of value to the Gardens which affaccianio over the sea and can be reached through an avenue that runs from.
The other residence overview of Ravello is Villa Cimbrone, stands overlooking the hill and faces underlying the entire Gulf of Salerno. E 'consists of a building with two towers and courtyard and a porch on the open sea. In 1904 it was bought by Ernest William Beckett, who in fifteen years that the fund turned in a rustic villa where he entwine antiquity and modernity.
Over the century, Ravello binds his name and his fame in the presence of famous people who stayed here to long or just for a few hours and inspired. Wagner was one of those guests and her name was then linked to Ravello with an intensity that, admittedly, surprised him first. All in all he was in town for a few hours, May 26 1880, and drew a few fleeting inspiration, not for the music of Parsifal, has already composed, but for one of the locations. And in the name of the teacher in 1953, with Wagner program entirely given over to the Teatro San Carlo, conducted by Hermann Scherchen and William Steinberg, began the show organized by the Provinciale per il Turismo di Salerno, at that time chaired by Jerome Bottiglieri.
Since 1955 the programs were enriched in other symphonic songs, particularly romantic authors, however, the festival held in its common name of Wagnerian concerts. But back in the'30s, always linked to the figure of Wagner, had held a concert in Ravello villa, organized by the Provincial Committee for Tourism and performed by the San Carlo and special guests of the Princes of Piedmont. Thanks to the environmental setting event took in a mixed cultural event between event and mundane. But the mundane nature of the event did not prevent the proper quality level of the concert, alternating programs appreciable by a public medium and pieces for a more sophisticated audience in a speech to tourism promotion.
Greatest performers and conductors, Bruno Walter to Toscanini, from Stokowski to Kempff, from Bernstein to Penderecki and Rostropovic, have stayed here or have music. This vocation of music is still the heart the intense cultural life Ravello: Concerts Midnight, the International Weeks of Chamber Music now accompany all year round with very high moments and feeling for art. But, contrary to what is known to a wider audience, the literature is the sector that has had more intensely fruitful relationship with Ravello. Here, has stayed the greatest English novelist, D. H. Lawrence, in the period in which consists the lover of Lady Chatterly, André Gide environmental Ravello pages central de immorality, Graham Greene wrote The Third Man. Followed by Tennessee Williams, Joseph Prezzolini, Guido Piovene, Rafael Alberti just to name a few. In more recent times Ravello was chosen as the residence for an extended period of the year, the American writer Gore Vidal, to whom the municipality has given honorary citizenship.
Even great painters have chosen to stay Ravello and to understand the magic influence of his viewpoint, its gardens, its architecture: Mirò, Vedova, Escher. Thanks largely to the initiative of some private, the vocation of painting Ravello persists. In fact, there are many exhibitions held during the year and hosting Italian and foreign artists.
In addition, you must remember the enduring relationship between Ravello and cinema that during the century has seen the presence of famous actors and directors in the Amalfi Coast have worked for countless films (the Montana is trying to create a tourist route cultural Vietri start and end in Positano in places set of the most famous).
To visit, as well Cimbrone Villa and Villa Rufolo, the Cathedral, the romantic style, with facade and bears a bronze in Barisano from Trani sdělí 1179, the Church of St. Giovanni del Toro, where we find a pulpit covered with mosaics, the Chiesa di S. Mary Gradillo, dating from the twelfth century. The most important parts are: Torello, reachable through the national 373, the road Ravello - Chiunzi or municipal Castiglione; Sambuco and Lacco S. Martino.