Info & Services in Ravello - Tour Assistance in Amalfi Coast, Italy

The village was ‘re-discovered’ in the romantic 1800s mainly by two foreign noblemen, Lord Grimthorpe from England and Sir Nevile Reid from Scotland, who changed the destiny of Villa Rufolo, Villa Cimbrone and Ravello itself.

Area of Ravello: 7 sq.km, 2500 residents

Nearest Ports and beach: in Amalfi (if by car), in Minori (if walking 45 minutes about)

Nearest Train Station: in Vietri 27 km, and in Angri 24 km

Gas stations: 43, via Boccaccio-Ravello, and via Nuova Provinciale Chiunzi in Maiori.

- Banca Della Campania Spa  via Roma, 15, tel. 089 857872

- Monte dei Paschi di Siena - Filiale Di Amalfi Bancomat - Piazza Duomo, 5, tel. 089 857120

- Banca Monte Dei Paschi Di Siena Filiale Di Ravello , via Vescovado, 8, tel. 089 857120

- BPER Banca via Roma, 18A, tel. 089 857872

- Ravello Festival www.ravellofestival.com

- Ravello Concert Society festival: www.ravelloarts.org

- July 15th - Festival of the Madonna delle Grazie a Castiglione.

- July 27th - The patron Saint Pantaleon and the miracle of the liquefying blood.

- August 1st - St. Alfonso’s day (in Scala).

- August 10th – St. Lorenzo’s day (in Scala).

- 1st Sunday of September - Madonna di Torello.

- October - Chestnut festival in Scala.

- October - Festival of grapes and beans.

•   Saint Pantaleon from Nicodemia, doctor and healer who was martyred in 305 in Bitinia (present Turkey), but his relics arrived here in the 12th  century. He is the patron saint of doctors, just like the saints Cosma and Damian to whom a sanctuary nearby is dedicated, and the protector of ‘mothers afflicted by the crying of their babies’ (!). He is also the patron saint of lotto players (!) and unwed women without dowry looking for a husband. On July 27th  his blood liquefies, just like it does for Saint Gennaro, the most famous saint in Naples, and many other lesser known saints.

•   Giovanni Boccaccio, the 14th -century Italian ‘father’ of the Italian language, describes Ravello and the life of Landolfo Rufolo in “Decameron” famous for its humorous erotic stories.

•  Roberto Rossellini, the movie director of Italian postwar neorealism, who immortalised Ravello and mainly Maiori in many movies: see ‘ Movies shot on the Amalfi coast’

•   John Huston directed “Beat the Devil” in Ravello in 1953 with Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre and Gina Lollobrigida.

•  Oscar Niemeyer, Brazilian architect, known for the futuristic style of his buildings. The Auditorium - Music Hall of Ravello - was created starting from a drawing made by Oscar Niemeyer, who never actually visited Ravello.

•  Ernest William Beckett (later Lord Grimthorpe) is one of the most important personalities in the history of  Ravello. He is the English lord that gave new life to the abandoned ruins of Villa Cimbrone, in the early 20th century, opening the door of Ravello and the Amalfi coast to important English intellectuals and artists.

•  Virginia Woolf and other famous members of the literature group called the Bloomsbury Set used to meet in Villa Cimbrone, far from the rigid moralism of the Victorian period.

•  Sir Francis Nevile Reid, a Scottish nobleman, art expert and botanist, in the middle of 19th century bought the abandoned ruins of Villa Rufolo (13th century) and restored it to its former glory.

•  Richard Wagner: Villa Rufolo houses a summer musical festival in honor of the German composer Richard Wagner who, after having visited the villa, recognized it as being the one in the magic garden of Klingsor in his last opera “Parsifal” (1880).

•  David Herbert Lawrence wrote the famous novel «Lady Chatterley’s lover» in Ravello (1928).

•  Maurits Cornelis Escher was a genial Dutch artist, who captured Ravello, Atrani, Minori and Maiori in his visionary drawings during his several stays in the Амаlfi coast (1930’s).

•  Gore Vidal (1925-2012) – an American writer who lived in Italy (Rome and Ravello) for 30 years.He was one of the first American intellectuals to extrapolate a ‘conspiracy’ theory for the 9/11 attacks in New York.

Other famous guests of Ravello from the 19th  century to the present day: Andre Gide, John Maynard Keynes, Henrik Ibsen, Edward Grieg, Paul Valéry, Leopold Stokowski, Greta Garbo (in 1936 she had a love affair with Stokowski in Villa Cimbrone. She called Ravello “The most beautiful place I have ever seen”), Igor Stravinsky, Graham Greene, Alcide De Gasperi, Tennesse Williams, Joan Mirò, Eduardo de Filippo, Truman Capote, John Huston, George Sanders, Maurice Rostand, Curzio Malaparte, Luigi Einaudi, Winston Churchill, Ingrid Bergman, Emilio Vedova, Totò, Federico Fellini, Jacqueline Kennedy, Vittorio Gassman, Romy Schneider, Lina Wertmuller, Barbra Streisand, Mia Martini, Corrado Alvaro, François Mitterrand, Uto Ughi, Leonard Bernstein, Giovanni Spadolini, Domenico Rea, Zubin Mehta, Peter O'Toole, Paul Newman, Noel Gallagher, Ben Stiller, Nicolas Cage, Steve Jobs, Martha Argerich, John Corigliano, Achille Bonito Oliva, Domenico De Masi.