On the Amalfi Coast you never walk on the level. Villages cling to the cliff, houses stack up in white, pink and ochre, and everything is joined by stairways. In summer the bougainvillea spills over the walls and the sea below changes its blue with every hour.
IAn old republic of the sea
In the Middle Ages, Amalfi was one of the great Italian maritime republics, alongside Pisa, Genoa and Venice. Its cathedral still bears the mark: you climb to it by a broad stairway, and its bronze doors were cast in Constantinople in the eleventh century. Its polychrome façade, rebuilt in the nineteenth century, glitters in the sun like a mosaic.
The whole coast has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997, for its terraced landscapes, its villages and their history.
IIRavello, the hanging garden
Above Amalfi, Ravello looks down on the sea from several hundred metres. In 1880 Richard Wagner visited the gardens of Villa Rufolo and is said to have found there the image of Klingsor's magic garden in Parsifal. A music festival still holds concerts there above the void.
Further on, the terrace of Villa Cimbrone, lined with marble busts, opens onto a horizon so vast that it is called the Terrace of Infinity.
IIILemons and ceramics
The coast's lemons grow on the terraces: the sfusati, long and fragrant, sheltered in winter under chestnut pergolas. They give limoncello, and a yellow light to the whole landscape.
In Vietri sul Mare, at the start of the coast, majolica workshops have painted tiles in bold colours for centuries. Our Escalier aux bougainvilliers and Soleil et citrons squares owe them a great deal: worn steps, a golden sun, coral and blue ribbons.
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