Things to Do in Ravello, Amalfi Coast

Atmosphere

A town hung between sky and water where the main sport is looking—at sea, at clouds, at terraced blooms—and nights sink into a stillness broken only by church bells and the far-off moan of ferry horns.

Price Level

$$$

Safety

excellent

Villa Rufolo

The gardens spill down the cliff in stacked ledges, and a 13th-century tower shoots up through them like a scene sketched in a fever. Wagner’s profile is chiselled into a stone bench, proof of how Italians rank their music. Impatiens, begonias, whatever’s blooming are laid out in patterns that only reveal themselves once you start dropping from terrace to terrace.

Tip: Visit at 4pm when tour groups have left and the light turns the garden gold

Villa Cimbrone

The Infinity Terrace earns its fame, though ‘famous’ translates to packed by 10 a.m. The stone balustrade crops sea and sky into a living postcard built for silent stare-downs. Beyond it, paths thread through rose beds to a temple-like belvedere where, suddenly, you’re alone.

Tip: The hotel bar pours coffee for outsiders; pay for the cup and you get the terrace without the garden ticket.

Duomo di Ravello

The cathedral’s 1179 bronze doors hammer out Christ’s passion with comic-strip energy—you can almost hear the nails. Inside, six stone lions shoulder the pulpit, their faces rubbed to ghostly smiles by centuries of palms. The acoustics are wicked; chamber concerts let you hear the building flex.

Tip: The small museum upstairs holds a 13th-century ivory crucifix worth the climb

Sentiero dei Limoni

The path to Minori slices through working lemon groves, golden fruit glowing against black-green leaves. You’ll pass stone shelters where farmers once waited out storms, roofs now padded with moss. Heat cranks the citrus perfume, bees drone, and your knees file a complaint for the uphill return.

Tip: Start early; the path offers almost no shade and the afternoon sun is punishing

Ravello Festival

From April to October music lands in gardens, churches, and the Oscar Niemeyer auditorium—a white flying saucer parked on the ridge. Programs lean classical and jazz; garden gigs turn eerie-beautiful as night falls and violins duel with crickets.

Tip: Garden concerts keep going through light rain; pack a shawl because the mercury plummets after sunset.

Cumpa' Cosimo

Family-run trattoria

Specialty: Scialatielli ai frutti di mare—thick hand-cut pasta loaded with whatever the boat hauled in that morning, plated like they expect you to work the terraces afterwards.

Salvatore

Pizza and casual dining

Specialty: Pizza topped with Ravello cherry tomatoes and local mozzarella, baked in a wood-fired oven whose perfume drags you up the alley by the nose.

Villa Maria

Hotel restaurant with terrace

Specialty: Lemon risotto, velvet-cream and mouth-puckering, sharpened with coastal citrus and served over a sea-view drop.

Babel Wine Bar

Wine bar with small plates

Specialty: Glass of Falanghina poured alongside aged local cheeses and honey from Ravello’s own hives—sweet, sharp, and sun-stung.