Ravello has the best views on the marvellous Amalfi Coast, and has been popular with artists, musicians and writers since the time of the C18th Grand Tour.

André Gide aptly described it as being ‘closer to the sky than the seashore’, and it has served as inspiration and backdrop to generations of poets, authors, painters, composers and film makers. D.H. Lawrence wrote some of Lady Chatterley’s Lover here and Wagner based part of Parsifal here. Ravello was founded around a thousand years ago by rebellious citizens of Amalfi –in fact the town’s name is a corruption of the word rebello.

It is well worth spending time exploring the town’s steep medieval streets. For the best viewpoints we recommend the formal gardens of the Palazzo Cimbrone and the Villa Rufolo, which is on the Piazza Duomo. Villa Rufolo has some splendid buildings, as befits its status as the former home of popes and kings, and a small museum houses the archaeological finds of a C19th Scottish owner of the villa. The gardens of the Palazzo Cimbrone take you to a viewpoint at the end of the ridge on which Ravello lies.

The Cathedral (Duomo) dates from the C11th and was re-modelled in the C18th. It contains some wonderful works of art, including a magnificent pulpit decorated with mosaics.