Wonderfully aristocratic and breathtakingly beautiful, Ravello sits above the Amalfi Coast's seaside fishing villages, perched on a great spur of rock some 350 meters above the Mediterranean Sea.
Ravello was built on the site of a settlement believed to have been built by a Roman colony fleeing the Barbarian invasions. In the 9th century, it became the chosen refuge of a group of noble families from Amalfi who had rebelled against the authority of the Doge.
Ravello soon prospered thanks to the production of the town's "Celendra" wool, and in the 11th century it attempted to dissolve its ties with the Maritime Republic of Amalfi by nominating its own Duke.
The town's decline coincided with the Norman Conquest. Over the ensuing centuries the population of Ravello, which in the 12th century had been circa 25,000, diminished to such an extent that in 1800 the town was aggregated with the Diocese of Amalfi.
However drastic, Ravello's change in fortune failed to impair its charm. If anything, it preserved it, making Ravello the chosen destination of inspiration-seeking intellectuals, artists, and celebrities from every corner of the globe.
Seduced by Ravello:
Greta Garbo
D.H. Lawrence
Gore Vidal
Richard Wagner
Winston Churchill
Virginia Woolf