Villa Cimbrone and Villa Rufolo in Ravello

ARAB-NORMAN STYLE 

Villa Rufolo in Ravello, right next to the village’s Duomo, was built by the Rufolo family, the richest and most powerful family in Ravello during the Middle Ages.

Through the years the villa had different owners; among them the Scottish Lord Francis Nevile Reid, that restored the villa giving it the current Arab-Norman style look.

The most famous area of Villa Rufolo is the garden, also known as the Garden of the Soul, that is divided in two areas, the upper garden and the lower garden, both with many different arboreal, shrub-like and herbaceous species of plants.

Moreover, every year the lower garden hosts an overlooking the sea stage where the Ravello Festival takes place. The ticket to visit Villa Rufolo is 6 euros per person (adult), 5 euros for children and elderly people.

If you walk southward from both Piazza Duomo and Villa Rufolo for ten minutes, on a rocky promontory overlooking the Coast once known as Cimbronium, you will find Villa Cimbrone, an ancient farmhouse where the richest families used to live.

At the beginning of the 19th century it was bought by Ernest Beckett, that restored it.

Villa Cimbrone houses a 5 stars hotel and its famous garden full of flowers is open to the public all year long.

You can visit the gardens of Villa Cimbrone from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm; the ticket is 7 euros per person.

Here you will enjoy the famous panoramic viewpoint known as the Terrazza dell’Infinito (Terrace of Infinity), one of the most beautiful panoramic viewpoint of the world overlooking the sea at 365 metres above sea level!