Ravello — Villa Cimbrone, Villa Rufolo & the Ravello Festival
Ravello (population 2,500, at 350m altitude on the ridge between the Valle del Dragone and Valle di Sambito, the City of Music hosting the annual Ravello Festival) is the most elevated and culturally distinguished town on the Amalfi Coast. Accessible by bus from Amalfi in 30 minutes for €1.30.
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Villa Cimbrone — the Belvedere of Infinity
Villa Cimbrone (Via Santa Chiara 26, €10 adults, daily 9am to dusk, purchased in 1904 by Ernest William Beckett — Lord Grimthorpe — and transformed with Edwardian English garden eclecticism grafted onto a medieval Campanian estate) culminates in the Belvedere of Infinity: 16 marble busts looking south over the Tyrrhenian Sea. Gore Vidal, who lived in Ravello for 30 years, called it the most beautiful view in the world. The Norman crypt below the belvedere and the circular Temple of Bacchus among the roses are the garden's other structures.
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Villa Rufolo — the Garden Wagner Called Klingsor's Magic Garden
Villa Rufolo (Piazza del Duomo, €7 adults, daily 9am to dusk, the 13th-century medieval villa of the Rufolo family, the most powerful banking dynasty in medieval southern Italy) is where Richard Wagner visited in 1880 and declared the garden Klingsor's magic garden — the passage in the visitors book that inspired him to complete Parsifal. The Torre Maggiore (the 13th-century watchtower, highest point in Ravello) and the Moorish cloister (interlaced pointed arches, the finest Norman-Arab decorative architecture on the coast) are the villa's defining elements.
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Ravello Cathedral — the Ambo Pulpits
Ravello Cathedral (Duomo di Ravello, Piazza del Duomo, dedicated to San Pantaleone, founded 1086, free entry, daily 9am-1pm and 3-7pm) contains two medieval ambo pulpits: the Ambo of the Gospels (1130) and the Ambo of the Epistles (1272) — the Epistles ambo the masterwork of Nicola di Bartolommeo da Foggia, with the eagle lectern and mosaic panels of Jonah and the Whale. The crypt museum (€3 additional) holds the 12th-century bronze doors and the phial of San Pantaleone's blood, which reportedly liquefies twice yearly.
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Ravello Festival — Open-Air Concerts Above the Sea
The Ravello Festival (late June through September, established 1953, centered on the open-air stage on Villa Rufolo's belvedere terrace) is the most scenically dramatic classical music venue in Europe. The orchestra stage floats above the Tyrrhenian Sea 350m below, with the sunset visible from the audience seats behind the musicians. Tickets (€30-80, ravellofestival.com) sell out months in advance for principal symphonic concerts. The Ravello Concert Society also runs year-round chamber concerts on most weekends April-October.
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Scala — the Oldest Town on the Amalfi Coast
Scala (the mountain town directly across the Valle del Dragone from Ravello, accessible by 30-minute walk — a 600-step descent and climb — or by bus from Amalfi, population 1,500, the oldest town on the entire Amalfi Coast) is the correct choice for visitors wanting the medieval townscape without Ravello's crowds. The Duomo di Scala (12th-century cathedral with the finest Romanesque church portal on the coast) and the Via Torricella (the completely unrestored medieval main street) represent the unpolished authentic Amalfi mountain town.
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Minori and Maiori — the Working Towns of the Eastern Coast
Minori (4km east of Amalfi, the Villa Romana di Minori — 1st century AD, free, Tuesday-Sunday 9am-7pm, the intact hypocaust heating floor exposed in the garden oecus room — is the most complete Roman villa on the Amalfi Coast) and Maiori (the largest town on the eastern coast, the widest beach at 1km of sand, and the Sanctuary of Santa Maria a Mare on the cliff above) are the practical bases for eastern Amalfi Coast visits, with accommodation and restaurant prices 30-50% below Amalfi and Positano levels for equivalent quality.