A melancholy English lord, Ernest Beckett, recreated this Eden on Ravello's ridge in the early twentieth century: rose walks, small temples and the Terrace of Infinity, where marble busts gaze at a horizon that never ends — Gore Vidal called it the most beautiful view in the world. In 1938 Greta Garbo hid here with Stokowski, and half the world's press came looking.
The garden is open year-round; the villa is now a hotel, but the walks belong to those who stroll them.
Our tip: come in late afternoon, when the light turns golden and the groups head down: standing alone at the Infinity balustrade, the sea three hundred metres below, is one of the Coast's great moments.
