Ravello's Gardens

We decided to take the bus from Positano to Ravello for the day, but bus travel proved to be more arduous than we anticipated. We walked to the bus stop while we waited chatted with a woman from Taiwan who was traveling alone around Italy for six weeks. A SITA bus arrived at the scheduled time of 9:50, but when we asked the driver if we was going to Amalfi he replied, "No Amalfi!" with a wag of his finger. Around 10:10 another bus showed up that was packed, SRO. The woman from Taiwan and Jake and I managed to shove our way in though balancing on the stairs by the doors in the middle of the bus. Leaning precariously around curves, the only good thing was the view over the cliffs. About half way to Amalfi 3 Australian nurses crowded their way on and I chatted with one of them for awhile while my grip on the railing got more and more slippery. At long last we reached the plaza in Amalfi and were disgorged from the bus. Jake had had enough of bus rides, but when we found that the bus from Amalfi to Ravello was an open air bus and was just about to leave, he opted to continue our journey.

And boy was it worth it! Ravello feels like it floats between sea and air perched on the terrace of a mountain. Perhaps because of its defensible position, it was one of the first places settled on the peninsula. Later it was developed when noblemen from Amalfi were forced out and went up to settle. We visited the gardens of two villas, Villa Rufolo and Villa Cimbrone. Rufolo is very formal and not very large. Its gardens contain mostly colorful annuals. Villa Cimbrone is much grander (see Jake at his favorite overlook) and its style and plantings were influenced by Gertrude Jekyll and Vita Sackville West among others. There's a wonderful allee that gives the feel of infinite distance and many nooks with sculptures and grottoes (somehow I have no photos of these!). Little cyclamen bloomed in the grass and woods (see photo).

The return trip was much better - we spent a few extra euros to take the open bus back to Amalfi then caught a ferry back to Positano (see photo of Amalfi and Jake on the ferry)!