Things to Do at Villa Cimbrone

Villa Cimbrone sits high above Ravello on a cliff edge that drops straight to the Tyrrhenian Sea, and walking up the cypress-lined approach, the first thing you notice is the smell. Old box hedge. Sun-warmed stone. That particular dry-pine scent the Amalfi Coast tends to carry on summer afternoons. The villa itself dates back to the 11th century, though most of what you see now is the early-1900s reinvention by Lord Grimthorpe, an eccentric English peer who bought the crumbling estate in 1904 and spent two decades stitching together Moorish cloisters, Norman arches, and Roman busts into something that probably shouldn't work but absolutely does. The gardens develop in layers. Rose-tangled pergolas, a sunken tea lawn, statues weathered to the color of bone, and the whole thing builds toward the Terrazza dell'Infinito, the Terrace of Infinity, where eighteen marble busts stare out over a 1,200-foot drop to the sea. On a clear day the horizon line appears to curve. Greta Garbo hid out here with the conductor Leopold Stokowski in 1938, and you can see why someone running from the world's cameras would pick this spot. The cliff swallows sound. Even on a busy morning the terrace feels hushed, like everyone's collectively agreed not to break the spell. The villa works as a hotel now (a serious one, Hotel Villa Cimbrone, five stars, the kind of place where lunch costs more than most people's flights), but the gardens are open to day visitors, which is how most travelers experience it. Worth noting. The walk up from Ravello's main square takes about ten minutes through narrow lanes where cats sun themselves on doorsteps and someone's grandmother is usually hanging laundry overhead.

Villa Cimbrone sits at the southern edge of Ravello, about a ten-minute walk from Piazza Duomo (the main square) through Via San Francesco, a narrow pedestrian lane that climbs gently past stone houses and lemon trees. You can't drive to the entrance. Ravello itself is largely closed to non-resident cars, and the lane to the villa is too tight for vehicles anyway. SITA buses run up from Amalfi town several times an hour and the ride takes around twenty-five minutes through serious switchbacks. Sit on the right side coming up for the better views. Taxis from Amalfi cost a fair bit more but skip the bus queues, which in high season can be substantial. Some visitors do the full coastal hike from Amalfi to Ravello (steep, about ninety minutes, gorgeous). You'll arrive sweaty.