Ravello sits about 365 metres above the Amalfi Coast, high enough that the crowds on the shore below sound like a distant radio. Instead of beaches, it offers terraces, gardens and a sense that it has seen all this before. The town perches on a ridge between the Dragone and Reginna valleys, above the sea and the busier resort of Amalfi, and from its balconies you look down on lemon terraces, white villas and the blue curve of the Gulf of Salerno.
Its glory days were in the Middle Ages, when Ravello was a prosperous republic allied with Amalfi, trading with the Eastern Mediterranean, and its rich merchant families built palaces and churches. Villa Rufolo, from the thirteenth century, with its Moorish-looking cloister and gardens, inspired Richard Wagner in 1880, who said he had found the magic garden of Klingsor for his opera Parsifal. Today its terrace hosts concerts in summer. Villa Cimbrone has a long avenue ending in the Terrace of Infinity, lined with marble busts, and the writer Gore Vidal lived in Ravello for years. The cathedral has a fine bronze door from the twelfth century.
The road up from the coast is a classic of southern Italy, a narrow series of hairpins climbing through terraced lemon groves, with drops, walls and blind bends. The surface can be worn, traffic is heavy in summer, and tour buses squeeze through with only inches to spare. Scooters and locals know every corner, so keep right and do not rush. Early morning or late afternoon in spring and autumn is far more pleasant than August, when queues and heat are fierce.
Cars cannot enter the centre, and parking for motorcycles is easier than for cars, though it is limited and signs should be checked. Fuel is not available in Ravello itself: Maiori, about two kilometres away, has stations and shops, as do Amalfi and Salerno. In town, cafes, ice cream stalls and trattorias serve local specialities such as lemon-scented pastries, fresh pasta with seafood, and the sweet limoncello made from the region's lemons. Leave time to walk the lanes and gardens, and look out at the sea from a bench before heading back down.