When Wagner entered these gardens in 1880 he noted: "the magic garden of Klingsor is found" — he was seeking the setting of Parsifal, and Ravello supplied it. Villa Rufolo, the thirteenth-century seat of the family Boccaccio placed in the Decameron, is the Amalfi Coast's terrace par excellence: Moorish towers, an Arab-Norman cloister and flowerbeds suspended three hundred metres above the sea.
What to see
The fourteenth-century entrance tower and the Moorish cloister with its oriental weave; the upper garden with its carpet-planted blooms; and the lower belvedere, where two umbrella pines frame the Gulf of Salerno in the coast's most photographed view. The main tower houses a small museum on the villa and its Scottish restorers.
Visiting
A generous hour, more if the benches seduce you. In summer the garden becomes the Ravello Festival's stage: the orchestra plays on a platform cantilevered over the void, direct heir of Wagner's epiphany. The dawn concerts are the festival's supreme experience.
Getting there
Ravello is reached by bus or taxi from Amalfi (half an hour of hairpins); the villa stands on the cathedral square. By car, park at the edge of the centre; in summer, patience is part of the coastal road.
Our editors' tip
Pair it with Villa Cimbrone and its Terrace of Infinity, fifteen minutes through the lanes: the two villas are two movements of one performance. And if a festival concert is on, choose seats with the sea behind the orchestra: music against that backdrop is what Wagner came looking for.