The magical town of Ravello keeps one of the great secrets of the Amalfi Coast. Enchanted villa gardens offer spectacular views of the Amalfitana and the Gulf of Salerno, one can dream. Here you can find out why Ravello is a popular holiday resort for the rich and famous and why it is worth spending an afternoon here.
Ravello - A secret on the Amalfi Coast
Ravello is certainly one of the most romantic and mysterious places on the Amalfi Coast. And definitely one of the most expensive. Because the beautiful Ravello is a kind of holiday resort for the rich and famous. Ravello has about 2500 inhabitants and 16 five or four star hotels. 1 luxury hotel for 160 inhabitants, that sounds like a world record to me. You must know something about the hotel business in Ravello.
This modern success story on the Amalfi Coast started quite modestly. With a young man from Scotland who unfortunately had a lung disease. Francis Neville Reid, who discovered Ravello, which was still wild and dangerous at the time, on his grand tour of Italy and decided to acquire the dilapidated remains of the legendary Villa Rufolo and expand it into his private sanatorium.
Luxury Villa Rufolo in Ravello
The most famous sights of Ravello were - then as now – when you see in Ravello Luxury villa Amalfi coast is the villa and the gardens of Rufolo. Giovanni Boccaccio is said to have used this enchanting property as the setting for his collection of novellas, the Decameron. Nevile Reid had excavated and restored these with the assistance of the architect and archaeologist Michele Ruggieros , who would later direct the excavations of Pompeii .
When Ferdinand Gregorovius wandered through Ravello in 1852, the dilapidated villas in Ravello made a very special impression on him. He describes the Villa Rufolo enthusiastically during his wandering years in Italy: “The beautiful palace can be called a small Alhambra, a building of more than three hundred rooms on three floors, all supported by Moresque columns. The halls are richly decorated with arabesques and have the Sicilian Arabic character. They must have been of fairy splendor."
Villa Cimbrone and its fabulous park
Amalfi coast villa rentals when needed and what to describe the most spectacular view of this enchanting coastline and sea is from the belvedere of Villa Cimbrone. Gregorovius had already hiked through this garden on a steep ledge and wrote a description of the villa that is still valid today. He writes of the villa as “a rich Neapolitan's country house buried in oleanders and roses, looking boldly down on the sea from the top of the rock. This vigna is incomparable and I was particularly amazed by the large pergola or vine arbor that runs across the garden. It was a roof supported by white pillars, completely covered in vine leaves... On the edge of the rock a belvedere, surrounded by terrifying marble figures”.
The gardens that Gregorovius described more than 150 years ago are still there. The magnificent roses, the pergola, the terrifying marble figures. However, the house has changed. At the beginning of the 20th century, an Englishman, "a man with rapidly changing enthusiasms - a womanizer, gambler, opportunist and dilettante" and bankrupt settles in Ravello. Ernest William Beckett , Lord Grimthorpe, who preferred to reside in France or Italy anyway than in damp England, acquires the park and villa.
The British dandy was once known as London's greatest lover until his mistress, Alice Keppel, dumped him for the Prince of Wales. Beckett had an extraordinary association with Oskar Wilde and was even friends with Auguste Rodin. He sent his fiancé Eve Fairfax to him to have her portrait made as a wedding present. An affair developed between the sculptor and the model, which ironically was to last until Rodin's death. In addition, William Beckett was treasurer of the International Opera Academy in Paris, although he was not really good with money.
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